Ola Carlos. Lembra-se de mim Maria de Lymm. Sera possible eu ir ai ve-los. Comecei a pouco a vender vinhos portugueses,sou a sole agent para eles ca em Inlaterra.Se for possible agradecia muito a vossa atencao. Maria de Sousa

thats what i think : if the restaurant was only Carlos i think it would be excellent, but is rude wife that is there all tha time is just a put off. you would expect attitudes like that from a 3 Michelin star chef not from a waitress

Amazing that so many bad reviews are 'anonymous' whichbut i am sure luso is not to everyone taste . My comment would be that I have eaten here a couple of times with friends including portugese friends and have found the food to be excellent and the service exceptional. If u want something different to an italian or tapas which seem to dominate in the centre then give it a go

Shocking. Would not recommend - rip-off prices, miniscule portions, badly cooked food, mis-matched ingredients, rude owner. Don't bother!

Sunday 28th September

Starters OK. Mains Good. Home made ice cream obviously not home made. Wine poor (aren't almost all Portuguese whites). Service very poor (the owners I think, and probably the reason others have found some of the other wait staff less than charming as I heard the female owner hiss aggressively and rudely to the chef that he needed to be quieter chopping in the kitchen!).

The sage mash and jus with the quail were very good, but overall I thought that this was over priced at 92 for 2 1/2 courses each, 1 bottle of wine and 1 bottle of water and service staff/owners that appear to hate their business.

Will not return.

The service was very poor. The meal was over priced and i definitely didnt leave a tip. The meal took a very long time we were waiting over 45minutes and she tried to tell me a steak took 30 minutes to cook ( not being funny but my mum used to be a chef!) i would say to people dont bother! go to La Tasca its cheaper and the food and service are tonnes better

We had a meal on Saturday 9th Feb 2008 , but 3 prawns in a main course was just a joke , not the best service didnt say anything on the night , due to friends paying . Rob in Leeds
would not recommend .

My girlfriend and I dined in Luso on Friday evening whilst on a weekend break in Manchester. We\\\'d planned to go to El Rincon de Casa but when we arrived, were told that we could face a 2 hour wait to be seated. I\\\'d read reviews on Luso and viewed the menu so had their number stored in my phone as a cunning back-up!\
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Upon calling I was impressed by the friendliness of the lady taking the call, giving concise directions and being honest about us having to wait a short time to be seated downstairs. We arrived to a quaint, busy and bustling restaurant, full of ambience and moody lighting. We were both happy and ordered drinks at the bar, quickly engaging in conversation with the Manageress and new bar girl. Menus were offered to peruse as we enjoyed our drinks and I soon began to ask questions about the dishes that took my fancy. All of which were answered with enthusiasm and courtesy.\
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We were seated and offered bread which came with four different spreads. Parsley butter, ginger butter, paprika butter and sardine pat?. Great, apart from the ginger butter that had simply been whizzed in a blender with powdered ginger, resulting in powdery bitterness.\
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We ordered Galeria Branco at ?15.95 for our wine, a fruity mid weight from Portugal. It was fine. To eat my girlfriend ordered fresh sardines on toast and turbot in a lemon/parsley/white wine sauce, I had Piri Piri chickens\\\' livers with a black pudding and potato rosti, followed by salt cod. As the food was brought out it looked very appetising. Presentation was clean and uncluttered. The sardines were fresh and delicious and had been gutted, beheaded and expertly de-boned. The livers, as promised, were pink, well seasoned and had a little kick from the piri piri seasoning (chili?) and were great. However, the rosti, although delicious in its own right, had been totally over-salted. Don\\\'t get me wrong, I for one, love salt. I use sea salt in all of my cooking and worry about the amount I use. whoever had made the rosti either has an iron palat or did not raste what they were serving as i could only eat a quarter of it. I chose not to complain.\
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The mains came and again presentation was great. The turbot was meaty, flavousome and well cooked, the accompanying sauce full-flavoured. After being put off slightly by the excessive saltiness of my starter, for me to now face another dish of salted cod loin was a bit of a challenge. It came with a poached egg that was cooked all the way through so I sent it back (pet hate) only for its replacement to be almost as bad. I dug into the cod and unfortunately, as I feared, although wonderfully cooked, was excessively salty. It had not been soaked for long enough to rid it of its saline solution. This was then topped off with an order of beautiful thick chips in duck fat. However, these were again heavily seasoned with sea salt on the top and, as they\\\'d built a wall of chips, between each layer was another sprinkling of sea salt. \
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This now sounds negative, but it actual fact, aside from the above, it was great. Good service, nice atmosphere, friendly staff, broad menu, not overpriced. Just over salty, coming from a man who loves salt in his cooking!\
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Luso, you have it right, but listen to what we are saying and adjust the salt levels. There is now a theme to these reviews and that theme is, you guessed it, too much salt! As the review below says, you deserve to succeed!

