Marilyn T.
Yelp
The restaurant is near the basilica up a hill. It's only 7 tables and one seating, so you can enjoy your meal at a leisurely pace. The space is cool and and has a nice open kitchen, where you can see that the ratio of staff to patrons is almost 1:1.
The wine list is exclusively Portuguese. We started with a cuvée de noir from Hibernus (2016), which was great to start. We also tried a Madeira to start. We then went with a drier white and then a Baga. Ultimately, we finished with a port.
They do a 17 course tasting for €113, which is a hot deal compared to the US and many other European cities. The food is seafood focused, with a goal of 0% waste. Each dish is called a "moment."
Starters:
1. Salted cod with egg yolk and parsley, served on a shrimp cracker
2. Crushed nori roll filled with fish liver mousse and chives - the texture on this was great
3. Seaweed savory pudding with spider crab and sea water foam. Keeping it local, they give you the cute cutipol dessert spoons for the dish
4. Cockles with coridander and lemon, served on a cockle cracker base
5. Stewed oxtail with roasted garlic foam and parsley: this smelled amazing and was very rich and satisfying
6. Suckling pig pie: light flaky crust with a warm pork filling with hints of ginger and soy. It was like an elevated meat pie
7. Oyster with almond milk, lemon juice, smoked lard, lovage, compressed cucumber
Bread course:
House sourdough (smoked wheat flour), freshly baked, with the following unique accompaniments:
- Portuguese steak sauce for dipping
- Emulsion of fish collagen and olive oil
- House cows butter with lemon verbena, cultured for 6 weeks, topped with Portuguese sea salt
- Portuguese cold pressed olive oil
Mains:
1. Scalloped shrimp ceviche with a spicy fish sauce vinaigrette and flowers, followed by a shrimp cappuccino (basically an intense shrimp bisque)
2. Mustard seed, savory root, cow tooth broth (yes, cow tooth!)
3. Confit cod with fermented garlic and herbs: very rich
4. Stewed lamb with sweetbreads and meat: surprisingly not gamey
5. Crispy pork belly (18 hour sous vide) with a fermented mushroom ad pork broth, and a fried potato roll on the side. The crisped pork skin and the potato roll were great in texture. The pork itself was a bit too fatty for me
Transition:
Organic strawberry with strawberry reduction and a special glaze.
Desserts:
1. Lemon verbena with chili and plums (plum sorbet, dehydrated plums). This was a nice and light dessert with some acid and a nice kick to it from the chili
2. "Sheep on a cloud": sheepsmilk condensed milk, ice cream, yogurt foam, meringue - interesting combination of flavors and textures
3. Petit fours: from a sewing box, served on an embroidery hoop:
- Nori meringue with kaffir lime mousse in the center
- Portuguese Milk tart
- Chocolate and peanut frozen sandwich
- Cinnamon and honey biscuit
- Orange and orange blossom jelly
- White chocolate truffle of smoked coconut
Coffee service is done tableside, very cool.
Every dish comes as a surprise, which is a lot of fun. For me, the moments at the beginning (starters) were the highlights. Each dish had a lot of thought out into being 0% waste.
Service was impeccable. They were extremely conscientious about dietary restrictions, which I appreciate. Everyone was very attentive but unintrusive and approachable.
It's definitely worth heading out here for a nice dinner if you're in Lisbon. The service is what put them over the top for us.