Dining at this wonderful Portuguese restaurant is like being transported to Portugal. With great food, warm service, and a comfortable atmosphere, O Dinis celebrates the Portuguese joyous tradition of a great meal with great company.
COVID has limited our ability to travel abroad. As a result, we have searched for ways to be transported abroad without leaving the United States. That’s where an authentic, atmospheric, and enchanting restaurant comes in.
Intro . . .
A great restaurant can make you feel as if you have traveled thousands of miles away the minute you’ve arrived. Welcome fellow travelers to Portugal by way of O Dinis, a wonderful Portuguese restaurant in East Providence, RI.
I love restaurants that serve big portions of terrific food in a warm and welcoming environment that lacks pretense and formality. If you spent time in Portugal – – and you should if you haven’t yet – – one of the things its restaurants do best is to focus on wonderful, fresh, local ingredients prepared straightforwardly to highlight their magnificent flavors and quality.
Family run restaurants are the best places and typically the most relaxed. It is all about the joy of being together to share a great meal. O Dinis fits the bill. A meal here will have you feeling as if you’ve stepped off the plane and into a classic Portuguese restaurant in Lisbon, Porto or the Algarve.
Background . . .
Providence has a vibrant and very well established Portuguese community and has become a paradise for Portuguese restaurants and cuisine.
For over 40 years, Dinis Paiva, originally from the island of São Marco (the largest of the Azores, an archipelago off the Portuguese coast), owned Estrela Do Mar (Star of the Sea), a beloved Portuguese restaurant in Providence that people usually called O Dinis or Dinis’s place. Estrela Do Mar had quite a reputation with its great food, warm service, and lots of live entertainment. Dinis was a successful singer in an earlier career and used to perform at the restaurant, among others.
Dinis sold that restaurant but couldn’t leave the business for too long. Thus, to everyone’s delight, he opened a new place and named it, of course, O Dinis. Dinis has now retired and currently lives in Portugal. The restaurant is now devotedly overseen by his lovely and personable daughter, Natalia, an accomplished chef in her own right. Natalia has a terrific food and travel website. In fact, one can find recipes for some of the restaurant’s dishes on it.
Atmosphere . . .
Some settings are perfect at accomplishing their owner’s goal. At O Dinis, it’s all about wonderful food in a friendly, convivial atmosphere. As a result, the place is full of charm and character. Portuguese tiles adorn the walls spelling out proverbs in Portuguese; and the space also includes a collection of photos, mementos, framed articles, and other paraphernalia. All together, the ambiance gives the impression that you are dining in someone’s rec room. Simple, fun, unfussy, warm, and very personal – the ideal setting for this type of meal.
Food . . .
The focus at O Dinis is on great food from great ingredients. Its menu has a wide range of Portuguese dishes, concentrating on the wholesome, rich, hearty cuisine of the Azores. Of course, as with most Portuguese restaurants, seafood prevails at O Dinis, which sources local ingredients including great seafood such as clams, octopus, shrimp, etc. After all, this is New England and Portugal was a seafaring empire. True to form, the flavors, preparation, and presentation are rustic and delicious, exactly what you expect and want from this type of place. Not surprisingly, Natalia noted that many of the recipes were handed down through her family.
We started our meal off with the Ameijoas à Bulhão de Pato (littleneck clams steamed in white wine and garlic) and the Chouriço Grelhado (grilled chorizo sausage). Both dishes were superb. The clams were flavorful and toothsome as they rested in a luscious broth of white wine, garlic, and clam juice. The crusty, hearty bread was perfect for dipping and slurping up every drop.
The chorizo sausage was nicely charred on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside, and hit just the right notes of heat, salt, and succulence. Be warned… Starters are large and could suffice as a meal. Don’t fill up too much.
Bacalhau – a Portuguese Tradition . . .
From there, we took the advice of our server and ordered only one main course – Bacalhau na Brasa (grilled salted cod with boiled potatoes topped with garlic and onions sautéed in olive oil). We are huge fans of bacalhau (salted dried cod fish) and can never find it on menus in our area. So we order this Portuguese traditional food pretty much anytime we see it on a menu. We’ve eaten a lot of it over the years and know a good one when we taste it.
O Dinis hits a bullseye with this dish. Nicely charred, succulent, and flaky, this is a bacalhau to remember. Sautéed onions and garlic bring the entire entree together and help offset the saltiness of the codfish. Once again, the delicious bread came in very handy in soaking up the broth created from the olive oil, onions, garlic, and cod. The size of this dish was enormous, and certainly enough for 2 reasonably large appetites.
Despite all of this wonderful savory food, make sure to save room for dessert. We tried two: flan and bean pie. While both were memorable, the bean pie (“Pudim de Feijāo”) really stood out. No wonder it’s their most popular dessert. The pie is made from pureed cannellini beans, sugar, eggs and vanilla – its result is creamy, balanced, and luscious.
Unfortunately, we had time for only one meal at O Dinis so we did not have an opportunity to try more of its terrific menu. However, all of the food coming out of the kitchen looked mouthwatering.
Drinks . . .
O Dinis has a full bar and a good selection of reasonably priced Portuguese wines. At our server’s recommendation, we ordered O Dinis’s sangria, which was refreshing and not cloyingly sweet. It was a good complement to our savory, salty dishes.
Service . . .
Warm and welcoming, this Portuguese restaurant feels like you are going to your friend’s place for dinner. Our server was attentive, efficient, and very helpful in reviewing the menu with us, highlighting the restaurant’s strengths. We were especially charmed by Natalia, who greeted all patrons as if they were friends and whose enthusiasm and love for the restaurant was evident in every detail. Even as out-of-towners, we felt as accepted as if we were locals, of which there were plenty.
Verdict . . .
In all, O Dinis is really special. This marvelous Portuguese restaurant celebrates the joy of eating great food with great company. And, it is not often that you find a restaurant that you wish were in your home town. If it were, we’d be regulars. Going to O Dinis is the next best thing to having a meal at home in Portugal, only this time, you know that the “home” cooking is going to be exceptional, the ingredients are going to be super fresh, and all of it will be served with a huge helping of warmth and generosity. Step out of your car and into O Dinis, where you’ve arrived in Portugal for a couple of hours.
Location and Contact Info . . .
O Dinis Restaurant
Summary
A culinary trip worth taking.
