Zé Manel dos Ossos, Coimbra

Location: Portugal, Coimbra, Baixa, just behind Hotel Astoria.
Opening Hours: Sometimes...
Prices: medium
Overall rating: a must go there

This is the place Cogumelos Aporcalhados was born, named after the dish of the day, "porcified mushrooms". Zé Manel's great speciality, as the name suggests (not Zé Manel, but dos Ossos) is cooked pork bones, which make a great starter. Followingt this, the menu offers a wide variety of fish and meat dishes, especially good are the dishes involving boar (javali). All dishes are traditional portuguese cuisine, no distractions. Just trust the waiter to recommend you something. Everything we tried so far was good and served in great quantities.

What makes Zé Manel special is the atmosphere. The walls are covered with papers ripped of the paper table clothes, full of poems and other writings thanking Zé Manel for great evenings. Also a lot of curiosities and oddities ornate the walls. The waiter is all prepared to make a joke. The question is not what do you want to drink, the only question is white or red. The house wine is nothing special but it is not bad and does not involve a lot of headaches afterwards.