Garrafao Restaurant
“A best kept secret in Sayreville, never had a bad meal, Sangria is awesome, and the staff is wonderful!”
“Can't pronounce it but it was pork and clams in a garlic sauce and it was phenomenal.”
“Try the whole fish, the bacalhau, the garlic sauce in general, and just about anything else.”
Garrafao Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
2 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
real Portuguese home cooking at a reasonable price and they have a full bar including Portuguese beer , liquor, wine, port , Brazilian cachaca, and more goodies. a very friendly, laid back, casual kind of place. the carne alentejano – pork with clams and shrimp and potatoes and olives , was wonderful , especially with their homemade piri piri hot sauce.. the place consists of a bar with a couple TVs and several tables.. the kinda place I'd feel comfortable hanging out for hours in, like a Portuguese Cheers.
It's the mom-and-pop hole-in-the-wall places that I love discovering the most through Yelp. And Garrafão delivered on that exact experience.
Unknown to the masses, and practically hidden from the Web, it took another Yelper to tip me off into discovering and trying this very obscure place on a lone stretch of road in dreadful Sayreville, NJ. I'm really glad I did.
Me, Marc N, and the wives all piled into an UberX from East Brunswick last weekend, intent on eating our faces off and plying ourselves with copious amounts of sangria for hours on end. It was intriguing to know that there was this secret little restaurant lurking amid nearby giants like Ria Mar and Portuguese Fisherman — with a full liquor license no less!
With so little information available online, we didn't know how to dress or what to expect. That's what made this expedition so exciting. But onward we forged, through South River, into Sayreville, finally weaving our way around areas we had never previously explored before suddenly driving up upon Garrafão. We exited our UberX and then drew straws for who would go inside first.
It doesn't look like much from the outside, that's for sure. And once we went inside, the decor didn't change all that much. And that's exactly what gives places like Garrafão its charm. Like a true mom-and-pop restaurant, it feels like you've entered into someone's house. It's old inside. You feel as though you may have stepped back in time to the 70s.
The restaurant is split into two – a long bar with a few tables, separated by a half wall with a modest dining room on the other side, raised up a few steps from the bar area. It's actually laid out very nicely, making the most of a pretty tight space. And it was crowded when we got there, which is always a good sign.
The food seemed very authentic. If you are looking for food that is very fussy and artfully presented, Garrafão may disappoint. I understand there really is a mom and pop team in the dining room, straight off the boat, who prepare Garrafão's simple Portugeuse dishes — and at very affordable prices, let me add.
The chorizo appetizer was decent though very oily. It's prepared a little differently from what I have experienced in other places like this. The chorizo is cut thicker, and isn't grilled to a char, but is instead cooked more gently. It's also on the fattier side, which I don't love. But combined with a little of the bread they gave us, it was fine.
I am not a shrimp fan, but my friends enjoyed the shrimp in garlic sauce appetizer. Unlike other places where it comes out sizzling and bubbling in a skillet, this too was served far more simply, as though you were dining at someone's house. Again, I only point this out to help people set their expectations if they decide to come here.
A tomato, basil, mozzarella appetizer seemed oddly placed on the menu, but we tried it anyway and it was good. Given that Jersey tomatoes are still very much in season, I would have liked the tomatoes to have been higher quality. Nonetheless, it served as a worthy palate cleanser going into our entrees.
The entrees were a bit of a mixed bag. One friend ordered the lamb chops, which apparently tasted better than they looked. One was undercooked and she was uncomfortable eating it, but the other two she said were great.
Her husband ordered a special whole fish entree — I can't recall the exact fish. He said it tasted wonderful but complained that it wasn't properly deboned. But he put some work into it and it was gone within a few minutes.
My wife wanted the swordfish, but they were out of it, so she ordered the seafood rice instead which was essentially their version of paella. Unfortunately, she wasn't much of a fan of this one. She found it to be a bit soupy, didn't like the clams, and found it to be more salty than flavorful.
I, on the other hand, ordered the Chicken a la Vodka, with spicy vinegar peppers, and it was absolutely amazing, earning Garrafão an extra star. This is not vodka sauce like you would get in an Italian restaurant. The chicken was served boneless and melted in my mouth. The vodka sauce with the vinegar peppers had such a perfect balance of spicy, salty, and tart flavors — it was just off-the-chart good. I would come back here to the bar by myself just to eat this dish again and again.
Speaking of the bar, the sangria here is excellent. And as I said at the top of my review, we came with intention of drinking copious amounts of it, and we delivered on that promise. I'm not even sure how many pitchers of it we went through, but even the waiter looked surprised at one point when we ordered yet another refill.
I love to see places like Garrafão do well. And I hope with this review other people discover and try it. I could not find a menu online, but was able to snap a quick photo which you can see here on Yelp. Do note that this doesn't include a daily specials menu.
Give them a try!