Visited the restaurant for the first time recently. I had the crab to start, which I thought was a little bland, and the cataplana for main course, which was excellent. All the seafood was beautifully fresh and extremely tasty. Both my partner and myself really enjoyed this restaurant. The atmosphere is unpretentious, the service good and the chef produces dishes that are refreshingly different. This independent restaurant deserves to be successful.

About time we had a resturant of this quality in Manchester, the food is second to none.

This is the best restaurant in the region. Great food, lovely flavours and a fantastic team.

Sarah Chilton

Another near perfect meal in Luso on Saturday night.
Starters: Salt Cod and Poached Egg was sublime.
Scallops and Smoked Salmon was lovely.
Mains: Saddle of Rabbit was gorgeous as was the Pork and Clams.
Puddings: Fig and Chocolate Tart and Custard and lightly poached egg whites - both superb.
As usual - great service and atmosphere.

We ate at Luso last night (a Monday) and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I could not fault the food or the service and thought that the prices were entirely appropriate for the quality of the ingredients and the cooking. The baby squid starter I had was excellent - tender, tasty squid complemented by a smoked tomato chutney. I then had the assiette of fish which consisted of fresh, beautifully cooked fish and shellfish (the scallops in particular were outstanding - so many restaurants over cook them but these were perfect) with a delicately flavoured crab and chive risotto, and a little chilli and shallot (I think?) salsa which gave it just the bite it needed to stop the risotto from being overly rich. My partner chose the pan-fried venison which he loved - it was served rare as it should be and came with a delicious, crunchy celeriac rosti. The desserts all sounded so lovely, and interesting, that it was difficult to choose, but I was delighted with my final selection of the fig and chocolate tart with homemade coconut ice cream. The pastry was light and buttery and the chocolate filling was dark and not too sweet and went very well with the fig. My partner's Asian rice pudding was light and delicately flavoured and came with ripe mango. The service throughout the evening was very professional and even on a quietish Monday night, the atmosphere was pleasantly relaxed and welcoming.

We noticed that Luso does a Monday night special of two courses from a set menu plus a bottle of house wine per couple which seemed like excellent value. We ordered from the a la carte menu because it was a special occasion, but we'll definitely go back and have the cheaper menu soon to cheer us up at the start of a working week.

We've eaten in pretty much every restaurant in Manchester and we'd include Luso among our favourites now. The menu was unusual and I found the idea behind it - modern Portuguese and Portuguese-influenced cooking - interesting and original. It sounds like some of the reviewers on this site expected traditional Portuguese rustic peasant dishes, but Luso makes it very clear that this isn't what it aims to do - those diners only had to read the menu to realise this. My only suggestion for improvement would be to include a couple more vegetarian dishes on the extensive menu - but other than that, full marks!

I ate at Luso and it was ok but management shouldn't get worked up about one bitter customer and having to read about their dispute online raises genuine questions about the management style. no-one listens to one bad review but they do pick up on the management response.

A very enjoyable meal and experience at Luso on Saturday 16th December. Although maybe slightly overpriced as the salt cod portion was very small and it was a good job we ordered sides. Would definitely return though and am intrigued about the rest of the menu. I will be recommending to my friends but probably only for special occasions due to the prices.

