Almeja (Porto)

[honkman]

Our first restaurant in Porto, Almeja https://www.almejaporto.com/ , is well known for its contemporary take on Portuguese cuisine with relaxed, yet focused service. We went for their tasting menu covering the regular and vegetarian ones. The dishes were tasty, sometimes playful takes on familiar flavors and memories. The service was really engaging and struck the right balance between explaining the dishes but also simply having a nice discussion - overall highly recommended

Olives, anchovies (or apple gelee for veg), vermouth sorbet

Brioche, crab, caviar (or goat cheese, basil, pine nuts, seaweed caviar for veg)

Goat cheese, banana, honey, truffle

Pig’s head terrine, toast, escabeche, apple

Zucchini, toast, escabeche, apple

Bread, fermented butter, olive oil

Salmorejo, tomato, kimchi, cucumber

Eggplant, garlic, harissa, cilantro, cereals

Cuscos, spinach, asparagus, cheese, peanuts

Gnocchi, green beans, egg, parsley

Croaker, stew, roots, cornbread

Mushrooms, plums

Pork, plums, blood sausages, mushrooms

Sweet curry, coconut, mango, lime

Chocolate, cherries

[Maribel]

We’ve also enjoyed lunch Almeja in Porto after a visit to the Mercado do Bolhão . And it´s pleasantly located above the crowds. Nice photos!

[Monchique (Jean Ferran)]

I have not been to Almeja yet, but the mixture of flavours in every dish looks to me like you would loose the taste of all the ingredients in this big mishmash. I adore “cabeça de xara” (the pig’s head terrine) but it is self sufficient with a slice of good bread. Why add escabeche (?) or apples on top, unless you want to hide the taste? I will probably try the restaurant soon, but not sure it’s my cup of tea…

[Maribel]

Why add escabeche? Good question.

In Madrid the escabeches are the current trend (“los escabeches ganan peso”), at Brutalista, Taberna Verdejo, Tres por Cuatro, El Lince, etc. Madrid chefs currently seem to love their escabeches.

[honkman]

@Monchique

but the mixture of flavours in every dish looks to me like you would loose the taste of all the ingredients in this big mishmash

This kind of mix of flavors and textures is what we are looking in good restaurants and what attracted us also to Almeja. Good chefs, and that was the case at Almeja, in our opinion are able to combine these different “directions” in a single dish and create something unique. It is fine to have dishes which are simpler, but to be honest, these are dishes one might create relatively easy at home. Part of the reasons for us going out to restaurants is experiencing unique flavor combination/technique etc which can’t be easily created at home (obviously everybody has different preferences and reasons to go to restaurants) - in the case of the headcheese, the apple and escabeche added texture but also different levels of acidity. The headcheese with bread alone would have been good but also nothing special/unique

[Monchique (Jean Ferran)]

I take your point, fortunately everybody has his own taste. What I look for is the quality of the base product. For me the best dish - and very difficult to reproduce at home- would be a filet of fish picked from the boat by the Chef at 6am that morning and served at lunch time, with a delicate sauce to let the product shine. Dieter Koshina at Vila Joya is a specialist of this… But as I said, all tastes are in nature. Have you had a proper “Cabeça de Xara”? You should try it, it can be something very unique on it’s own if properly prepared (I am not talking of the supermarket type, but what you get by chance in small restaurants in the Alentejo). It traditionally include as spices mustard seeds, cloves, cumin, zest of lemon and sage… You could not really taste any of this under an escabeche :o)) I read your reviews with great interest, thank you fro posting them!

[honkman]

@Monchique

Have you had a proper “Cabeça de Xara”?

Being originally from Germany I had many, many different variations of headcheese throughout the years - when I grew up we had also many independent butchers which made fantastic headcheese which rivals any I have eaten in any restaurants anywhere. To be honest, it is something I rarely pick a la carte in restaurants as it is often disappointing compared to your memories when you ate it growing up