It’s not only Lisbon that’s thriving with small, family-run big-dreamer restaurants that celebrate seasonal Portuguese products. Porto got one of its own in late 2017, when the couple Sofia Amaral Gomes and João Cura opened Almeja in the most traditional downtown area. The name means “to crave” (or to strive for) the best, and to that end, Gomes and Cura are extremely hands-on. She receives guests at the door, and he is the head chef.
Leading up the opening, in a historic former grocery shop, the couple oversaw all the details, from orchestrating a renovation that would preserve some of the original architecture to designing some of the furniture and utensils. The restaurant is separated into three areas: a bar dining room with two tables by the windows, a larger dining room tucked away in the back, and a pretty terrace.
Owners Sofia Amaral Gomes and Chef João Cura
They call Almeja a “casual fine-dining restaurant,” but the initial part of the meal still features hot towels to prepare the hands and spirit for what awaits. Cura cooked in some of the top kitchens in Barcelona, and he always starts with an amuse bouche such as fried salt cod, tripe with black garlic, or a madeleine of sausage with apple gel. The homemade bread is slowly fermented with natural yeast. After that, there’s a choice of a la carte or tasting menus, all made with products brought in from all over the country, such as cabeça de xara (hoghead cheese) from the Alentejo, or a kid goat bought on the same street as Almeja.
For more information, visit the Almeja Porto website.
Almeja
Rua Fernandes Tomás 819
Porto
Phone: +351 222 038 120
Email: geral@almejaporto.com
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday – 12:30 to 15:00 and 19:30 to 23:00