Having just read the review by Dina, I am amazed The quality of the food at Luso is fantastic. The cataplana has an abundance of fresh fish and on the occasions I have had it, shellfish too. I should know fresh fish, I'm married to a fishmonger! I think some people are so used to eating processed and ready made food, they forget what real food should taste like. As for the prices, you get what you pay for and this restaurant is no more expensive that any other of its quality in Manchester. I have been six times so far, for lunch and dinner, and the quality of food and service has been really consistent - keep up the great work Also, its a small point but this restaurant is independently owned and operated and as such does not have 'management' the owners help out with everything from meeting and greeting, serving and clearing tables - it makes a refreshing change from faceless and soul-less restaurant chains

as the chef at Luso I feel I have to comment re the above review. We do offer a lunch time menu served everyday until 6pm, along with the a la carte. The chorizo we use is Portuguese especially shipped in via a Portuguese supplier in London along with all other dry goods such as Portuguese olive oil, Portuguese sea salt in which we salt the cod. We are not trying to reproduce authentic dishes, we state on the menu that our menu is inspired by dishes from Portugal and her former colonies. I note the comment about fresh fish - I can guarantee that our fish is fresh and delivered every day, six days a week, as is the meat, bread and produce - NOTHING in the restaurant is frozen other than the home-made ice cream. There may have been a lack of shellfish in the cataplana however, this is due to daily availability of such, as is stated on the menu - for instance fresh clams are in short supply this time of year. I would like to know what other Spanish words - other than the spelling of 'chorizo' - litter the menu. In the few weeks that we have been open, we have received many reviews both locally and nationally and we welcome this - the vast majority being extremely positive. However, I take exception with the comments about the food not being fresh and as for the price, there is a menu on show in the window which lists all prices for both the lunch menu and a la carte. We are not trying to bring Portuguese food into the 20th century, we are creating our own dishes based upon Portuguese ingredients and on the few occasions we have received a negative comment, it has come from a Portuguese diner who has been disappointed that we are not serving dried bacalhau and boiled potatoes for ?5 - its a bit like me going on holiday to the Algarve and spending all day looking for perfect fish & chips or roast beef. I do however welcome your comments and we look forward to you visiting us again

Friendly service but a little slow. However the restaurant was full on a Friday lunchtime. In my opinion the food was too expensive for a lunch with no choice of lunch menu. ?26 a head for a small bowl of olives (pitted, soft and despite being marinated tasting of very little.) bread(very good) one bottle of wine (?17.00), one soft drink, five main courses, two desserts and four coffees was not reasonable value given the quality of the food. We were also charged a service charge for five people when the menu states that they add a service charge to parties of six and above.

Carlos seems to be trying to bring Portuguese food into the 20th century however 'Arroz de Marisco' served as an over cooked risotto did neither justice to Portuguese food nor Italian. A 'Brazilian Feijoada' cooked with red beans was not close enough to the original recipe and a cataplana with flaccid fish and very little evidence of shellfish was not an improvement on the Algarve dish. I was disappointed to see a Portuguese inspired menu littered with Spanish words. I am sure that the local population can deduce that chori?o is similar to the Spanish chorizo the Portuguese version is less paparikary than the Spanish and in my biased opinion better!

Portuguese food deserves a better presence than Nando's but you have to be true to the ingredients. Really fresh fish, excellent shellfish, superb olive oil and subtle flavours of herbs and spices are abundant in all sorts of dishes. This was a disappointing experience and although I am reluctant to return because of the quality of the food and the price I expect that I will give it another chance because I liked the front of house staff, the atmosphere and I hope that the management will consider any criticisms and make a few changes.

Hmmm... My wife and I eagerly awaited Manchester's first Portuguese restaurant. We spend a fair amount of time in Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto and have eaten in many 'ordinary' restaurants and bars. We went to Luso one rainy Thursday night and were taken in without a reservation. At the time, only three tables or so were attended so we were a little apprehensive. However, within half an hour the place was thronging. I agree that the food was not 'truly authentic' Portuguese cuisine, however the food we ordered was great. I've had Caldo Verde hundreds of times and this was probably the best I've had. The salt cod, again, although different to that had in Portugal was splendid as was the feijoada. The service was enthusiastic and friendly. A few more Portuguese fines would be appreciated.
We're hoping to find the time to go again very soon.