Adega Dom Luis
Our eclectic wine tour guide Paolo gave us another valuable suggestion for a dinner experience. A place where he and his wife spent many nights enjoying “real Portuguese food and tasty wine”. He told us to say that tall Paolo sent us and to get there on time because they’re always full. And, that it would be our best meal in Lisbon. He was only wrong about one of those things.
Located across the street from the English Council it was easy to find. With a small outdoor seating area and a small dining room, with the bar taking up a third of the space (priorities, right?), it had a very cozy and homey feel to it.
This restaurant was a family place as well, the owner Luis took care of guests, his wife the kitchen and his son handled the bar. We were the only people in the restaurant, so we were well taken care of.
We stared with asking for the wine menu, and Luis friendly told us that what we drink depends on what we would like to eat. This guy knows his stuff. We started with an appetizer of clams in a broth of garlic and something made of pure genius. We cannot hype this enough, it was SOO good! We will consider going back to Lisbon just for that dish. Fantastic!
If you go to Lisbon this is the only must eat that we have.
We ate it wrong at first, eating the bread with butter and the clams with a fork. Luis told us that you scoop the clams and eat them in their shell, and dip the bread in the broth. It made a fantastic dish even better.
For main Tess ordered the fish stew and Alex had port cheek. Luis kindly asked if Tess ever had this classic dish before and when the answer was no he offered to “make the bed”. This meant that you put the food on the plate in a specifik order. He started with the spicy sauce, then the fish stew and finished with the potatoes. It was a tad spicy, but not to much and the fish stew was great. A whole new taste.
Alex pork cheek was good but a little dry. After the meal Luis told Alex that he didn’t really care for it either. The wine paired perfectly with the food – of course.
We did say that Paolo sent us to which Luis replied “Tall Paolo? He’s a bit loco.” How very true. We were alone in the place the whole meal, so it was not true that its always full, but given the size of it we did see that that might happen.
Google link to Adega Dom Luis
The hotel gave us a great tip for our first dinner in Lisbon. A neighbourhood called Sacramento in the heart of the city. There they told us to find this restaurant, which was supposed to be one of the best places to eat, and it was.
A very cool looking place with a hipp atmosphere and good looking menu. We started with a drink at the bar while waiting for our table, and sat in a huge cozy couch.
Tess had a starter of fried goat cheese with strawberry marmalade which was fantastic! Fried cheese almost never fails but this combo was a real success. A little bit to much in hindsight, but worth it.
We then had a good meal, cod fish for Tess and grilled octopus for Alex (cod was better than octopus). Good food and ambiance. We recommend it.
Sacramento on Google maps
Wine & Beer
Lisbon introduced us to vino verde, which is a green wine that is only made in Portugal. It’s very light to drink but at the same time packs a lot of flavour. Perfect for warm days and very easy to drink.
Portugal has a lot of good wines, but more about that on the wine tour.
The only local beer that we tried was Sagres, which was okay, just a regular light beer. Also good in the warm weather.
The great thing about Lisbon is that at almost any place, bar or restaurant, you can sit down and have a great bottle of wine (or glas) for a very good price.