San Jose, CA

Sousa's Restaurant ~ 1614 Alum Rock Avenue, 408.926.9075

Lazy Sunday afternoon & we decided that we wanted to have a nice early dinner, Portuguese style. We at here about 3 years ago, not much has changed. The atmosphere is simple and clean, nice white linen table clothes and napkins and Portuguese music playing in the background. My boyfriend is Portuguese so he took the liberty of ordering for us. We started with a steamed clam dish. It was good but lacking in real authentic flavor. The sauce was too watered down and definitely was missing something - salt? He ordered the Octopus. Now I love octopus for sushi but could not bring myself to trying this one - he said it was good, not spicy enough and not like mom's but very good. I had the Beef da Casa, which was a very nice cut and cooked just like I like it, medium rare. As well it was not as spicy as I like but it was very flavorful and enjoyable! Both dishes came with french fries, which were good but needed some salt. We had a half bottle of the house red. Pleasantly surprised that it was a good table wine as well the bread they serve when you sit down was very very good! For dessert we decided to go down the street to one of our favorite cafes, Cafe do Canto. The service was nice, the place was pleasant and the food was "good"; but, it was too far to go for a $60 lunch. I give Sousa's a 3 fork rating.