Step into a kinder world, a place where everyone speaks in a musical hush, where homesick businessmen linger for hours over a post-prandial bottle of port without the check ever being slapped down, and where the waiters are so concerned with your well-being that you fear they won’t sleep at night if you don’t eat every last bite of your meal. Welcome to Alfama, to Old World Portuguese dining, and to little extras like warm baguettes accompanied by grassy, full-bodied olive oil from the Alentejo; delicately spiced chouriço sausage heated tableside on a flaming ceramic dish; a daily, market-price salt cod special (“because there are more ways to prepare cod than there are days in one year,” our waiter tells us); and the feather-light, cinnamon-laced egg custard tarts for which the Alfama district of Lisbon is famous. Throw in a dizzying wine list, and it’s no wonder, by the time you stumble home, you’re no longer quite sure which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

first course
Creme de cogumelos
(cream of mushroom soup with goat cheese, port, and crab)

second course
Amêijoas com chouriço
(clams in broth of Alvarinho and chouriço)

third course
Pargo assado
(baked snapper filet with mussels, ginger, and lime salsa)

fourth course
Peito de pato
(pan roasted breast of duck)

dessert
Sericaia
(egg custard tarts with crème anglaise and vanilla ice cream)

Manila clams in Alvarinho broth
Baked red snapper
Garlic-crusted, stone-grilled filet mignon
Cod fish gratin with shrimp
Sericaia
view full menu here

Those looking to practice their Portuguese with alluring strangers should plant themselves at a marble-topped high table near the bar. Once you’ve hit it off, head to one of the three two-tops in the alcove to continue the conversação in a more intimate setting.

Not surprisingly for a country with such a rich naval, trade, and colonial history, Portugal’s culinary influence is felt around the world. Among its more surprising contributions to other cuisines? The Indian curry dish vindaloo, which hails from the former Portuguese colony of Goa, comes from the Portuguese vinho de alho, or vinegar. And it was Portuguese missionaries who originally introduced the technique of tempura to Japan.

Mon–Thu 12 noon–11 PM; Fri 12 noon–12 midnight;
Sat 11 AM–12 midnight; Sun 11 AM–11 PM

$19 (piri-piri half chicken) to $32 (seafood stew)