San Diego Spotlight : New Portuguese Restaurant Deserves a Hearty Bravo

A dish that combines pork and clams would sound decidedly Chinese, and the addition of cilantro, which cookbooks used to call “Chinese parsley,” would make it seem doubly so.

And it just may be that the inspiration for this traditional Portuguese preparation could be traced to the Orient because Portugal’s mariners ranged into the China Seas centuries ago and colonized the island of Macao, not far from Hong Kong.

Cafe Bravo, yet another new, attractive eatery in the rapidly metamorphosing Gaslamp Quarter, features carne de porco a Alentejana on a menu that makes much of seafood but takes sufficient notice of meat. The dish itself is simple and forthright, and likable for the way that the juices from the small, quickly sauteed squares of meat season the tiny, sea-tasting clams. The cilantro adds another, specific note that brings the two main elements comfortably together. Nothing tastes even remotely like this leafy herb, toward which there seems little general indifference: Most people seem either to love or despise the stuff.

Should you happen to belong to the class of cilantro-haters, cross Cafe Bravo off your list immediately, because this pungent, aromatic leaf turns up in virtually every dish except the desserts. Although little used elsewhere in Europe, Cafe Bravo chef-partner Antonio Urbano said that Portuguese cooking demands cilantro, a predilection shared with nearby Morocco. (Garlic, on the other hand, which stands out strongly in cuisines allied to Portuguese, rarely takes the lead and is present mostly in the background.)

Urbano, a native of Algarve province in the south of Portugal, arrived in the Gaslamp four months ago after spending nine years as chef at a Portuguese restaurant in Montreal. He seems pleased with his new neighborhood and said that he and a partner soon may open a mariscado --a restaurant devoted exclusively to certain types of seafood cookery--across E Street from Cafe Bravo.

The menu is one of those rarities among ethnic lists that presents the dishes of the homeland without apologies, and some offerings may run head-long into a brick wall of local temerity. The very first among the entrees, lulas recheadas , makes a fine example, since it consists of medium-sized squid packed with a meat and rice stuffing. The seafood-and-rice theme continues in the arroz de mariscos , a sort of stew cooked and served in a squat, square iron pan, and the paelha a Valenciana , a borrowing of the famous Spanish paella that combines saffron-flavored rice with clams, shrimp, mussels, other seafood, pork and chicken.

Ba calhao , or cod, the great national fish of Portugal that sent fishermen sailing to the Grand Banks off New England a couple of centuries before Columbus took his celebrated cruise, is offered either grilled or poached, but seems rather less interesting than the fish of the day, recently a monkfish that Urbano completed with a typically Iberian and very tasty garnish of sauteed bell pepper, onion and tomato, sprinkled--of course--with a bit of cilantro.

Another interesting, but not sampled, dish is a saute of prawns with Port, a heady fortified wine not generally associated with seafood. However, because Port is of Portuguese origin, the combo seems likely enough. But perhaps the grandest of the seafood offerings is the caldeirada de mariscos , a platter cramed end to end with New Zealand green-lip mussels, tiny squid, shrimp, clams, scallops and half a Maine lobster, all gently poached and finished with an unusual, enticing sauce of finely minced aromatic vegetables (and cilantro!) thinned with white wine and fish stock. The lavishness of the serving is impressive, the flavors even more so.

Cafe Bravo does offer meat. The list opens with a filet topped with a brandy sauce and prosciutto and continues with chicken and vegetables braised in red wine. There’s a similar rabbit preparation, herbed lamb chops cooked on the grill and the quite delicious escalopes de vitela ao Porto , or fairly thick slices of veal, given a good browning in a hot saute pan and finished with a light creamy sauce of mushrooms and Port into which black pepper enters noticeably but quite agreeably. Even this preparation is completed with cilantro.

Among starters, the soups are adequate (the puree of green cabbage and broccoli is smooth and mild, the gaspacho more finely finished and delicate than is usual for this Spanish dish), and the salads composed of fresh, well-assorted greens. But both are less interesting than such opening shots as the extraordinarily smooth and rich chicken liver pate in Port jelly and the sweet, meaty camarao gigante na grelha . This last, virtually a small lobster rather than a shrimp, is split, grilled, streaked with roe and served with boats of garlicky lemon butter and a moderately hot chili oil called pili pili. This sauce evidently is the ketchup of Portugal, because the management proposes dribbles of it on any dish. For dessert, the kitchen makes a good, short flan, a rather dense but flavorful almond pastry, and a barely creamy rice pudding that goes long on the cinnamon and short on the sugar. Other choices on the tray presented at table are catered.

Small, stylish and sophisticated, Cafe Bravo looks good from the gray-and-black marble floor up. The small bar offers a selection of tapas , and plans for the dining room include live entertainment that will offer the traditional, lengthy and often plaintive Portuguese songs called fados . A back room with a second bar will offer live salsa and other music.

*CAFE BRAVO

895 4th Ave., San Diego

234-8888

Lunch weekdays, dinner Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday

Entrees $12 to $19. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $40 to $70

Credit cards accepted