(Last updated: May 20, 2026)
For years, I underrated O Santos. I saw it as a dependable 4-star restaurant, but never in the same league as António or A Petisqueira. Three visits in 2026 proved me wrong. The seafood was excellent, the lamb even better, and I finally found a slew of dishes worth returning for.
Ameijoas ($148), or Portuguese clams, arrived in one of those sauces that instantly tells you to order bread. Add a squeeze of lime and everything gets even better. The clams themselves had proper body too, not those small pitiable scraps some places serve. 4.5 stars
The Portuguese Garlic Prawns ($238) were large, meaty and terrific with the garlic sauce. Not quite A Petisqueira standard, but considerably closer than I expected. 4.5 stars
The Lamb Chops ($208) might actually be the sleeper hit here. Thinly cut, with gorgeous melting fat and a texture that oddly reminded me of the beef at Nga Tim. You almost get a steak-like finish from them, especially with wine. 4.5 stars
The Portuguese Seafood Rice ($218) was the best dish of the night. There was plenty of tomato, but it never buried the seafood or turned the pot into spaghetti sauce. Rich, wet and absolutely loaded with flavour, I don’t know how anyone could order this and not like it. 5 stars
Dessert came in the form of Baba de Camelo ($50), literally “camel’s saliva” in Portuguese for reasons I still don’t fully understand. My wife absolutely loved it. Strong almond flavour, not overly sweet, with a smooth, silky texture throughout. She compared it to eating chocolate, just lighter and more delicate. 5 stars
What really pushed the night over the top, though, was the atmosphere. The waitresses smiled all evening, while Santos watched over the room from his usual table. It felt like eating in somebody’s home, only with better seafood and considerably better wine.
Including a $220 bottle of red, our bill came to $1207. I’ll definitely be visiting O Santos a lot more going forward.
Sure enough, we returned a week later for Round 2.
Unfortunately, the Pig’s Ear Salad ($98) was hard, dull and nowhere near as fresh as it needed to be. Even the usual combination of garlic, olive oil and coriander couldn’t save it. 2.5 stars
The Chorizo ($98), on the other hand, was excellent. Deep smoky flavour, plenty of salt, and a texture that landed perfectly between soft and firm. 4.5 stars
The Lemon Chicken ($218) was another strong showing. Impressively juicy throughout, with the citrus actually coming through clearly instead of existing only in the menu description. Very balanced, the dish never became too heavy or oily. 4.5 stars
The Lamb Stew ($208) was also top shelf. Thick pieces of tender lamb came covered in a rich sauce that begged for rice. Proper home-style food. 4.5 stars
The Milk Pudding ($40) came with a crisp layer of burnt sugar over soft, comforting custard. Not as memorable as the Baba de Camelo, but still very good. 4 stars
The third visit kept the momentum going, despite one obvious miss.
The Octopus Salad ($148) was unfortunately another reminder that cold dishes may simply not be O Santos’ strength. Compared to the superb version at António, this felt far heavier and noticeably less fresh. The olive oil and onions completely overwhelmed everything, while the octopus itself barely tasted of anything at all. 2 stars
The Shrimp Rissóis ($38) pushed the meal back on track. Crisp on the outside, soft and creamy underneath, with a genuinely satisfying texture. Three of them for just $38 is kind of ridiculous. 4.5 stars
The Grilled Codfish ($228) avoided the two usual bacalhau disasters: too much salt and too much oil. Soft, flaky and excellent with the potatoes and bread underneath, this was Santos doing the classics properly. 4.5 stars
The Alentejo Clams with Pork ($218) was one of the best versions I’ve had in Macau. The pork was remarkably soft, the clams had absorbed the sauce, and the potatoes, olives and pickled vegetables all belonged in the same pot. We were already full, but I still regretted not ordering rice. 4.5 stars
The Serradura ($40) closed things nicely. Light, fresh, not overly sweet, and surprisingly refreshing. One of the better versions around town. 4.5 stars
After three visits, the pattern is fairly clear. Skip the cold salads and concentrate on the seafood, lamb and Portuguese classics. O Santos is no longer just a dependable Taipa institution. It’s now one of the best Portuguese restaurants in Macau.
***
What follows are three reviews from 2012, 2018 and 2020. Many dishes reviewed then are still available now.
O Santos is one of the most authentic Portuguese restaurants in Macau. Simple, down to earth and extremely homey, it’s not a place for fine dining, more like what you’d get if you went to your friend’s house for dinner. (Assuming he or she is Portuguese and a big time soccer fan.)
A look at their online menu also confirms this feeling: portion sizes are large and generous, while the dishes look like something you’d enjoy at a family barbecue. Sure enough, the food I tried there tasted like something my mother could have made.
Overall I think O Santos food deserves a very solid 4 stars. Authentic, down home, and thoroughly unpretentious, consistency is surely the hallmark trait of this restaurant. You’ll know what you’ll get before you order, because that’s how they’ve been doing it for over 20 years, and probably how they’ll keep doing it for 20 more.
