Before gong to Portugal I read a lot about it in Rick Steeves book Portugal 2007. I also purchased his DVD which Doreen and I watched. The biggest thing we got from the book and the DVD was that at resturants they will always leave olives, cheese, butter and bread on the table. These aren't free. In some places they called this a cover charge. Usually it was only a Euro or two. When we ate at the Furness da Guincho Seafood resturant they brought over prawns, barnacles, cheese, butter, bread, olives and pate. The prawns were 12 euros alone. SO we just said which ones we wanted them to keep at the table. The portugese don't subscribe to or heard of the Cholesterol cut back in the world. A lot of greasy food well maybe it is olive oil but they love to fry food. A stable on a Portugese menu is Bief with Potato, Beef with potatoes or as Doreen's Grandfather would have called it "Meat and Potatoes". It was on a lot of menus. SOmetimes it was billed as Steak Portugese style. Another staple was pork alejentro style. This is braised prok with some type of shell fish. I had that twice in two different towns and both times the pork and shell fish were different. If you have the vegatable soup it is a crap shoot as to what type of vegetable you will get. One time it was a brothe with Kale and carrots when another time it was oureed squash with kale. Another time I had it and it had Chicken gizzards in it along with onions, carrots and spinich. Wine also is a staple at anytime of the dya. You can always get a beer or wine with any meal. The House wine is usually a white or red low alcohol wine. When we stopped at the rest areas on the highway you could get a beer or wine. Could you imagine that on the NJ Turnpike. Funny though we didn't come across any drunks in the entire week. Well we did see one guy at the flea market who was selling stuff and was trying to get people to buy his stuff. But one in a week is pretty good if you ask me.
The prices to eat out can be cheap and expensive at the same resturant. The waiters will not hard sell anything and will usually stear you toward the cheaper meal. A big thing here is also to have you pick the fish you want from an iced trough they wheel to your table or you point at in the tank. You will pay a hefty price for that. Figure a 3 lb grouper goes for 40 euros per kg. Even if that was 1 lb it is $40. So we didn't go that route.