Sagres

This is one of the oldest Portuguese restaurants in all of America, and it is still one of the best. We are in Fall River Massachusetts at a legendary spot named Sagres Restaurant. Now this place has been serving home style super authentic and incredibly delicious Portuguese cuisine since 1976.

It all started nearly 50 years ago when Antonio de Silva, who was one of the most famous chefs in Portugal, emigrated to the United States, and he opened up this restaurant. Fast forward to today. And now the place is being run by his sons, Victor and Manuel.  Victor runs the front of the house. He's the guy everybody sees everybody knows, everybody loves. Manuel is the guy back in the kitchen and he is the man.

Portuguese cuisine follows Portugal's incredible history. So it's a mix of all different cultures. You have African, Asian, Brazilian, Mediterranean.  You have all these different flavors and techniques from all these different parts of the globe that have been infused with Portugal's natural resources. So you're talking a lot of olive oil, seafood, chorizo, rice, garlic, and plenty of saffron.

If you've never had this kind of food before, the number one dish I'm gonna recommend is the Portuguese steak. So basically this is meat and potatoes with a Portuguese flair. It all starts with a steak itself, a great high quality sirloin that they give a nice hard sear to right in the sauté pan.  But there are a few things that make a Portuguese steak different than anything else you've tasted. Number one, you got a couple of fried eggs right on top.  The beauty of this whole dish is about the gravy. It's a homemade beef stock and they ladle it right on top of that steak.  You have your perfectly cooked steak. You have your gravy, you have your fried eggs, some roasted red peppers. And that's not all it also has some sides. You got some beautiful rice and some super fresh hand cut French fries. Steak, eggs, garlic, potato, gravy.  This is literally Portuguese perfection.

When it comes to appetizers, the number one dish I'm going to recommend is the Shrimp Mozambique.  This is sort of an American Portuguese dish, but it is delicious. And you find it in a lot of restaurants down here on the South Coast.  Basically it's the Portuguese equivalent of a buffalo sauce. Lots of butter, lots of garlic and lots of hot sauce. The spiciness from the hot sauce really works with the sweetness of the shrimp. It's just a perfect marriage of flavors.

Another popular appetizer are the little neck clams. I mean, the Portuguese certainly know how to make seafood. And this is a signature dish. And it's all about the simplicity. Great fresh local clams, Portuguese olive oil, some garlic, some parsley, a fresh seafood broth. And when you take a bite, salty, fresh, fragrant, incredibly good, impossible to stop eating.

Now I want to show you the biggest, most delicious and heaviest dish of all the Paella. This is basically a giant metal bowl full of everything you love that comes out of the sea. I'm talking shrimp, little next cod, calamari, mussels, and yes, an entire lobster. They also throw some chicken in there, some chorizo in there and it's all simmered up with a whole bunch of rice and carrots and peas.  So you have seafood, you have sausage, you have chicken, you have veggies, you have starch, you have broth. I'm running out of breath, and I'm running out of stomach capacity.

Now If you're not an adventurous eater, here's a dish I would definitely recommend a Chicken Kebob. It's cooked on the grill. This is marinated white meat chicken so it is nice and juicy all the way throughout.  But honestly the best part of this dish is what comes on the side - these round French fries.  They're basically like homemade potato chips but thicker so they're a little crispy, a little soft and they are perfect for soaking up any of those extra juices.

Now let's talk about old school super traditional Portuguese, and by that I mean Bacalao. Bacalao, or salted cod is essentially the national dish of Portugal. And they do it here at Sagres better than anybody else. It's mild, it's tasty. It's fresh, the texture is amazing… It's like nothing else you've ever had. But if you want to eat real Portuguese, you get the bacalao.

To end the meal, there are a whole bunch of homemade desserts and the number one seller of course, is the flan. You got your sugar, your eggs, your cream, vanilla.  It's a nice dense, thick, rich custard and then that homemade caramel that goes on top and a little spills out onto the plate. It's just a sweet and soothing way to end a perfect meal.

Sagres is open for lunch and dinner every day. And this is one of the most beautiful restaurants in the entire region. The service is incredible here, they will really teach you about Portuguese food and they'll even help you try to pronounce some of the words which I'm failing miserably.  The real common denominator of this whole place is quality and value. When you have food that is this lip smacking served in portions that are this jaw dropping it is no surprise that one of the most popular restaurants in this entire region is right here Sagres in Fall River