First off, this place is hidden. It's in the middle of a residential neighborhood and the restaurant itself is in the basement of a hall called the Holy Ghost Beneficial Brotherhood of RI. So I guess if you can find the hall then you find the restaurant?? The decor is straight utilitarian, a bunch of four top movable tables with paper placemats that say "Ooops" in the middle surrounded by cows, fishing, pizza delivery and other assorted odd cartoons. Seriously there is a picture of it on yelp and is quite comical.
As for the food, it was good not great. And pretty good at that. It just didn't have that strong pepper, paprika, hot sauce flavor (but not spicy) that I really like at O Dinis. You can tell as the sauce is much more brown than the steak at O Dinis. I thought it still had really good flavor though and put it on par with Madiera. The Portuguese fries were actually really good, you could tell they just came out of the fryer and had a good mix of some with sauce and some just fried. Broccoli though looked over cooked wasn't bad as it seemed to have been refreshed with some olive oil. Also had the Portuguese sausage as an appetizer and was good, flavorful but not "burn your mouth" temperature hot when I got it. But still had that remarkable Portuguese spice palate that I enjoy.
The service was good, although with only one other table it was easy to be attentive. Tons of Portuguese being spoken which is always a good thing, I think of this place as a neighborhood hang out that serves food. All super friendly people. Would definitely come back for the bife a casa along with some of the other entrees.
51 N Phillips St
East Providence, RI 02914
