Nuno Mendes, the Lisbon-born chef and made his name (and Michelin star) in London, says his newest venture, Santa Joana, is the kind of restaurant that wouldn’t have made sense in Lisbon ten years ago but makes perfect sense now. Glamorous yet casual, the flagship of the new 370-room Locke de Santa Joana hotel is a reflection of the Portuguese capital’s new, cosmopolitan identity.
That doesn’t mean he’s forgotten Portuguese identity. Rather, he and his in-house team, head chef Mauricio Varela (of the former Dahlia, Matte and Wines by Heart) and pastry chef Maria Ramos (who worked with Mendes at the Bairro Alto Hotel Restaurant), are using Portuguese ingredients as the basis for everything they do, but drawing on the international pantry to embellish them.
The menu, which is all designed around a sharing concept, is divided into sections. Small Delicacies include bite-size morsels like grilled chicken hearts with pica-pau sauce and runner bean peixinhos da horta with red perilla leaves. The Oysters section includes bivavles from all the oyster regions of Portugal, allowing diners to compare them. And the Raw Bar also includes plates like red shrimp from the Algarve with burnt leek hearts and aged tuna belly, chili-refogado broth, last season’s olive oil and flowers.
The meatier sections of the menu, appetizers and main courses, include a range of flavor-rich dishes that emphasize local producers, the country’s global roots, and its culinary trade history. That means plates like sweet onion tiborna with 24-month-aged São Jorge cheese and tarragon, grilled mussels from Sagres with salt-baked new potatoes and green garlic sauce, and grilled Alentejo pork presa, roasted walnut sauce, and marinated turnips and their tops.
Likewise, the drinks are inspired by Portuguese flavors and culture, both in the wine list, which emphasizes small producers from the nearby regions of Lisbon Setúbal and Tejo, and in the cocktail program, overseen by head of bars Tiago Santos. His signature drinks include red pepper and tomato with agave spirit, ginjinha, red pepper, sun-dried tomato, and citrus, and apricot and Oolong, which combines whisky, apricot, Oolong tea, fenugreek and oat milk punch.
The dining room is itself a treat, designed by the renowned studio Lárazo Rosa-Violán, whose other Lisbon projects include JNcQUOI and Rocco. Santa Joana is no less gorgeous, with big stands of plants and large-scale artworks created by Portuguese artists Carolina Vaz, Pareidólia and Grau Cerâmica, who were inspired by the former convent’s 17th-century history.
It’s all part of the hotel’s larger hospitality program, which was designed to appeal to locals as well as hotel guests and is overseen by Mendes, as culinary director, and the London-based White Rabbit Projects. That means that in addition to the bar within the Santa Joana restaurant, there’s the relaxed Bar Joana in the restaurant’s light-filled atrium, a discreet wine bar upstairs, a martini and Champagne bar on the ground floor, and a terrace for alfresco cocktails in the warmer months.
For more information, visit the Santa Joana website.
Santa Joana
Locke de Santa Joana
Rua de Santa Marta 61
Lisbon
Phone: +351 211 555 582
Reservations here
Drink and snacks: Daily – 12:00 to 23:00
Lunch: Wednesday to Sunday – 12:00 to 16:00
Dinner: Daily – 18:00 to 23:00