J and J Restaurant & Takeout

I must have gone on an off night. Or, maybe this place is better if you just order takeout.
It took them a half an hour to make Mariscada (it’s a bunch of shellfish in a pot with some sauce and rice), and Bife A Casa (Portuguese steak with an egg, rice and fried potatoes).
The time would be forgivable if the restaurant was crowded (My wife and I, were the only two people in there), and/​or if the food was really good.
Unfortunately, not the case. The steak (which I ordered medium) was tough and brown all the way through, the egg yolk (which is supposed to be runny), was hard, and my wife said the shellfish was low quality and the kale soup was the worst she’s ever had.
Also, the prices; every Portuguese restaurant I’ve ever been to, has better quality food and gives you more food for way less money.
The good? Well, the little hot bread rolls were OK, the fried potatoes were really good (cut like really thick potato chips, just as crispy on the outside, soft inside) and the delicous sauce/​gravy on the Bife A Casa was the only thing that made my steak edible.
Those are, unfortunately, the only good things I can think of, to say about this place.
If this is the best Portuguese food in Somerville, you’re better off travelling to New Bedford.
I will probably go back, and try the BBQ chicken that so many reviewers are raving about. But being how slow the service was (even in an otherwise empty restaurant), It’ll definitely be take out.

If there is anything that I crave in this life, it is the bbq chicken here, absolutely amazing. Always the same taste and the killer sauce that goes with it. I been coming here for years, and never once I had a problem with any meal. True parking is awful and it’s hidden. Who cares it’s worth it. If they had valet I would do it.

My second time, visiting from pa, both experiences were great… the food wonderful. The wait staff kind, and attentive. The grilled octopus, kale soup, and the hot fresh rolls, served with the chicken salad amazing. Looking forward to my next visit in the spring.

I wouldn’t dine in, but great for take out. The rotisserie chicken with rice and beans is my fave.

Im from a NJ Potruguese family, 1^st gen american. Have been in Boston 3 years — and this is the best here! GREAT food reasonable prices. Also get trays for party catering. Bacalhao assado, and Dobrada my favs!

I grew up with this restaurant and have watched it mature and boy am I proud of this establishment! While it may be in a tricky location in Somerville, it is worth the parking nightmare for some quality, homestyle Portuguese food.
For a quick, satisfying meal, I recommend the ½ or whole frango no churrasco, which is their delicious version of peri peri chicken. Their fish meals are also fantastic! Most of these dishes come with their rice and fries, and for someone who is picky about rice outside of the home, I love theirs! For you polvo (octopus) fans, they serve polvo à lagareiro everyday! Bacalhau is also a staple here.
As other Unilocalers have stated, this is a hidden gem. Don’t judge this book by its cover, take a walk inside and nom on some pasteis or rissóis while you wait for your entrée to be done! Eat in or take out. Enjoy!

Definitely a hidden gem! Had the shrimp with rice and potatoes and it was amazing! Will definitely go back!

Real hidden gem in Somerville. Former roommate told me about this place and how they have the best chicken around. He wasn’t kidding, their piri piri chicken is a Portugese staple and addicting indeed.
Grab a half chicken with flavorful rice and fries. Deff carboload and will put you in a coma but worth it

As a portuguese person myself, I can say this place is very authentic! The food is delicious, fresh & hot… Pretty much love everything on the menu. The barbecue chicken is they signature dish! And it is delicious! Very affordable and you can order take out, witch we quite often …

Visited the restaurant on Saturday evening… for some reason Unilocal listed them as closed for the day. Fortunately, the restaurant was not closed.
I was really looking for great tasting food at this restaurant based on the strong Unilocal ratings.
People are correct… from the outside, you would not know there was a restaurant inside because it is blocked off by a wall and in the back. Almost like secret section of the place.
We sat ourselves down and the waitstaff acknowledged us. There were only a few other diners in the restaurant (not really eating but chatting over wine — slight indication of locals). The waitress informed us that their grill was not working at all so the menu are limited to items that does not require the grill (ie fried or pan cooked).
After a few minutes, we managed to find something to try. We ordered the following:
Paelha Valencia — «aka paella» — except I requested to eliminate the pork and linguica (I do not eat pork) — so this leaves with chicken, shrimp, clams and squid. It was a huge portion — rice was tasty, seafood was fresh but the chicken was too dry (which made up most of the protein) in the dish. If I would to have it again — I would just request it as a seafood paella.
Feljoada — pork with red beans. Waitress recommended this because it is a native dish. It was all parts of pig (belly, fatty, lean cut and even some unknown)…some pieces still have the animal’s hair on it. Those pieces my hubby just pushed aside. He said the dish was decent.
The restaurant is a no frill kinda restaurant — minimal service but friendly, food takes a little longer than expected and quality of food is decent though not spectacular as other Unilocalers had claimed.
Gave it a shot but will keep looking and trying.

