Published: June 12, 2005 - New York Times
By STEPHANIE LYNESS

One thing is clear about O'Porto, a new Portuguese restaurant in Hartford: a
lot of care went into putting the place together.

Someone thought things through: what to put on the menu, for example, and
how to turn the distinctive space (the bottom floor of a renovated brick
factory building) into a restaurant.

A lot of the food is good; it feels like a professional operation. But the
effect falls short because the pieces don't fit. Take the décor, for
example. A fat venting pipe runs the length of the ceiling; both the ceiling
and the pipe are painted a flat slate grey that works perfectly well.

The industrial theme is carried through in an exposed brick wall. The floor
- concrete by the looks of it - is not hidden but painted brown.

The brick is offset by the remaining walls, which are painted a sun-kissed
Mediterranean yellow and aged with faux cracks. The back wall is lined with
pretty French doors framed in natural wood that open into a private room. So
far so good. The effect is smart, modern, urban and moderately upscale.

But the integrity of the vision falls apart in the details. Modern white
wall sconces and big, white hanging ceiling fixtures would work fine in
another setting; here they are at odds with both the industrial brick and
the Mediterranean sun. The purple-upholstered wooden chairs are comfortable
but staid, and they look dowdy in the context of the urban room. In theory,
I like the laminated copper-topped tables, but next to the chairs they look
flashy.

I have the same sorts of quibbles with the food. O'Porto serves a collection
of traditional Portuguese dishes like grilled butterflied shrimp (lightly
browned and nicely seasoned with garlic or lemon); sopa Alentejana (garlic
soup with cilantro, thickened with croutons and a poached egg); and a
wonderful stew of pork and clams seasoned with paprika, vinegar and pickled
vegetables.

Added to the standards are dishes that may or may not be Portuguese, like
steak with mushrooms, seafood sauced with lemon and butter, and grilled
poultry.

The food arrives on white plates, the paella in a spotless paella pan for
two, and the service is professional and enthusiastic. (One waitress in
particular knew the food quite well and seemed to have been to Portugal
herself.) All of which leads me to expect the cooking to be a little
refined. What I get at O'Porto is simply good, rustic food that would be
satisfying in a neighborhood restaurant.

Because O'Porto presents itself as something different, I am often
disappointed. The food is out of kilter with the rest of the experience.

Two soups are a good case in point. I love both caldo verde (puréed potato
with greens and linguica) and sopa Alentejana (intensely garlicky). They are
home-style peasant soups made with bits of protein to stretch the other
ingredients into a meal. I'm sure they're traditionally made with water, as
they seem to be at O'Porto, but as a result, neither soup has enough guts;
they taste watery. That would be fine in a different setting, but here,
traditional or not, I want the soup to have taste.

Aside from the pork stew, my favorite dishes were the appetizers: plump
razor clams in white wine with red peppers, a mesclun salad adorned with
dried fruits and a very good Portuguese cheese, dressed with a fine balsamic
vinaigrette. Another salad layers greens with sliced beef, sweet caramelized
onions, and figs; grilled shrimp and sausage taste good together.

The desserts can be terrific. A sweet-tart passion fruit sorbet accompanies
a fruit salad doused in Grand Marnier. Almond cake is a biscuit topped with
sliced almonds and caramel - delicious. Crême caramel is tender and eggy,
and tastes of caramel.

The toughest thing for me about this restaurant is that I want to like it
more than I do. The food is fairly priced and good enough that it deserves
to be better.