When chef José Neves and host Claudia Silva returned to Lisbon after six years in France, they brought back ideas about sustainability, gastronomy, and hospitality. They also brought back a lot of food in jars.
That’s how, just six months after opening in early 2024, their restaurant, Ciclo, is offering such an inventive menu, full of complex flavors, deep umami, and that elusive ingredient that’s often defined as love. Simple dishes benefit from vinegars, fermented fruits, and garums that have been maturing for months or years. They’re a manifestation of the couple’s zero-waste philosophy, of course, but they’re also the tools of deliciousness.
The 24-seat restaurant is a no-frills showplace for Neves’s cooking—which he does in an open kitchen in the back of the space, before he and Silva deliver dishes to the tables. Apart from what they’ve carried back from the Champagne region, every food ingredient comes from small Portuguese producers, and the menu changes with each week’s market haul. The wines, meanwhile, emphasize small French producers.
The format is a la carte, with shareable small plates such as marinated cucumber with cucamelon and rayu (chili oil), and a couple larger dishes like skate with zucchini marscapone, and satay, but the tasting menu is the way to go. With seven moments, it’s not overwhelming, and at 60€ it’s an excellent value for the quality of the cooking.
For more information visit the Ciclo website.
Ciclo
Largo das Olarias 42
Lisbon
Phone: +351 963 691 234
Email: contact@ciclo-restaurante.pt
Hours:
Thursday to Saturday – 19:00 to 24:00
Sunday – 12:00 to 15:00
Photos by Joana Freitas, courtesy of Ciclo