Hola!!! My first time trying J and J Restaurant & Takeout. I have never eaten Portuguese food before. Their food is very similar to the Eastern European food. The restaurant is located in my boyfriend’s neighborhood –Somerville. It looks like an ethnic deli from the outside and in the back they have a small and simple family oriented restaurant. You can tell the food is cooked on the spot. It tastes very fresh. I had pork (Febras de porco $ 10.95) and my boyfriend got the tuna steak (Bife de atum grelhado $ 12.95). He also had the Portuguese soup which tasted very good.
My boyfriend recommended to go there on Sunday for lunch but he warned me that it wouldn’t be anything ‘fancy’. Just as he said, it was a simple and clean establishment. The food is very inexpensive — within $ 10-​$ 15 range for a huge meal and about $ 5/​drink. This place is worth trying. I am definitely going there again. The check came to about $ 40 for a soup, 2 huge entrees and 2 drinks — very affordable lunch. Too bad we were a little bit in a rush because we were scheduled for a 3pm chocolate factory tour at Taza.
The staff was very pleasant and friendly. The restaurant was very busy for Sunday lunch but then again, the restaurant is not big. Sometimes you are better off trying the local spots than venturing out in town.

This place is small, with about 10 tables, but a group of 6 had no trouble being seated on a Friday night at prime time.
The half roast chicken is excellent, with an interesting and slightly spicy marinade, accompanied with mountains of rice and french fries (side vegetable?), for $ 10. Someone else ordered Arroz de Marisco, which at $ 19.95 was the most expensive item on the menu, but was loaded with shellfish and a whole lobster and was very good.
I don’t know what the total was because someone else picked up the check before I could say anything. Expect to pay $ 10 to $ 15 per person for poultry/​meat dishes, $ 13 to $ 20 for seafood. The online menu seems to be current.
This is also an excellent place to come if you are in search of lottery tickets. They have a bigger selection than any place I have ever seen.

Ola! My new favorite Portuguese restaurant! It appears to be an ethnic deli from the outside, but venture inside and behind the wall to the right for wonderfully authentic Portuguese food, served in the requisite sea of olive oil.
We ordered both of the two available appetizers to share at the table. The linguica in red wine was good, but the pot of little neck clams was the clear winner of the two with a delicious garlic white wine broth and just a touch of lemon. When the clams were gone, we scooped out most of the remaining broth with our clamshells to drink.
For our main courses, we had cod, chicken, seafood and feijoada. The mariscada (seafood with rice) was spectacular. This is a dish similar to paella, but with a stronger tomato flavor that I prefer. It was packed with shellfish, including some large pieces of lobster tail. The chicken had a nice taste but the piece I tried was a little dry. I think it was supposed to be served with a side of garlic sauce, and if so, that never arrived. My favorite by far was the bacalhau de casa, an enormous grilled cod filet topped with sweet caramelized onions and served with mixed veggies and Portuguese style potatoes which are slightly crispy and incredibly flavorful. If ordering a dish with fries, I’d recommend subbing these potatoes.
Each of our entrees could easily have served two. There was plenty to take home and no room for dessert but the couple next to use ordered a good looking chocolate mousse with a pile of cream on top.
The official language spoken here is Portuguese and we ran into some communication problems when we asked for a drink menu, which might be known simply as the wine list. This gives me an incentive to expand my Portuguese vocabulary, which right now consists solely of the words «more,» «wine,» «bread,» «cheese,» and «stop, don’t do that,» the latter phrase near and dear to my heart as one I heard regularly from my paternal grandfather. The wines are very reasonably priced and we ordered the topmost wine on the list on our server’s recommendation. Table opinion was divided on it, but I loved the sweet fruitiness.
They shut down at around 8 on Friday so get here early.

Rreally, REALLY, REALLY GOOD FOOD@@ Run and get yourself some grilled chicken. The best EVER. The kale soup was to die for, all creamy and filled with tender kale and slices of chorizo. But the chicken, it can easily be the last meal I eat before dying. Service was efficient and sweet, the gal made sure we had everything and even got us rolls after we paid! We called in our order and the the guy who took our order was very nice. Our food was ready when we got there.

My wife and I came in over the weekend. This was good Portuguese food — huge portions and great deal. Chicken was excellent but the pork chops were a bit dry.
My biggest complaint is that the service sucked. I will head back given I have a soft spot for no-​frills Portuguese food and want to explore more of this menu.

