Andy Tullis / The BulletinCafe Sintra chef, Marcelo Bento, from left in back, grabs bottles of wine, while his uncle, and the owner of Cafe Sintra, Manuel dos Santos helps customers as other patrons enjoy their meals at Cafe Sintra in Bend Monday afternoon.

Manuel dos Santos, owner of the popular Café Sintra, has done well serving breakfasts and lunches during his 11 years in downtown Bend. So when a unique opportunity presented itself to add weekend dinners, he couldn’t pass it up.

The key was a young man named Marcelo Bento, who arrived in Oregon last year with his girlfriend (now fiancée), Constança Souta.

Bento and Souta met while working together at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s Penha Longa Resort in Sintra, Portugal. Sintra is dos Santos’ hometown. And Bento just happens to be dos Santos’ nephew.

Bento, 30, was trained as a chef and in hotel management. Before joining the Ritz, he had been manager of the acclaimed Terreiro do Paço restaurant in the heart of Lisbon.

“Marcelo is an excellent chef and a great manager,” dos Santos said. “It’s really all him. He was motivated to create a menu and a concept that we felt with would go well (to complement) Café Sintra’s breakfast and lunch.

“It was the perfect opportunity to expand our business with a family member who is creative, passionate and has a background in hospitality.”

Family operation

For now, at least — since April 17, to be accurate — dinners are served only Friday and Saturday nights, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. To be sure, if they were ever to expand to additional days, I would probably become a regular visitor.

The earlier meals, served daily, are dos Santos’ domain, but dinners belong to Bento. With Souta and longtime family friend Luisa Benevento (whose husband, Joe, is executive chef at Mother’s Bistro) in the front of the house, and a single assistant in the kitchen, it’s a family operation.

There’s little or no formality but a tremendous amount of warmth and enthusiasm. Café Sintra is decorated with photographs from local artists and a large television that’s turned on only for major soccer games, a huge draw for Bend’s community of international soccer fans. It feels more like a private den than a downtown restaurant, which I imagine is how it might be back in Portugal.

Facing the Atlantic Ocean from the west end of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal has a cuisine which is not quite Spanish, not quite French, not quite Italian. It’s not technically a Mediterranean country, but it has elements thereof. To hear Bento tell it, “Modern Portuguese cuisine is similar to French.” But its generous use of olive oil, garlic and paprika, along with fresh seafood and port wines, give it a flavor all its own.

Delicious dinner

On a recent visit, my dining companion and I started our meal with linguiça assada. Imported directly from Portugal, two large pork sausages were flavored with garlic and paprika, doused with olive oil and cooked at the table — by Bento himself — in a terra-cotta tray he called an “assador de chouriços.”

Translated, that means “sausage grill.” It sounds much more romantic in Portuguese. But the flavor of this meat transcended language. It was absolutely delicious.

Our second course was an evening special, a pear salad. Thick slices of Bosc pear served with walnuts and bleu cheese crumbles on a bed of fresh greens. The secret ingredient here was a marvelous poppy–seed dressing with just a hint of lemon.

For my entrée, I chose a creamy mushroom steak from the everyday menu. A 7-ounce cut of sirloin, cooked medium rare, was served with a generous portion of fresh button mushrooms and a white sauce of garlic, olive oil, white wine and flour. It was served with baked sea-salt potatoes. Bento assured me this is a very typical preparation in Portugal. If that’s true, I’m buying my ticket tomorrow.

My companion’s main course was again from the short list of nightly specials, a mix of tender large prawns and pork tenderloin on linguine noodles with a light tomato-based sauce. Combining chipotle peppers and coconut milk with a light sauté of onions and bell peppers, Bento’s scratch sauce had equal elements of sweet and spicy.

Three meals

I always enjoy earlier meals at Café Sintra. Like many patrons, I’m sure, I have my favorites. For breakfast, that would be an egg-and-spinach crepe; for lunch, a bowl of Portuguese chicken stew with white beans.

But six weeks before our most recent dinner, when we stopped by for a First Friday paella, we were not so impressed. A young musician was performing, and the crowd of under-age friends that he attracted were noisy and took away from our enjoyment of the meal.

What’s more, the paella Valenciana, a blend of rice with chicken and shellfish, was no better than average. But Bento apparently feels the same way; he is working on a new recipe, and has pulled that dish from the menu until he’s satisfied.

If it turns out as good as the other food at Sintra, it will be a big winner.

— John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com