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Rei DOS Leitos
One review for Rei DOS Leitos
1 review in English
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Review from Jay M.
Toronto, ON
3/5/2012
This place was always in my top 5 restaurants when I lived in London years ago as it was one of the best "under the radar" restaurants in the town. So naturally when a trip to London arose this past weekend, one of my most essential planned stops was to come to Rei Does Leitoes, aka King of the Pigs!
One thing is for certain on arrival, in that the place has been upgrading and expanding over the years in a good way. The first time I came here, probably 6 or 7 years ago, the place was a closer to a dive than a justifiable restaurant to visit. The tables were hurting wood things painted with ugly blue paint that was chipping. But eventually they bought new tables and chairs that all matched, and just recently even renovated the building giving the outside a facelift and moving the bathrooms to the back of the building which should create more table space for the dining area. To top it off, judging by the looks of it they will have an actual patio implemented later into the year as well which should help it out even more. So from a facilities perspective, we're talking 4 stars.
On to the food. Upon arrival you'll be given a basket of fresh bread, and a bowl of olives. We also ordered a plate of prosciutto and cheese. Insider tip: dip the buttered bread into their hot sauce. Yes, their hot sauce is so good that even the bread on its own will be amazing with it. For dinner, while we usually just go with the Half Chicken Dinner, but one of our local friends had us change our course of attack and order it "family style". What this meant was that overwhelming large portions of food would be brought out and we'd just serve ourselves. First, a giant bowl of house salad came out. This was admittedly the weak link in the meal. Iceberg lettuce and diced tomatoes with a really minimal vinaigrette dressing.., A few bites in and I had enough. Next was a giant platter of their delicious chicken brought out with accompanying platter of french fries. The french fries aren't anything special, but are good with a nice thickness and level of crispyness. But the chicken... Oh let me tell you about the chicken. Their chicken rivals even the best churrascos and churrasqueiras that I've found in Toronto, but this is partly accredited to the amazing sauce they have.
Their hot sauce is so damn good, and when you slice up those fries and chicken and cover them with hot sauce and just dig in... I'm drooling right now just thinking about it. Go for the chicken, stay for the hot sauce. Don't waste your time with the salad.
Salad aside, the only other real fault I had was at the bar. They only seemed to have Labatt Blue on tap (but priced well at least), and they didn't have cranberry juice for a vodka cran mixed drink.
In the end, 4 of us were able to eat well to the point of leaving plenty of food left on the table when done, for less than $75 after tax before tip. I usually expect to spend that on feeding 2 people when I go out for dinner nowadays so I can't help but love this place and give a gleaming recommendation to try this place out.
