Sadly, Not Feeling the AYCE Sushi @ Boa Sorte, Cascais

The usual suspects, myself, my husband Thomas, my brother and his husband, were feeling a hankering for sushi.

We typically go to all you can eat restaurants (often called "A La Carte" in Portugal, so don't be too confused if that's what's on the menu they hand you, but there are no prices listed inside), not for everything but specifically for sushi when it's the four of us.

Feeling adventurous, we decided to try someplace new, so I chose Boa Sorte to try and we were on our way.

We like the amount of diverse choices you typically get at all you can eat sushi.

Usually there's plenty of other options besides sushi to choose from, and so this is where we typically go to get our fix of not-high-quality, but hits-the-spot Asian food.

While that is exactly what we got here, the non-sushi food was too oily for me to like it.

The spring rolls were super plain inside and oily...

The shrimp and the squid were both meh...

The tempura had way too much breading and was crazy oily...

And the beef, while tenderised to pieces and thus not too bad on the taste buds, was absolutely not good quality and didn't taste phenomenal.

Maybe I'm getting old, but this is absolutely not my thing anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just can't handle this type of food happily anymore.

But onto the sushi. Which was fine. Not the most fresh, not the worst option. Middle of the pack, maybe inching a little toward the fresher side.

Some of the sushi was quite cold, most of it not room temperature.

The rice was made with the right ingredients as far as I could tell, but it was a little heavy on the sweet side, so we were not feeling the nigiri as much as we normally do.

As a result, we ordered a lot more sashimi, which too be fair they gave us a considerable amount of and didn't start "shrinking down the size of" as we continued to order, which a number of all you can eat sushi restaurants do.

We also ordered a number of cooked maki rolls. These were fine. Again, nothing to write home about.

In terms of variety, the menu actually didn't have a lot of options in comparison to most.

The dinner menu actually had a number many more options then the lunch menu (as you flip through the menu you'll see moons next to the dishes that are only available to order at night). It still wasn't a lot at all.

Not many options insofar as creative maki and other sushi, or insofar as other non-suhi side dishes.

Would I go back here? Personally no.

It's just that there are plenty of other alternatives that are so much healthier and simultaneously so much tastier, all while being basically the same price, and also all you can eat.

Our top 3 picks in Cascais in order so far are:

1. Yukai Sushi: Best quality; really nice stuff, and super traditional options, which my husband and I prefer. But the options are only sushi, no Asian side dishes that are not sushi. You have to ask for the AYCE menu if that's what you want.
2. Sushi Come: Best variety of both maki rolls and side dishes. And not so heavy on the oiliness, probably a smidgen healthier and tastier than...
3. Nami Asian Restaurant: Best family vibes, which sometimes I'll admit I miss more than the sushi itself. This is a serve yourself AYCE restaurant with side dishes, so what you see is what you get. Again, not too heavy on the oily, but this place has less variety than both of the above, and the only sushi available is made of salmon. Which I totally approve of for simultaneously keeping costs low and fish fresh enough.

If it's just me and Thomas going out, we'd probably choose Yukai any day of the week.

If it's all of us going out together, Sushi come is likely the best bet, as my brother and his husband like the variety of options they have. And the Dragon Rolls.

If it's Thomas and I ordering in, we'd probably get Sushi Del Mar, as if we're going out we might as well go to Yukai and grab all you can eat instead.

So, unfortunately for us Boa Sorte did not tickle our fancy.

Worth a shot, and I will continue to try new restaurants, but I'm happy to have a solid few we can go back to in case things once again do not work out.