Oceano Restaurant is a family-run Portuguese restaurant in Leyton, serving authentic Portuguese dishes throughout the week to hungry locals. This is where you come when you’re craving a taste of Portugal, whether it’s calamari, octopus with olive oil, pork fillets in peri peri sauce or salt cod ‘bacalhau’ you’re wanting.
You can’t miss the restaurant’s royal blue frontage on Leyton High Road. Inside you’ll find a clean, smart restaurant, with slick wooden tables, pressed white tablecloths and wine racks lining the walls, each loaded with drinkable Portuguese bottles. The restaurant itself is big and spacious, with plenty of space between tables, and artwork on the walls that matches the marine-blue colour scheme. There’s also a TV mounted at the front of the restaurant that regularly shows football on match days.
The menu is extensive and sticks to tried and tested, authentic Portuguese favourites. Home cooking is the name of the game here - kick things off with starters including tuna or sardine pate, marinated olives, and fried prawns in garlic sauce which will remind anyone of holidays on the Portuguese coast.
Main courses provide a difficult choice between fish and meat dishes. There’s seafood rice, packed with crab, clams, mussels and squid, for two people, or a Portuguese prawn curry with rice. If you’re tending towards meat, you can’t go wrong with bife a Portuguesa - a traditional Portuguese fried steak in white wine, with fried egg, smoked ham and chips.
There are options for vegetarians too, like vegetable lasagne and a vegetable crepe, and you can finish the meal off with classic desserts like Portuguese caramel mousse, rice pudding and Bolo de Bolacha - a biscuit cake.
If you can’t make it to the restaurant, don’t worry - you can order delivery via Just Eat, Deliveroo, Uber Eats or collection.