Eating In Mealhada

23/05/2019

Eating in Mealhada – Rei dos Leitões

Good first visit

Once upon a time someone decided to open a restaurant selling suckling pig (leitão, pl. leitões) in Mealhada. It was such a great success, that several neighbors decided to imitate, turning Mealhada into the Portuguese capital of “leitões”. If you enter the town, you need not to search much – half of the many restaurants are “something of… leitões” and the other half do sell it also. Which one is the best?

Well, each one has his usual place, but to be honest, I never had a bad experience in Mealhada. Competition is so hard that they need to care about quality.

As a matter of fact I’m not a great appreciator of suckling pig, and quite often I do eat something different, as it happened this time, but always pleased.

This time we were returning from Porto, and stopping in Mealhada to dinner was almost inevitable. One of the ladies in our group, wanted to take us to “her” restaurant, but it was closed, so we just went across the street to an unknown place.

It was a new or recently recovered building, with a good and clean look, named “Rei dos Leitões”. Half of the group ate “leitão”, with a sparkling wine and both things were very good. The other half tried different dishes, all of them well served and tasteful. The highlight (if we forget the “leitão”) goes to “Cabidela de… leitão”.

I do love “cabidela”, a traditional dish made with a hen (in those years when chicken hadn’t replaced hens in the markets), using the blood and spices to flavor a dark rice. Doing it with suckling pig is original, and the result is also delicious. The service was professional and gentle, and the price correct for the quality of the meal.