Canalha https://www.paradigma.pt/venues/canalha is a relative “newcomer” in Lisbon but gained already quite some attention with a neighborhood restaurant feel and very well executed small plates/tapas-style cuisine. Wonderful relaxed dinner.
Canalha was easily our favorite of the restaurants we hit up in Lisbon (did a la carte at Prado and wasn’t super impressed; also went to Cervejaria Ramiro).
Got recommended a whole sole fish (most expensive on the blackboard of daily catches, which made us nervous that the server was just upselling us for a moment), it was indeed the best whole grilled fish we ever had! Also ordered the empanada and grilled vegetables, both great as well.
We are relatively short in Lisboa and have been at Black Pavilion and Canalha and just came back from Terroir which was incredible. We will drive to Manteigas tomorrow but will have one more dinner in Lisboa in two weeks at our last night before flying back at Zun Zum
I would describe them as relatively close to “classic” Portuguese flavors with the exception of the potato salad which had a hint of tuna flavor in the background (but I am not 100% sure, it could also have been a unusual spice combination) and the roasted peach dessert which had a quite intense (but not unnatural) pistachio gelato and a bruleed sabayon which had also a spice flavor I couldn’t pinpoint
Your potato salad looks like salada russa (“Russian salad”, ensaladilla rusa in Spain) or a close variant of it. It definitely has tuna in it, and also Dijon mustard. It’s not as ubiquitous as in Spain, and it’s not “classic” in the sense that it’s only about 150 years old, but it’s definitely seen around Portugal.
Interesting,
The photo looks a lot to me like the Spanish version of ensaladilla rusa, since it had a tuna flavor to it. I’m wondering what the separate Russian salad on the menu was like…
