the_lisbon_connection blog

Being a real fan of Jamie’s Italian style cuisine, and since it tends to be a tradition of mine going to his places wherever I go, I booked lunch at Jamie’s Italian in Covent Garden. However I messed up the places and we ended up at Union Jack. See two of his places are in Covent Garden but Union Jack is the one inside the actual market. When we got there the host said we had the wrong place because they didn’t take reservations. We however manage to get a table anyway and had a very pleasant lunch. I had a marguerita and my friends some sort of chicken curry specialty of Union Jack. Staff is nice and the buzz and location are simply fantastic. We ended up also being able to try Jamie’s Italian because we randomly found it a couple of days later. Also it will not let you down. Same style decoration and menu as any of the other Jamie Italians which however alike always have a personal touch of originality. Prices are as always average and the Chocolate Praline Pudding was do dye ...

Good morning everyone, Woke up today missing one of my favorite cities to stroll, shop, eat...and so much more.  The lovely Paris, always ready to be photographed! Here are a few shots of one of my recent trips there!  Pauline is a lovely and charming lady who at her very advanced age is still selling paintings in the street. Sad I know. Her  painting  of lavender flowers' jar is on my bedroom wall, in a matching purple frame. Macaroons are such a coquete pastrie, it makes sence that the famous  La Durée store matched it! This gorgeous lady is my mom, walking alongside the Seine on a pretty sunny day, near Pont Des Arts, the famous bridge with the lockers you see on the movies. The timeless Polidor - my favorite restaurant in Paris Remember Last Tango in Paris? For me,l one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris

Populi is a trendy place at Praça do Comércio and you can see why the moment you walk in. The décor and environment are young and cool. It has a nice crowd, with quite a few tourists, but not the crazy-lets-take-pictures-of-everything-folks either. Food was nice but it’s a bit pricy.

Restaurant week it’s this awesome initiative someone who clearly loves to eat, came up with. Basically for a week, a group of high priced well known restaurants agree to prepare a special three course menu for only 19+1€. The 1€ is given to charity. It’s a good opportunity to try those places you always wanted to go but price has prevented you to do so. So last night I went to La Trattoria, a Lisbon long time classic for Italian food. I had the best mushroom soup I have had in my life and then a delicious truffle pasta. Definitely a place to repeat!

As a pseudo sushi lover, trying new places is always great fun! You can find a lot of sushi places in both Lisbon and Cascais and not for a very high price! Sushi and Gin This place used to be known as Infusão. This new project of mixing sushi and the gin trend, has only started a few months ago. Still for me the best thing in this place is the sushi! There is a all you can eat menu for 20€ and the sushi has good quality and is delicious! The bad part? I loved the idea of Sushi and Gin as I love both sushi and gin but I dont think it's working out the best. The first and second time I went there there were only a couple of gin brands and no gin bar that could make you a good mixure! There is only one brand of wine so the alternative is also not so good! Again the sushi is great!!!

Capricciosa Cascais   is a nice spot right in the center of Cascais and above the beach. The food is good but not amazing. The best thing about this restaurant really is its great view of the ocean and the price, which is quite average. Our Sunday girly lunch was there this weekend, proof that even in winter sunny days you can take advantage of their terrace! I must say I have had a very bad experience at Capricciosa, a group bday dinner that went totally south and had me avoiding Capricciosa for quite a while. However I decided to give it another try, especially because of the restaurant’s incredible location. The past two times I went, the service was okay and the pizzas were quite good. The trick to enjoy even more Capricciosa is going for lunch (so you can enjoy the view better) and sit outside (inside it gets a bit too loud with the families that bring children). Overall the very busy staff is friendly. The simple red and white decoration is easy to enjoy,...

Pizza for the second time in a week, hum... you could mistake me for a pizza fan! This time Forno D’Oro was the place. It’s a recently open pizza place in Rua Artilharia I right in Lisbon Center. I heard a lot of talk about this white and gold décor restaurant, mostly known by its pizzas and of course it’s beautiful Golden Oven. The pizzas dominate their menu, with only a few choices of meat and pasta – this is fatal for me as I always intend to go for pasta. Anyway since that’s what they are known for I also had pizza. Their pizzas are quite good.   Small in size which compensate with a tall, fluffy dough. They do try to innovate by having some pizzas with Portuguese ingredients such as our several types of chorizos, Francesinha’s sauce and cod fish. I appreciate the effort but for me pizza is Italian so no weird adventures. We had a reservation so we got a place right away, but I figure it’s a no can do without one. Parking was a bit hard and, because it was Saturday, the...

Who knew there was so much to say about Pizza? Did you know there is an organization dedicated to protecting the genuine pizza Napolitana? That there are a special set of gastronomical rules and ingredients to do it? And a special badge for making Pizza Napolitana? … I didn’t but I learnt all about it last night! No, I did not jet to Napoli but the very kind chef Humberto Oliveira at Pizzeria Lambrettazzurra in the Center of Cascais, nicely told us all about it and about the harvests of the several Italian vinos like Chiante, while preparing an amazing pizza meal. The place is a nice little hidden spot in Cascais. With a simple pizzeria decor and nice touch of traditional italian music playing in the background (resembling the Godfather Sicilia scenes), this place will transport you to Italy while you taste the marvelous set of Italian cheeses for starters, a great wine, and later on a true Napolitana pizza with the ingredients of your choice. Chef Humberto is super friendly and ...

One of the funniest things about living in Portugal are trendy waves we sometimes have. For a brief period of time, a certain type of food, drink or restaurant seems to be extremely trendy. New places open up exploring the idea in the most original ways, and they go on doing well until the trend is replaced for another one! People go bananas for whatever is trendy! Lately, we have had the cupcakes trend, the macaroons trend, the gin and the hamburger trends (both still active) – and someone even already came up with the idea of joining these two trends together! Hamburgueria de Bairro is one of the places that is exploring the hamburger trend and, has worked out so well it has already become a chain.   Last week we went to try the one in Cascais, I had already been to another one in Príncipe Real. Both my experiences were quite nice! The menu is made up of several hamburgers choices, including a chicken and a veggie one! The bread resembling brioche is always super fre...

Comme Ça  – loved this place! The food, the decoration, the crowd, the waiters and the live music which made our dinner so pleasant. The concept is fun, all dishes cost 12€ served with potatoes in the oven and a mixed salad and it’s enough for two people to share. We had the rosbife in a mushroom soup and the little stakes with herbs sauce, all of it delicious! Ohh and a nice bottle of João Pires (Portuguese white wine which has a little taste of moscatel, a sweet Portuguese liquor!)