Nino's Cozinha (kitchen) - Hong Kong

Name of Restaurant: Nino’s Cozinha
Address: Shop 3, Ground Floor, Greatmany Centre, 31 Ship Street, Wan Chai
Tel. No.: (+852) 2866 1868

I’m sipping on my stinky, disgusting and bitter Chinese herbal tea as I type up this entry…Yeah~ the story of my life! Should really become a vegetarian, start becoming a yogamanic and live on organic food if I wanna avoid drinking this nasty potion!

Another usual gathering with my girls, this time we headed out to Nino’s Cozinha which serves Portuguese family style food and seafood including home made dessert, wine and coffee. It is rare in HK to be able to spot a Portuguese restaurant but much easier to find a Macanese restaurant instead. Moreover, if you are able to find a so-called Portuguese restaurant, it is mostly likely to be Chinese / Macanese influenced or so-called “fusion” cuisine!



(This is a stolen pic, got too dark when I was there!)

The recently-opened restaurant is situated in a secluded cul-de-sac; with red brick exterior and decorated with plants. This cozy little restaurant has a narrow L-shaped dinning area and about 20 odds seats only. The long white wall is decorated with personal black and white pictures of the family’s ancestors. On the opposite wall there’s a tiny open bar area and another huge white board containing partially of the menu on.



One of the owner Mr. Joe Ozario (a.k.a Uncle Joe) and his lovely niece Gertie happily greeted us and provided details of their recommendation. Initially we were to order some sardines which flown in that day but when we finally placed our order…we were told they’ve already sold out!!! LOL

Tasty warm home-made bread!

Our order was as follow:

(1) Salt crusted scallop: Fresh scalloped baked with butter, garlic, shallot and seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper. I won’t go into it too much as I’m sure you can all use your imagination.


(2) Green Salad: The salad was fresh with seasoned mayo served on separately which to me is a plus. I’d have preferred it to serve with olive oil and seasoned balsamic vinegar with bit of pepper.

(3) Clams in white wine sauce: Initially I wanted to try the clams in tomato sauce but I got overruled…this wasn’t bad. The calm were fresh, without sand / impurities, juicy and has a slight natural sweetness to it. Although I feel the wine in the sauce didn’t evaporated…maybe should have boiled it for another minute or two before serving. Overall, it was fair but a bit boring; I mean you must have had a, “mussels in white wine sauce” or a “Linguine with clams in white whine sauce”, etc. before right?



(4) Spicy Chicken: The chicken was marinated with spicy herbs and roasted. Extra spicy sauce was served separately. The meat is moist and I was most impressed that even the chicken breast part was tender. The chicken was definitely spicy enough, but it lacked flavors.



(5) Chickpeas and Ox tripe in tomato sauce: This was awesome and the tomato flavour intensified with the beef because not only ox tripe is used, partially of the beef brisket is also used. The chickpeas were soft and this is a great dish to have with some hot steamed rice.



(6) Dried cured beef: This was on the house because the Ozario family is just so hospitable to their guests!! This cold cut is lean (unlike proscuitto), with no discernible striations of fat. Despite it being lean, this tender savory meat merged well with the olive oil and almost melts in your mouth. Simply delicious!



(7) Strawberry Cheesecake: This lovely baby pink strawberry cheesecake was shaped as a heart~ It’s so romantic and pretty to look at, however, personally I found it a tad salty! One thing I do like was the stronger-than-usual natural acidic flavor from strawberries of this cheesecake.



(8) Serradurra (or sawdust pudding – Macanese) [木糠布甸 in Chinese]: It is a delectable dessert which I’m guessing is more Macanese influenced. It has layers of crushed (to powdery consistency) marie biscuits (or any plain biscuit) and layers of cream + condensed milk mix (so when it’s frozen it taste like vanilla ice cream). The thing is…I’ve tried a better Serradurra at Solmar Restaurant in Macau before. http://www.solmar.com.mo/main.htm (Their Spicy Chicken非洲雞 is also fantastic!!)



(9) Sangria (Red & White): I know this is Spanish but it’s a great cocktail and I’m just glad to have it! The Red Sangria is great but I preferred the white one. The white sangria here doesn’t have any carbonated drink add into it (which I like) also they’ve put a bit of gin in it to give it an extra kick. I love the layer of different tastes it has. First you can taste the white wine, then the gin and then the fruits. Personally, I like my Sangria to be fruitier, but at Nino’s they only used two kinds of fruit and that is orange and apple. I’d suggest other fruit like canned pineapple and pears to be added, these two fruits are economical and available through out the year.

Beautiful Sangria

I was told by Gertie and Uncle Joe that they are constantly updating their menu with new dishes. When asked, “how is everything?”, I actually felt it was a genuine question and they were more than happy to listen even when criticized. I love this open attitude and the warm, friendly service I’ve received during my visit. I would recommend others to visit this restaurant but do remember to make your reservation! You’ve been warned =P


Lastly with all the food we had (the cured beef + white sangria on the house) the bill only came to $360 / head (£24).


Enjoying our Sangria outdoor~