Aldea

I’ve never had Portuguese food other than the pastels, so this is the first for me. This special occasion was for a birthday and to try out a different type of cuisine that is largely not as popular as the mainstream French or Asian themed Michelin Star restaurants.

We got the tasting menu with wine pairing. The hosts were very nice in that we mentioned we’d like to just have wine pairing for 1 person and not the other, so that we can share since we’re not big drinkers. The hosts still gave us 2 glasses and poured smaller samples. I am pretty sure if I had the wine pairing to myself, I would be drunk before I reached the end due to my inability to have the enzymes to process alcohol.

Food

Starting with the petiscos, we had an assortment of breads and single bite things. The long breads had olives in there and was pretty good. The clear jelly thing on a spoon was their interpretation of caipirinha. It tasted like a gelatinous concentrated mix of a lot of lime and flavors from Brazilian caipirinha. The fried balls behind that were bacalhau and was pretty tasty. Bacalhau here was cod fish with potato on the outside. The furthest red thing was beets with some cheese or cream filling inside of it. All in all, I thought these were pretty good starting dishes.

After, we were served charred sardines served on a brioche toast. The original menu said this was suppose to be a yellowfin tuna, but I thought the sardines tasted good too. These were also served with some caviar and other things. The sardine by itself was expectedly fishy, but when paired with the rest it was pretty good.

The following course was an egg custard of some kind. This course reminded me of Japanese chawanmushi or Korean egg souffle that they served with BBQ. There wasn’t anything special about this even though it was served with foie gras and other stuff on top. Of the courses the entire night, this was probably the least memorable.

The next shrimp alhinho course was one of my favorites for the night. This was served with garlic, pimenta, red bell pepper juice, and pressed shrimp jus. The shrimp was cooked nicely. At first glance it seemed over cooked, but when you cut it, the meat was very plump. The whole dish had very strong shrimp flavors such that the aroma was powering over the smell of the wine. If you love shrimp as much as I do, then you wouldn’t mind that. The dish was not spicy at all despite the bell pepper juice. The pimenta was very complementary to the dish as a whole.

The day boat salted cod was served with some sort of light broth and some mustard greens on the side. The cod was cooked perfectly, and you can tell from the picture how much it glistened. There’s some fried cod skin on the mustard green. The mustard greens were a little heavy on the salt side, but was delicious. The cod was very delicious, and I’d recommend this a lot.

The final entree course was a 60 day aged beef strip loin. It was served with king oyster mushrooms, turnip, and a spiced apple puree. I’ll be honest. I did not particularly like the black stuff due to its mushroomy flavor. The beef itself wasn’t flavored all that much, so it was a little on the bland side. Even with the reduction on top of it, I was expecting something more. Regardless, the loin was cooked nicely.

Next came the cheese course which was Zimbro cheese, apricot jam, and walnut toast. The cheese with the toast and jam was a nice transition into the dessert courses. The cheese itself was slightly stinkier (or more potent) than expected, but when you combine everything together it complemented well.

The palette cleanser was complementary and not listed as part of the tasting. If I recall, it was some sort of fruit sorbet (maybe grapefruit?). I generally like palette cleansers as they are usually light, fruity, and actually work at resetting your taste buds.

The main dessert was a hazelnut chocolate mousse which had salted sabayon, calamansi curd, and caramelized banana ice cream. The yellow drips I believe tasted like passion fruit. The banana ice cream was really good, and the chocolate cake at the top was fantastic. Despite how simple each thing was, I thought the dessert was great. Each part bursts with flavor.

Lastly not part of the menu but ordered separately was the pasteis de nata, sometimes referred to as pastel de belem. This was really good and quite preferred to the Chinese counterparts. This one had some cinnamon sprinkles on top. The crust was flaky in large sheets as opposed to crumbly in traditional Chinese egg tarts. I enjoyed this a lot.

Sitting at the chef’s counter, the service was impeccable. My glass of water was always full no matter what. The dishes were cleaned promptly. The ambiance was very chill and laid back. The view of the kitchen was fantastic as you start seeing the communication and teamwork throughout the nice. I highly recommend the counter if possible. It really adds a lot of value.

Final Verdict

The food was excellent except for a few misses in the meal. I had low expectations going into Portuguese food, but I was surprised and enjoyed it.

Yelp Jabs

Subpar Michelin star restaurant. 1-1/2 star actually. No dish from any course stood out or wowed - i never felt eating from a Michelin star kitchen

You’re just in luck! It had a Michelin 1 star this year. For what it’s worth, this reviewer is pretty funny. They reviewed Kristy Kreme.

At the end was good but not good enough for us to come back again, rather explore other places.

Very few places would warrant a come back again in NYC.

I’m quite disappointed with the egg tarts, not as good as some of the other cheaper places, not original. I really think they could do better. The texture of the tart is just not right.

And this is why I love Elitist reviews. When something is just not right, they don’t usually describe nor offer a reason for why something is not right. Do better? How? What is not right? Not as good as other cheaper places? Why? Do you even know your own palette?

Revisions

1. Jun 15, 2019 - Initial revision.