Restaurant tip of the day – Cantinho de S.José

Cantinho de S.José is another quintessential place right on our street.

Don’t be put off by its outside looks, that said, not that it is a palace inside, but you’ll get my point in a minute.

You go through the pair of sixties’ aluminium frame doors and down a few steps. As you proceed and your eyes adjust to the place you’ll reckon there are quite a few tables, maybe ten or a dozen.

To the left, at the end of the space, which is right there, there is a counter with the fridge window displaying the desserts, behind there’s a decoration of sorts with bottles of wine.

The friendly very talkative waiter will hand you the menu but by the time is done with it you no longer need to read it because he’ll have said it all using plenty of adjectives and descriptions very much his own. Well, of course this all depends on how much your Portuguese has improved since checking in at The Elevator Hostel.

Possible options are…

…Arroz de Pato. Duck Rice is a traditional recipe from the North of Portugal. The duck is cooked in a broth the flesh is removed and shredded. Then duck stock is used to cook the rice, giving it the flavour and the rich taste) and…

… Cozido à Portuguesa (a traditional stew of different meats and vegetables, with numerous regional variations, with rice, potatoes, cabbage, a plethora of sausages, including of course the blood sausage, the meat sausage and the flour sausage which is made mainly from wheat flour).

It’s difficult to tell in advance how far you’ll be able to move after any one of these mains, both excellent choices. By then, the talkative waiter will return to your table and start reciting the desserts of day. Invariably he’ll start with the calorie bombs, like for instance that egg pudding that takes bacon or lard or both, by saying, ‘first the light ones…’

Just in case, let me spell out here some basic survival instructions…there are four steps that you have to negotiate to return to our street. Make a left go straight ahead at the first intersection and left on the first street up, following the tracks of the funicular, back to The Elevator Hostel.

restaurant tip of the day: Stanislav

Still on the series about ‘our street’ and all its great sites we want to write today about a different cuisine…since a few months ago, after a long and detailed work of refurbishing and decoration that kept us mouthwatering, the new Russian restaurant Stanislav, opened, on São José street.

Once again you follow the funicular to the lower station and make a right into Rua de São José. Pass the traffic lights, the church and after 2 streets on your right hand side you find Stanislav at number 184.

The first impression is great. The decoration with plenty of little details is very nice and welcoming. The key element is wood and there are two areas one upfront ‘lighter’ and a back room which is warmer and more elaborated.

They have a choice of Ukrainian beers – yes, Ukrainian 😉 curiously enough labelled with numbers up to 9 according to strength and flavour: ask for baltika.

And naturally they have also a vast variety of vodkas whose names you probably never heard of, but of course you should not worry about that, just relax, follow their experts’ advice, and get ready to order.

The food is excellent very well presented and the portions are generous. The service deserves many of those stars that brighten up the skies under which they grow the grains that fire up the vodka in your glass. They are always attentive and helpful being friendly and professional at the same time – which isn’t easy…

The filo pastry wraps with braised mushrooms make a superb starter. Then our preference goes for the cabbage rolls filled with minced meat and the chicken filled crepes, but if you feel that you really need to put in a few extra grams and don’t want to exaggerate with the vodkas served in the neat frozen glasses, then you can always order the Kazakh stew that will leave you there waiting for the cab to come and take you back home… 🙂 don’t forget you still have the steep ascension of the funicular tracks to get back to The Elevator Hostel.

restaurant tip of the day: Alvario

Visitors to Lisbon following the lights and the glamour of  Lisbon’s fashion street, Avenida da Liberdade, might miss “our” street.

Our street is actually 2 streets and none of them is ours 😉

Where the Elevator tracks start, you have, running south the Rua das Portas de Santo Antāo and running north, Rua de S.José.

One is more touristy with all the outside tables on the pedestrian street and the vociferous restaurant staff greeting the people walking by and trying to hand over the menu.. … the other, is our favourite.

Rua de S. José is a point in case for the city that in the twenty first century regained all the colourfulness and the diversity it first had back in the fourteen hundreds when it became a global hub.

What is special about the area is the harmony of the cultural and ethnic mix and the feeling that you’re actually sharing your experience with the locals away from brouhaha of the places designed with the tourists in mind.

Today I want to talk about all gastronomical alternatives available ‘around the corner’ in the upcoming posts we shall review the best options in the neighbourhood.

The first one is a tiny little place, right after the traffic lights with the misleading sign “Pastelaria Alvario” it is misleading because it is not a “pastelaria” a place where you have sweets and snacks but rather a restaurant. When step in, past all the signs with the day’s specials and the little transparent fridge where stands a radio playing fado tunes, you find four or five tables, not more.

The service is very correct with the cook shouting from the oven to precise whatever your waiter is telling you about the menu.

Unlike many of these popular restaurants they tend to have a diversified offer often covering the most popular dishes of the Lisbon local fare.

One that you should try is the ‘pataniscas com arroz de feijão’. Pataniscas are pieces of shredded ‘bacalhau’ (Codfish) previously coated in a wheat flour batter and deep fried. And the ‘arroz’ is rice that is cooked on a mirepoix, a mixture of chopped onion, maybe some carrot and beans. Red beans.

It is very enjoyable to seat there in a quiet and friendly atmosphere, listening to the fado background while figuring out what to do next to get the night started and all that for less than 10 euros per person including a drink and dessert.