Sunday 17th June 2012, fathers' day in UK.
Lunch at

O Cantinho de Portugal

135-137 Stockwell Road, London, SW9 9TN - View on a map

This is in an area of Stockwell, which is populated by Portuguese ex pats and has many locals who want to eat Portuguese food. About ten minutes walk from Stockwell tube, or less if you walk fast.

The restaurant is well reviewed, and was pretty packed for lunch on the day, but that may have been contributed by the fathers' day factor. Good sign: no special menu.

I had green soup as pictured above. At first sight it looked live a vegetarian dish, but what you can't see is the lurking slices of chorizo like sausage. Pretty good but a bit luke warm for my taste, and the sausage was a little on the 'local' side.

I followed this by suckling pig: I saw this on the menu, and knew I had to have it.

This was very tasty, soft and flavoursome. The accompanying potato crisps were a little of a surprise. Again a little on the luke-warm side for me, but a definite good find. Others in my family group tried the cod with potato (mostly potato and a lot for lunch so it was boxed up and taken home), beef on skewer, squid in white wine, and mixed seafood which were excellent and hot.

We had one bottle of excellent Portuguese red house wine, which was fruity and light and was one of the best house reds I have had for a long time. Lots of food so no need for desert. Bread and olives at the table - good quality, but £4 extra on bill.

Bill came to £93 for five mains, two starters and bottle of wine. Judged to be a hit. Felt authentic and full of ex-pats. Portuguese television and would probably be a bit frantic if football was on television. Definitely will want to go back there again and sample other items from menu.