With that being said however, it’s difficult for food made in this manner to completely blow your mind. O Santos isn’t the place to pull Michelin heavies or ponder truffles and trifles for three hours, so understand that going in.
Highly rated by a lot of people and a favourite of the local Portuguese, O Santos is often busy, so reservations are a must during weekends and peak times.
Prices are excellent for Macau, as our dinner for two only ran $530, which included two Caldo Verde soups ($38), one Octopus Salad ($118), and two mains: Pork Chop with Onions ($168) and Portuguese Chicken ($168).
A fantastic value option in Taipa Village, O Santos is a place I’ll definitely return to time and again. A good meal at a great price is a wonderful thing.
**UPDATE**
My second visit to Santos basically reconfirmed everything I learned my first time there. I wasn’t interested in any of their appetizers so they did me a favour and turned two mains into two starters, by giving me half portions. They didn’t exactly charge half price though, ringing me up for $110 when I expected it to be $84, since both full size portions were $168.
Anyway, it was no big bother and I really enjoyed the Lamb Stew with Clams, a pairing I had never seen before.
Usually it’s Pork and Clams in this town but the lamb worked exceptionally well too, and given how good it was, Santos might want to consider making it a standard appetizer.
The second dish didn’t work as an appetizer, given how heavy the sauce was. The Lamb Stew Alentejo style was made from the same cut of lamb as the clams, but served in a thick tomato sauce instead, along with bread and potatoes.
The kind of dish that could feed a family, remember to order rice with it, just to soak up all of the rich beautiful sauce.
I finished dinner off with the Porco a Preto ($198), the Special Pork, a staple Portuguese dish made from the prized Iberian black pig. If it’s done right it has all the char, consistency and taste of a great steak, which I had the pleasure of enjoying firsthand at the outstanding Alfama Cellar in Lisbon.
Santos’s version came nowhere close that masterpiece, sufficiently lacking the soft texture and long glorious finish that all amazing steaks have. In a good mood, maybe I’d give it 3.75 out of 5, but I wouldn’t order it again.
I don’t know if it was a billing error or not, but I was only charged half for the pork, even though I’m pretty sure it was the full serving.
I ended things off with two desserts: Home Made Ice Cream, which is actually Serradura and Chocolate Mousse, both of which were $40.
The serradura was pretty ordinary, too dry and flaky for my liking, while the mousse was right on point, deliciously deep and sweet.
Perhaps the thing to do is combine the two by piling the mousse on top of the serradura to make one superhero dessert. That’s what I did and it improved the serradura tenfold.
Santos has a wide range of wines that vary in price, but the Bispado Vinho for $100 is pretty damn acceptable for what you pay. All told my dinner bill for one came to just $510, which probably should have been $598 had they added it up correctly.
I’ve recently gotten a couple of good tidbits about Santos: One, it’s better to go at lunch since everything is fresher then and two, go off menu by requesting the Crab Curry and Bacalhau Face. Both are said to be outstanding, and I will be trying both of them myself very soon.
** UPDATE **
True to my word, I returned in late March 2020 for those two dishes, making sure to visit at lunch, of course. It turned out to be my last meal in Macau before Corona banished me forever (at least that’s how it currently feels) so at least I was able to go out with a smile.
Starting with the Bacalhau Face for $110 which was a half serving, it wasn’t as heavy and oily as most cod in Macau is, but it wasn’t phenomenal either. Maybe I didn’t get the full experience ordering only half, but I didn’t much care for the side salad of beans and sour vegetables, nor was the fish special in any way. Bacalhau and I don’t get along as a general rule, so maybe I’m just the wrong person to ask. I do try really hard to like it though, it just hasn’t worked out!
The Crab Curry was ordered off menu so I had no idea how much it cost, and was none too pleased when the bill came and said $488. There’s almost nothing I’m willing to pay that much for unless it’s a steak or some huge mean bowl of feijoada that could feed 10 people. No matter how you slice it, $488 is a A LOT of money for what turned out to be not very much crab.
It was also very difficult to eat, given you had to break open the crab shells yourself to fish out the meat. I don’t go to restaurants to lift fingers (just glasses of wine), and getting to the crab was serious work. It was also serious entertainment for Santos, a woman I assumed was his wife and all the waiters and waitresses, who watched me flail and flounder away, like a fish (or crab) out of water. It got so bad that I was even given a bib, as the curry stained and maimed all four corners of the restaurant, the worst kind of golden shower known to man.
Santos was so bemused he even took a picture of me which he may or may not hang on his wall. If he does I’d like to suggest the following caption: “Big Boy in a Bib, Enjoying his Crab Catastrophe”.
Yeah, it really was that bad.
As for how it was, the crab curry was well above average and a truly special dish, given how beautifully the curry and crab complemented each other. As soon as you taste the curry, you think it could use a little salt and then the crab meat kicks in and provides just that. If it wasn’t so expensive and hard to eat, I’d be completely behind it, but I don’t have the cash or skills to order it again. Fans of the dish will certainly love it though, so long as they can handle the price.
For me, I’ll keep sticking to simpler fare that won’t get me forever immortalized on Santos Wall of Shame.
