Exploring Lisbon

[caption id="attachment_8300" align="alignnone" width="750"] Rua Neves Costa[/caption] A 20-minute taxi ride from Park of Nations, there’s a tiny area that has the feel of times gone by. Carnide is an ideal place to combine an evening stroll with a few glasses of wine and a good meal. One choice is the 100-year-old Adega das Gravatas, where you dine in a room decorated with 3,500 neckties (gravatas) left by happy customers. Reservations available at www.adegadasgravatas.com Another choice is Adega de Carnide, a traditional Portuguese restaurant with Alentejo regional specialities and an inner garden. Although Adega de Carnide has no website, your can make reservations through www.thefork.pt. Both restaurants serve lunch and dinner. Both close on Monday. If either of those restaurants is full, amble down Rua Neves Costa and settle where fancy takes you. To experience the most highly refined cuisine the city has to offer, just follow the Michelin Star trail. Since 2012, when chef José Avillez gained his first star at Belcanto, the restaurant has been synonymous with fine dining. His second star in 2014 kept him ahead of a pack that now includes two established one-star restaurants – Eleven and Feitoria – and two up-and-coming one-star restaurants – Loco and Alma. Each restaurant reflects a different culinary point of view. Each offers a multi-course menu to show it off. It can take about three-and-a-half hours to sip and savour your way through an 18-course “discovery menu". Belcanto offers tasting menus, described as “voyages of discovery” and featuring dishes like the Garden of the Goose who Laid the Golden Egg. “Revisited Portuguese cuisine” is served to 10 tables of appreciative diners at lunch and dinner daily except Sunday and Monday. Another popular restaurant, Eleven, specialises in Mediterranean cuisine in an elegant building with beautiful views. In addition to seasonal and tasting menus, the restaurant offers a lobster menu and black truffle menu. Feitoria, which is located in the Altis Belém Hotel, has adopted discovery as its theme. Two tasting menus each year celebrate the exotic spices and ingredients that make traditional Portuguese dishes special. The Terra tasting menu is vegetarian. Details at: restaurantefeitoria.com Loco is a modern restaurant where you dine with a view of the kitchen. The restaurant serves dinner tasting menus only. Choose either 14 or 18 courses, the latter described as “unpredictable and surprising like the restaurant itself”. Closed Sunday and Monday. Details at: www.loco.pt Alma offers a variety of tasting menus, including a five-course menu based on seafood. Details at: www.almalisboa.pt Brasserie De L’entrecote The popularity of the restaurant is based on offering just one menu – a green salad garnished with walnuts, followed by two servings of entrecôte smothered in a delicious secret sauce and accompanied by crispy French fries. There are tempting desserts, too. Note: vegetarians can order seitan – “wheat meat” – to replace the steak. Also, note that appetisers - olives, cheese, fish paste, bread - arrive at your table before you order. This widespread Portuguese custom surprises unwary diners. The starters are not complimentary; if you nibble, the charge will appear on your bill. You’re free to ignore them or better still, wave them away. 
To book a table go to the website: 
www.brasserieentrecote.pt Rua da Pimenta To enjoy a view of the Tagus, check out the possibilities on Rua da Pimenta, which runs between the Feira International and the river. One suggestion is the Senhor Peixie at No, 35 for fresh fish and a vast selection of seafood served by a cheerful informative staff. 
Details at: www.senhorpeixe.pt For a dazzlement of codfish, try D’Bacalhau at No. 45 Rua da Pimenta. There are said to be over 1,000 Portuguese recipes for codfish and this restaurant features many of them. Can’t decide which to sample? Order the “four in one” – four specialities in one serving. Details at: 
www.restaurantebacalhau.com If you like Chinese food, it would be a shame to be so near The Old House and not treat yourself to a meal. In China, there are 30 restaurants in this popular chain but the one at Rua da Pimenta 9 is the first to open outside China. The cuisine is Sichuan, normally highly spiced but here toned down slightly. The menu indicates how spicy the dish may be. The restaurant also has a special oven for preparing Peking duck. The restaurant accepts only cash or Portuguese Multibanco cards. Reserve a table on the Portuguese language website at: www.the oldhouseportugal.pt.