The 8 Best New Restaurants in Lisbon Portugal

Portugal de Norte a Sul

The 8 Best New Restaurants in Lisbon Portugal

Where to eat in Lisbon. Portuguese cuisine is finally reaching its place in the world, with names like José Avillez and Kiko Martins starting to become known as names like Adría and Redzepi. And as Lisbon is warming up in its day as the new world capital of cold, the restaurant scene is booming.

Both chefs have opened new restaurants in recent months, as have other stars, foreigners and ambitious locals. Many of the new additions have international accents, while others are completely Portuguese.

JNCQuoi

The talk of the city lately is this new buzzy restaurant on Avenida Liberdade, the Champs-Élysées of Lisbon. Its an ambitious multi-concept project, made even more so by the fact that owners come from the rag trade, not from the restaurant world. After successfully opening several Fashion Clinic boutiques , they decided to create a lifestyle venue dedicated to “social hedonism”. Upstairs, the main dining room, designed by renowned Catalan architect Lázaro Rosa-Violán and complete with a fake dinosaur skeleton. It is a stunning setting for the fast food of fine Portuguese and international dishes. Downstairs there is a more relaxed delibar with armchairs, a wine and gourmet shop, the first Assouline bookstore in the country, a Ladurée counter and a menswear boutique.

Mushrooms and Cauliflower in The Watt

The watt

Every good chef loves a challenge. Cevicheria and Asiaticos superstar Kiko Martins , perpetually packaged, surrendered to one of them when he opened his fifth restaurant this fall: he wouldnt use butter or sugar and avoid frying anything. Since Watt is in the utilitys headquarters building, the idea was to create energy foods that were also delicious. He succeeded with a menu that is divided into three sections, raw, grilled and steamed. This left room for some dishes from his other restaurants, including The Butchers ceviche and beef tartare, as well as some winning new inventions, such as a plate of grilled mushrooms and cauliflower with a mashed egg yolk. Even the desserts, sweetened only with fruits, are satisfactory.

Good bao

I dont know what I like best about this new Asian street food restaurant - the varied cuisine or the sexy and suggestive dining rooms, inspired by a 1920s Saigon market. Anyway, the American and Dutch owners and the Belgian chef were all-in with the idea of "culinary travel". The drink menu resembles a stamped passport, and if you have to wait for a table, you are given a fake boarding pass that lists snacks to have while you wait. And the food is refined, an authentic and honest recreation of market classics from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Nepal and China. Go with a group to taste tasty, deeply satisfying pasta, soups, curry and wok dishes.

The terrace at Lumni

Lumni and Market at the Lumiares Hotel

Head chef Miguel Castro e Silva (formerly of Bull & Bear in Porto) returned to dinner with the opening of Lumni, on the top floor of the charming new Lumiares hotel. (The name is related to “luminous,” a commentary on the light you see in buildings across Lisbon from the terrace.) At night, there is a seven-course tasting menu that may include almond and duck vichyssoise and sea bass with orange and fennel. For lunch, the menu ranges from bold (heart of tartar) to classics such as the famous Bachalau 80 ° by Castro e Silva, or slow-cooked slow-cooked codfish. In between, there is a snack menu to enjoy on that bright terrace. Downstairs, in the separate Market, Castro e Silvas menu is “simply Portuguese,” with classics from north to south, such as shrimp stew, octopus rice, and Castro e Silvas beloved codfish balls.

Sashimi in Midori

Midori

“Japanese with a Portuguese soul” is the slogan of this intimate new kaiseki-style Japanese restaurant at Penha Longa Resort near Sintra. The room is new, but the restaurant had its origins 25 years ago, when chef Pedro Almeida opened the restaurant as the first Japanese in Portugal. During the crisis several years ago, he found new pride in his home country and began to rethink his concept of restaurant. The new Midori is not a fusion in itself - that would be insulting to both kitchens - but a thoughtful mix that can be both. Think green miso shiro broth (with cabbage, potatoes and chorizo oil on a white miso base) and sakamushi (steamed) clams in a typical duck style (with garlic and lemon). The resort also hosted a new Asian restaurant, Spices , last summer.

Peruvian Canteen

Peruvian Canteen

The painting had barely dried in the alley, the spectacular cabaret dining room of José Avillez s multi-concept Bairro do Avillez , when the famous Portuguese chef invited a Peruvian master to occupy part of another dining area. Diego Muñoz , who made his name at Astrid & Gastón de Lima, imported the best of his coastal town: a pisco bar for meat and Chileans and a six-part menu, ranging from the classic tiger leche ceviche to the heart of anti-beef meat Quinoa sliders wok rice with chicken and cilantro, a nod to the Chinese influence in Peru.

The bar in Tapisco

Tapisco

Chef Henrique Sá Pessoa of the quiet Michelin-starred temple Alma added a casual companion a few months ago. Tapisco mixes Portuguese and Spanish snacks to share - got it? Tapas find snacks? The room resembles an American restaurant, with a long bar stool in front of the open kitchen and a row of tables in front of a stool. The menu makes sense, as Pessoa has a family in Barcelona and his chef, Joana Duarte, lived six years in Spain. It is not a fusion: instead, a simple Portuguese bread soup can be followed by a Spanish black paella with squid ink. Tapisco also has the first vermouth bar in town.