Espresso Portuguese American Grill

We decided to check this place out as it’s one of the few restaurants we haven’t tried in Manassas. We were greeted by a charming lady, who ushered us out of the bar area (smoking section) and to the non-​smoking section upon our request. She admitted to us that her English wasn’t great but made every effort to tend to our needs. I ordered the Bife a Casa and my fiancé ordered the Costela de Porca (sp?). I was a bit wary of having a steak with potato chips, even if they were homemade. I later chastised myself for thinking this because this was the best steak I’ve had in a long time. I would have to pass LongHorn to get here but I would gladly do so because it was amazing. It came with an egg served atop the steak, which took the flavor to a different level. The potato chips retained some moisture so it was a «soft» chip, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Take that, kettle chips! The Costela de Porca (I.e. Ribs) were bursting with flavor and came with some pickled vegetables of some sort that packed a mean punch. Fortunately for my fiancé, his dish also came with homemade chips as I didn’t share mine.
At first glance, the restaurant isn’t much to look at. However, we noticed the painted plates and paintings around the non-​smoking section and absolutely loved them. While I’ve never been to Portugal, I lived in Spain for a while and the style reminded me of what I had seen while I was there.
While this place won’t win any beauty contests, I have no regrets after coming here and will definitely return with some of my fellow steak enthusiasts in tow.

My first time at this place. I was invited to go with a couple of friends. The food and the service provided by our waitress, I think her name was Veronica, was was very good. The place needs a face lift as well because it looks dirty. The reason I will never I return to this place is because of two of the bartenders that were working there. They are Brazilian (Linda and Bruna) and do not understand the difference between being friendly and disrespectful. To be honest, there was a time I thought this may be a whore house undercover just by looking how these people addressed the married man of our party. Again, the food was good and I would recommend you order it to go to avoid this nasty people. What an awful experience. Never again.

Fresh food just like at home The best portugues food… super bom obrigado caffe espresso

This place is good for traditional portuguese food, however the place smells like cigarettes as soon as you walk in. The bar area is super outdated and on a regular day you only see men in there with their construction clothes on. The place needs a good cleaning especially the floors. They are great for big parties and the food is pretty good but parking is a pain.

just wanted to give a big thanks to Rui and his staff at the espresso portuguese restaurant of Manassas… My wife and I had our wedding reception there with family and friends and the place looked wonderful… it was wonderfully set up more then what we expected to be the service was outstanding the food was Incredible and delicious. … all our guest and family were very happy with the outcome as well as us… it was great experience I defenetly recommend them to anyone great place great people couldn’t ask for more … thanks so much for everything that you all did…
christina and José

Steak on a stone was done well, but the quality of the meat made my rating drop down. The presentation was well done, and service was above normal. They have a couple of good beers, the super bock being the staple norm, was good and went well with the steak. Girlfriend had shrimp and rice and she ate all the shrimp, being very picky about her seafood, she remarked it was well done, but that the rice didn’t have much taste.

Grilled chicken very tasty. Veggies extra spicy — too hot for me, though I like spice. Used a Groupon, so great price, and they got a good tip for carry out. I would not eat in — atmosphere was just a bunch of guys watching 2 TVs in crowded room. Limited and awkward parking area.

This is one of my guilty pleasure restaurants, the place itself is more of a dive hole-​in-​the-​wall but the food is absolutely fantastic. I usually get the Sopa de Marisco and the Camarao Grelhado. The soup is fantastic, very tasty with a tomato base and perfectly cooked scallops, shrimp and mussels. The Shrimp in my main course is always cooked to perfection and the sauce is so good I always wish there was more. The only reason I don’t give 5 stats is because they really need to update the restaurant and I don’t care for the smoking room that I have to walk through to get to the nonsmoking side.

No frills down home Portugese. I usually pick up to go but there is a smoke free dining room. The quality of the food is top notch and all the seafood I have had there has been quite fresh. The place is the kind of dive you would drive past 100 times and not notice but the food is something else. Expect to be the only non-​portugese person there.

I love Portuguese food. Had a special order of cod balls (not on menu) and they were as good as I’ve had. Ordered the duck rice from the plate of the day, tasted like chicken and too much rice. This is a smoke at the table and at the bar place… Not even in Portugal do they allow this nasty combo!