Holy shit. J&J, I wasn’t sure about you but I could eat at you forever. Looks a little dingy from the outside and you can’t tell it’s a restaurant but once inside it’s wonderful. The décor is simple with funny azulejos everywhere – the same azulejos I see in all cafes and restaurants in Portugal, I felt at home at once. The service was really sweet and was really interested in making sure we liked it (I took three American friends). When we ordered the bacalhau assado she took care to tell us it would take 25 minutes – they would e grilling it freshly how awesome! The dobrada tasted exactly how I make it and was taught to make it. The carne de porce alentejana is the best I’ve tasted in the area so far and it’s so cheap. This is not a fancy night out place but a place real people go to get normal no frills real Portuguese cooking. For four entrees, two soups, appetizer, 3 sodas, a bottle of wine and three coffees, it came to just over $ 100. Cant argue. This is my new go to spot. Absolutely wonderful. Reminds me of the restaurant my dad would go to when I was a kid if my mom wasn’t home to make him Portuguese food – because he refused to eat anything vaguely american.
I’m hosting a meeting of the parents for my and my fiancé’s parents in a few weeks and I will be asking them to make a tray of something classically Portuguese!

Chicken. Oh hells yeah.
I was told that I HAD TO TRY this place, my boyfriend raved about how well a decently priced meal kept him fed and warm last winter when he was towing overnights. Finally after much talk, we finally made plans and followed through.
When we walked in, my cousin and I razzed my boyfriend «really, you brought us to a convenience store? You shouldn’t have!» When you walk to the right, down a little hallway type thing, you get to a little seating area. We sat, met the very polite and friendly waitress and ordered after a complete investigation of what the menu offered.
Our waitress apologized for her English a few times, but we had absolutely no issues with ordering — especially with the questions about what my newly (again) vegan cousin’s restrictions, she went and asked all the questions of the cooks to free everybody of worry.
I got the same thing that my boyfriend ordered. Half a roasted chicken. I sadly wasn’t able to finish my meal (TOO much food for me, though my eyes constantly argue with my stomach on this topic…) but enjoyed the chicken a great deal, had the potatoes which were cooked very well, as was the rice.
It was clean, the food was presented well, and the staff was incredibly friendly. I’m planning on going back with a bigger appetite, or plans to reheat it for the next days lunch.

Amaaaazing Portuguese seafood! And the prices are so reasonable. The place would be so much better without a TV, but the TV seems to have invaded everyplace these days. People seem to be afraid of silence.

If I was Portuguese, I’d imagine this would be like sitting in my grandma’s kitchen. I’ve never had Portuguese before but I took my parents (who have) as I’d read all the great Unilocal reviews. We all LOVED and already stuffed as we are, can’t wait to go back.
5 stars for this unassuming place — the friendliness, the great suggestions… the fresh, down home food! HUGE portions.
This visit we had: Bacalhau assada (Grilled Cod w/​Boiled potatoes, Peppers and onions) — also had the quintessential hard boiled egg, Costeletas de porco (pork chops w/​rice, french fries) and Lulas Grelhadas (Grilled squid w/​boiled potatoes, broccoli, vinaigrette sauce). As I said before — fabulous. I’m not used to such salty fish, but I loved, especially w/​extra oil & vinegar. Great suggestions from our awesome server!
The meal starts with a chickpea vinaigrette salad and we split a $ 14 house red: Terras del Rei — sooooo good.
Very clean place as well.
Can’t wait to go back or even get take out. Great authentic, down home cooking!

MMM, what a find! We were at Target in Somerville this afternoon, and we were very hungry and looking for a place to eat nearby, and we stumbled upon J & J, and we’re so happy we did. It’s pretty unassuming, just driving by, but behind the grocery area inside there is a delightful, homey restaurant.
I can’t say that I have had a lot of authentic Portugese food, but what we had for lunch today was amazing. We ordered the half grilled chicken with spicy garlic sauce as well as the grilled pork with spicy garlic sauce. These two dishes are usually accompanied by delicious buttery rice and french fries, but we decided to substitute the fries for a fresh salad (which was a good choice for us).
Every meal starts out with garbanzo beans drizzled in olive oil with a relish of onions and peppers (from what I could see and taste), and it was refreshing and a nice starter. Their bread was hot and fresh from the oven.
When our meal arrived, we were surprised to see the large portions– — and couldln’t wait to dig in. The meat had a nice grilled flavor with a slightly spicy garlic sauce, which tasted so good over the buttery rice. There was so much food, I couldn’t eat it all and saved ²⁄₃ of my meal for a friend and dinner for the next day.
I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you’re in the area!