Coimbra Bar & Restaurant

Starting off– went here on a Tuesday, started the night off with flies at our table and cold bread yet warm butter. After a long hour wait for actual
Meals — food had a good taste but was not hot, which dwindled the experience. Appetizer was good (garlic shrimp) however the calamari was over fried — giving it 3 stars because of the wait time

My Leitao was cold so we asked our waiter who happens to be Super Mario takes it and microwaves that ish. Not acceptable.

Excellent food! Everything from appetizers to dessert was delicious! The special spicy shrimp appetizer was out of this world! Sangria was great! Looking forward to a return visit!

The food is always amazing… Today I tried the «Bread Pudding» and it was to die for!!! Love it, 100% recommend it!!!

It hurts me to write this. I’ve never had such a bad meal in the Ironbound and I had such high hopes from the recommendation of a friend.
The night became a night of jokes because we had such a bad experience. I wish it had been something that was NBD, but it was the FOOD.
Appetizers
We had calamari. Could instantly taste that it was kind of old and had been sitting around. It tasted stale and could be recognize immediately. We also had the Portuguese sausage, which I know is typically kind of dry, but this was beyond what I’m used to. Just really hard, dry sausage. Presentation, of course, with the flame on point. I wish it had lived up to that initial impression.
Entrees
My father ordered the pork cubes with shrimp and chicken. The portion is ginormous. I mean he didn’t even put a single dent in the dish. Not only because he didn’t really enjoy it. Everything is just super dry and bland in favor.
My partner got the fried chicken in garlic and white white sauce. Again, some dry ass flavorless chicken with sauce buried in the bottom. So disappointed.
Mine was the BBQ — Believe it or not, I’ve had better at Iberia (which doesn’t have such a good reputation these days. Ouch). I think it might have been the best dish on the table.
My mother’s pork cutlets had a really funky smell. I tired it and have a high tolerance for terrible food. I didn’t enjoy the little bite I tried. I’m not sure what is happening here. Poor mom. Sorry, if you’re reading this.
The only thing that was amazing was the service and the portion sizes. My boyfriend’s mojito also a no go. Although, my caiparinha was pretty awesome and really strong. Two of them had me buzzin’, but not enough to enjoy this meal.
. I have no idea how this place has maintained a 4-​star rating.

Never disappointed… Phenomenal family sized take out portions. 2 meals fed 5 adults and 2 big dogs…

Always on point. The only restaurant I eat at down neck. Although some people complained on Unilocal you need to know how to order. Order anything off the specials board. Daily changes. If you are not sure then ask!
Ask the waiters what they ate and order the same.
Also best selection of port wine.
A truly authentic Portuguese restaurant that the ironbound lacks. Service is also a plus. These guys will bend over backward for you.
The owner is always sitting at the bar watching everything.
Rich

Food was not fresh and the wine was served in unnamed lemonade container. Sorry but not good Portuguese good. Did not meet my expectations.

I enjoyed my experience at this restaurant. Was a work outing and they were very accommodating and attentive.
The Portuguese sausage was a good and them cooking it table-​side was a nice touch. The cod fritters were really good, a must have. The seafood rice combo could have had a little more flavor but was also good.

Great restaurant! Have been here for family get together a and bridal showers. Staff is always on point and food is great! Their Bacalhau (cod) & pernil (pork) is amazing! Plenty of seating and private parking lot.

Coimbra is one of the best Portuguese restaurants in the area. I recommend the Carne Alentejana and Portuguese Steak. I prefer Coimbra to the other more well known places in the Ironbound.

Have not been here in a while, but food is fantastic & delicious.
I need to return ASAP! Friendly staff who are always greeting you with a smile and never ignore you.

We were a somewhat disappointed. Nice atmosphere and service but the chicken and pork chops were dry and bland. Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing and it was unfortunate the night we went suckling pig wasn’t on the menu. For what we had, there are others in area that do it better and cheaper i. e McWhorters. As I mentioned maybe we just had the wrong thing but even so, if you don’t do it well don’t put it on the menu. 2 stars for food but 3 overall because they are very nice.

I ordered the chicken marasala. Deeeeelicious. Although this is the first time I’m writting a review it’s not the first time I’ve been here. The food is great, the service is awesome, the place is clean. There is both a bar area and a dining room. Guests are able to choose where they prefer to be seated. The server is super attentive and the food is authetic portuguese cuisine. This most recent visit was attributed to my mothers birthday. My parents are picky eaters but they love this place and so do I. I deffinately recommend. The only downside is that the location isnt the nicest, and parking is a pain in the bum– even though they have a parking lot. Other than that? A+.

I love this place! My fiancé was looking for authentic Portuguese food and she found La Coimbra. We’ve been about 7 – 8 times over the last year. It’s a comfortable place to bring friends and family. We can be a little loud, the kids can be a little boisterous without any notice. There’s definitely a family vibe here and I enjoy that. All of the servers are friendly and we’ve had a good time chatting it up with the locals.
I come here for the roast suckling pig. It’s fantastic. The skin is crispy and perfect and the sauce that goes with it is scrumptious in its salty, garlickyness. It’s only available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday after six I believe but it is well worth the trip. My people have said that the salmon is fair to middling but I’ve had the lamb stew also and I thought it was fantastic.