This is about the only place in the Greater Washington area where you can get authentic Portuguese food. I drop by every few months and every meal has been very good. I am a great fan of bacalhau and bacalhau a braz is my favorite.
Yesterday I had the grilled sardines. They were good although a bit smaller than I get in Madeira. Got the bacalhau to go. Although I am not a smoker I sat in the bar area which is a bit dated but the food is always worth the trip.

This place is amazing! My husband is Portuguese & we’ve vacationed there — so I can tell you this is the real thing. Just like the places in Portugal, we entered through the bar with futbol on the TV and old men smoking, drinking & watching. (Alert — because they have 2 separate entrances & solid walls between rooms, they are permitted to have smoking at the bar.). This humble entrance belied the nicely appointed dining room waiting for us.
We started the meal with bread — delicious, textured, baked on premises bread. This set the tone for everything yummy that followed. We had appetizers of grilled chorizo and garlic shrimp — both fabulous (although the shrimp was a tad too lemony, imho). My hubby had carne pork alentejana (cubes of pork with clams) and cleaned the plate. I ordered arroz de marisco (similar to paella but much better) with lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp & scallops.
We will definitely return — as it’s definitely worth the trip from Leesburg!

I have been going here on and off for many years. Its a long drive from Baltimore so I haven’t been there in about a year. First off the website is no longer active and the phone doesn’t seem to get answered. But if you are looking for good authentic Portuguese food and service this is the place to go. Nothing fancy but if you ever spent time in Portugal this will bring back great memories. Chourico, shrimp, steak, chicken, seafood rice. All tasty.

I had to give one star only because I wasn’t allowed to NOT put one! Sheesh! Ok… so is it just me or can nobody else get to their website or their menu?! Can somebody help me out here!!!

My family affectionately refers to Espresso as the «Portuguese Club» and rightly so. My grandparents and father immigrated from Portugal in the mid-70’s, they love Espresso’s because it reminds them of home. You will be hard pressed to find authentic Portuguese food in the U.S. The market just isn’t there, but this is as close as you’ll get.
The Chourico is great, as is the Caldo Verde and rice pudding. The steak is pretty good, as well. I may well be the only Portuguese who doesn’t eat fish, so I cannot comment on their seafood, other than that my dad loves their bacalhau.
The environment is really what brings me to Espressos. For the time I’m there, I truely feel like I’m in some little restaurant in Portugal. A combination of hearing so many people speaking Portuguese, futbol on tv, and old men sipping espresso really makes me smile.
I suggest Espresso to anyone who enjoys unique cuisine.

This place when I first went was pretty awesome. The quails are amazing.
I had some pork dish the second time around and it was fine. Nothing to call home about.
Last night. Well. The steak on a rock is really cool and reminiscent of Korean BBQ joints in the vein of the steak literally sizzling in front of me.
But the place was empty, the food was kinda meh overall, and the service was sort of absent minded at times or incredibly oppressive. It was one or the other.
It just didn’t impress. The whole place had the feel of a tax shelter.

Portuguese in Manassas!
Popped in for a change of pace dinner early on a Tuesday evening.
There were maybe a dozen guys all sitting at the bar drinking… coffee…beer and who knows what else and watching a soccer match.
It was Villareal and Mallorca, it was a a good game
The lady behind the bar immediately approached me with a menu and took my drink order. I asked for iced tea and expected unsweetended. to my surprise it was sweet and had a nice mellow lemon flavor even though there was no lemon in it.
She took my order and brought me some delicious fresh baked bread.
I ordered the Sopa Del Dia which she told me was vegetable… turned out it was cream of potatoe which was very tasty.
I orderd the grilled cod which came with boiled red potatoes. When it came it was covered with olive oil… which I didn’t really care for. It also had tons of grilled green peppers and some grilled onions… which I didn’t care for either.
I noticed that when i came in and sat down at the bar… it got real quiet. I don’t speak any portugues but a little spanish. So when I spoke a little spanish there was a guy sitting at the far end of the bar looking at a lap top that answered all my questions.
After I oredered it got back to the ususal buzz that was going on when I walked in.
The grilled cod was ok, not great, not bad, but just soaked with olive oil.
I should have orderd the steak on a rock which is what I will do next time.
All this for $ 25…a little pricey I think.
I’ll be back to give it another go.

