Not Bad! AYCE Chinese & Sushi @ Feng Sheng, Cascais

Thomas and I love going to all you can eat restaurants. Not because we like to overdo it in terms of chowing down (although I'll admit that sometimes we do), but because we love the variety you can get all at once, and how much or little you can grab of whatever you want.

Now, sadly, one of our favourite AYCE sushi restaurants - Nami - closed down. And while it wasn't our absolute favourite sushi restaurant in Cascais, it was probably our second or third favourite spot. After Sushi Come (which has great variety and is consistently good) & Yukai Sushi (which we had one bad experience at where the rice was a bit too heavy tasting, but was great all of the many other times we went).

The thing about Nami is that it was quite good for things besides sushi. The standard not-so-healthy Chinese food that we just happen to crave sometimes. And Feng Sheng looked like it'd be a good replacement for this.

Technically I believe Feng Sheng is in Alcabideche, Cascais. Which is a little out of the way for us, especially since we Uber/Bolt everywhere as we don't currently have a car (the price of vehicles here in Portugal is super high, and Ubers/Bolts are stupendously inexpensive).

But we figured, might as well. And while we weren't as impressed with this place as we would have liked, it honestly isn't too bad at all. If it were closer, we'd definitely have gone here more than once.

The food itself is a very good mix. They've got a bajillion types of breaded everything, different beef and chicken sides, noodles, rice. Heck, I even got to try deep fried banana here for the very first time.

But the food is also very oily, and at first, that hit the spot. It was just what I was after since Nami closed down.

The more I ate, however, the more I realized - well it seems I'm getting old, as this level of oiliness and fried food is now way too much for me.

Nami had a bunch of not-so-oily dishes in combination with the heavy-on-the-oil types of food, and I'd get a mix every time I went up for a new plate.

This place had me ded in two plates. The food was very heavy. And again - hit the spot initially, but I definitely took way more than I was comfortable eating.

Part of that is because I'm absolutely no longer able to eat as much as I once was at restaurants like this. But another part I am sure now is because the food options themselves are so dang heavy!

I think my brother and his husband would like this place a lot. As they are the types of people who actively seek more oily comfort foods at times - which they've felt is often lacking in the food options here in Portugal versus the restaurants they used to frequent in Canada.

I don't think that's particularly true. I think there are less restaurants that have these kinds of deeply satisfying oily comfort foods - but we don't often go to them because I'm normally the one to find the restaurants. And if they venture out they could easily find this type of food, I believe.

It's really not a bad place at all, and I would go again with them. But by ourselves? With just myself and my husband Thomas? Probably not.

It's a decent space with not-too-bad "hole in the wall" type ambience. It's a bit out of the way, but not too out of the way. And the variety and options you can get in terms of different types of food is off the charts in a good way.

For me - though, I just prefer a lighter touch in terms of the heaviness of the food. And I definitely wish there were these oilier foods, but with some less oily ones in the mix to alternate between.

None of the things I tried there were bad. The wings stood out. The sushi was pretty decent considering it was not the focus of the All You Can Eat options. There were a lot of meat options, and so many carb options and a reasonable number of vegetable side dishes.

Worth a try? Absolutely. But it's not going to end up on any top lists. Not for me.

Will I keep searching for a Nami replacement - trying out more AYCE restaurants that offer these types of foods? Yes, almost certainly. But I'll probably be spacing them out between rounds to my favourite AYCE sushi restaurants instead. As sometimes, you just gotta go with what you know is good.