This is my first time here. I came here because I have many Portuguese American friends who have suggested this place. So I ordered a special which was the Vitela Estufada e/​Puré
Aka stewed Veal with Mashed Potatoes puré. This is a dish that your grandma would make and or if you have (had) a Dad that can cook, he would make a meal like this. Great find! Reminding me of home cooked meals!

Horrible, customer service.
Twice now, I have ordered food only to get there and be told there is no food.
Used to be a decent restaurant, I would stay away from it.

Just FYI: the restaurant and the bar are «separate» (differente entrances and rooms). Not sure if menus are the same or not. The restaurant looks nicer, it has white table cloths and such. My review is for the bar which also has food (a big menu).
In terms of value, this place is a bargain. Prices are not low but portions are ridiculous. My roast pork was $ 12 and could have easily served 2. Appetizer prices are the same as entrees which discouraged me from trying one. Compared to other Ironbound Portuguese and Spanish restaurants, this is definitely one of the better (if not the best) bargain.
Service was really nice. They didn’t bother me, but the waiter kept stopping by now and then to refill my sangria cup (they don’t have glasses, just big or small pitchers). He also dealt with the language barrier nicely, offered me complimentary soup, and was attentive without being bothersome. Olives and bread were pretty good too.
I think I made a mistake in ordering the roast pork. It wasn’t very good and had kind of a ‘smell’ to it, almost reminding me of turkey. It had a pretty nice gravy under it which went well with the potatoes it was served with. I was disappointed with the pork but happy with the potatoes, gravy, broccoli.
I would probably come back and stick to the specials and other stuff next time. The atmosphere was nice. A little loud but very homey. Can’t stress the value. Small pitcher of sangria=$ 12 (probably 4+ glasses). Fruit in the sangria was terrible but sangria itself was aite. Not the best but nice for the price. HUGE (see my picture) entrée of pork with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and complimentary soup=$ 14. Desserts were all around $ 4ish.
I look forward to coming back and trying other menu items. My roast pork wasn’t great but hopefully other menu items will be.

Honestly, one of the best authentic Portuguese restaurants in the Ironbound! I’ve been eating here since I was a kid. They remodeled the restaurant about 2 years ago (pardon me if I’m incorrect on the dates). They have two big dining rooms, and a room for private parties downstairs. Service was good, although it could have been better.
As soon as we walk in, a waiter attends to us and sits us down. He immediately hands us the menus and brings out fresh bread, goat cheese, bolinhos de bacalhau (codfish cakes), and rissoes (shrimp patties) to the table, compliments of the house. I ordered the leitao (roast suckling pig) served with French fries. Don’t be fooled by other reviews: their pig is roasted in a brick oven (trust me). The roast suckling pig was delicious! Skin was extra crispy and the meat was juicy and tender! Don’t forget to ask for the garlic/​pepper sauce that comes with it.
My mother ordered the roasted veal in wine sauce, served with rice and roasted potatoes. Again, it was pretty darn good! Portion size is huge — both my mom and I had lots of food leftover!
Overall, I’d recommend Coimbra to anyone looking for good Portuguese food and a cozy atmosphere.

We visited this restaurant in the Iron Bound district for a birthday celebration, six suburbanites finally making the ride to Newark in search of a great dinner. And it indeed was *great*.
The dining room as others have written is loud and filled with people of all ages: hipsters, old folks and young kids. It’s like a big wedding with long communal tables, altho that evening there was no live music and I’ve rarely seen a soccer game on TV at a wedding!
While waiting for them to clear and set our places we spotted several plates of flaming sausage coming out, never saw an appetizer served flambee before so right there that made the first decision easy :) We ordered pitchers of Sangria and Heineken. Be careful of the Sangria, it’s not just wine in there; we speculated maybe quite a bit of Calvados was along for the ride.
After devouring fresh bread, cold fried fish cakes and other mysterious goodies that came compliments of the house, we started with scallops in bacon, stuffed crab, shrimp and naturally plenty of the flaming sausage. We had time to polish those off and chat for a while, then we received our roast suckling pig, veal chops and baked cod dishes. All were delicious, enormous and extremely reasonably priced at $ 17 – 20. The pig came with a very interesting garlicy sauce in a little gravy boat. I have to say the roast pig is a bit of an acquired taste, it’s absolutely nothing like a Christmas ham. The chops came with a huge platter of white rice *and* french fries. Cod was baked in a tomato, onion and pepper sauce that was just plain great. I think it’s utterly safe to say that each entrée can feed two grown men but of course we didn’t know that when we ordered.
Our waiter was totally friendly to us, men who barely know how to say thank-​you in Portuguese (it might be «obrigado»), and did his best to explain the menu but between his accent and the volume of the room we didn’t understand too many details. No matter! Service was attentive despite the large number of other customers. While uneasily surveying the vast amount of food we had not managed to finish we noticed that nobody was leaving. all the tables seemed to have settled in for the evening.
We finished with a bit of dessert and some hilarious moments ensued as our waiter tried to explain the difference between Sawdust (really that’s the word on the menu), Grandmother’s dessert and the house dessert («it’s the same as the other one, but different!»). On the way out we finally saw the bar area (didn’t visit) and while walking back to the car we noticed their parking lot, we had parked on the street.
In short I thought was a great family place, fairly priced with yummy food, nice service and very friendly to English speakers.