Meh. The smoking area bar was dismal at best. The banquet hall attached was cheezy and completely empty. Our server was pleasant. The bread was delicious. The culinary joy ended there. The hot water didn’t work in the restrooms. The second exit was dead bolted — possibly a fire hazard, but likely to keep their typical clientele from dining and dashing.

Because we had our baby with us we chose not to sit in the smoking section of this restaurant. We were lead to a tacky and completely empty banquet hall. We ordered the paella to share. The very nice waitress brought us two baskets of their tasty (although weirdly cold) bread to eat while we waited a long time for our order. The paella came out with the shell from a whole lobster. I’m not sure what they did with the lobster meat because it wasn’t in the dish. There were also lots of broken little bits of lobster shell since they must have broken it up over the dish. It was fun picking around the shell bits in the bed of rice, a million peas, and about 4 pieces of diced green pepper. The dish also had a couple of scallops and shrimp (2 – 3 each). Overall, not delicious but edible. I thought about this when I woke up at 3:30 AM the next morning STARVING!!!

I had a rather interesting, fun, and educational dinner at Espresso this evening. Today was a long day that saw me miss both breakfast and lunch — as such I was starving around dinner time.
On the way home I decided to stop and get something as I was far to hungry and impatient to go home and cook something. So I decided to check out Espresso Portuguese American Grill.
I’m always up for checking out new ethnic restaurants — and this seemed like a good time to do so. I’m also somewhat fascinated and interested in Portuguese culture as my Genealogy-​researching Mother has discovered that a nice chunk of our ancestry in our family tree can be traced back to Portugal.
I grabbed a seat at the bar and was promptly greeted by one of the friendly bartenders. I noticed that there were ash trays on the bar — at first glance there did not appear to be a non-​smoking area (later I learned they have a dining area off to the side which is non-​smoking).
I looked over the menu and asked the bartender what was good? «Everything» he said with a grin — but mentioned the Cod and Steak dishes. I decided to order the «Bife na Pedra,» a Portuguese take on a New York Strip Steak, served with french fries, several dipping sauces, and a side of vegetables (carrots and broccoli). I also ordered a Portugese beer named «Super Bock» and a glass of water.
A basket of a warm, rustic Portuguese bread was brought for me to snack on with butter pats on the side. Nothing mind shattering about the bread — but it was nice.
While I was waiting — I looked around, To me the place had the ambiance of a notch above a comfortable neighborhood dive bar — almost a country, rustic feel — and in a good way. There were several Portuguese gents sitting around a small tables watching Soccer and drinking espresso and either Scotch, Brandy, or Cognac. «Interesting,» I thought.
All of the male customers I saw this evening had a similar look — dark, slim, rugged, weathered, wiry, with a heavy five O’ clock shadow. And every single one that came in ordered a shot of espresso and a brandy or something similar. Amazing. I was fascinated by this.
On the two large flat panels TVs were playing two different Portugese native language channels — one was showing a Soccer game between Barcelona and Italy.
I spent a good bit of time quizzing the ever-​friendly and patient bartenders (there were three of them) about Portugese culture, food, drink, and more. I enjoyed all of it!
After a bit the food came out — the Bife na Pedra is served on a sizzling hot black rock — similar to how Blackened NY Strip Steaks are served on a superheated skillet. It smelled and looked heavenly (see the attached pix).
Steak was very tasty and tender. The side sauces — of which there were four — were not Portuguese — more American than anything, BBQ sauce, mayo, a mixture of mayo and other things, and a chopped relish like mixture of onions and other odds and ends. The vegetables were over-​cooked — meaning they were very, very soft. I like a bit of crispness to my veggies.
Turns out the espresso they serve is Italian. They apparently have a very good Paella — which I am a huge fan of. I will need to come back and try it. I also promised the bartenders I would come in some weekend to try the combination of espresso and a drink — just to say I’ve done it!
I like this place and will return!