On our second night (I skipped lunch), four of us traveled to Porches to eat at Ocean. This is at the top (maybe #2) on the list of Portuguese restaurants that @Maribel had posted, and it has 2 Michelin stars (not usually a draw for me). It was for sure the blow out meal of my trip (my life?), and I have never had anything like it. We took taxis there and back, and even if I was an excellent driver, could not have driven after all the wine we enjoyed. I am going to take some care in recommending this, as it was extremely expensive, but it was an experience I will always remember, and I think all of my dinner companions agree.
A golf cart picked us up at the entrance to the hotel where the restaurant is based and took us to the restaurant. We walked in, and I can only say that first moment, upon entering was breathtaking. It is an extraordinary setting, open in large measure to the outside. I think fewer than 10 tables, and they do 30 covers a night. (When I told my restaurant manager son this, he said, “30 covers…Jeez…Last night we did 407 covers!”) This was the view from our table when we arrived about 7:30 p.m.:
The chef chooses a different area of the world to base his menu on each year, and this year, he traveled to Asia. This was the menu:
Each dish (except one that we all were skeptical of) was beautifully rendered, prepared, served and tasted as good or better than they looked. The service was both friendly and the most professionally orchestrated, seamless production any of us had ever experienced (and I was with professional restaurant people). And so fun. For example, that first dish (the plane was delayed) played with the the idea of the ubiquitous Portuguese pastry: Pasteis de Nata (custard tart). He filled the pastry cup with a goose liver custard flavored with mango and a hint of cinnamon. Flavor explosion that worked on every level. (It even smelled delicious.)
The array of beautiful unusual plates was completely undone by the whimsy and creativity of an extraordinary chef (some examples follow):
(An aside: I am learning that "snacks"play an important part in Portuguese cooking. And here I was particularly taken by the fan wasabi ice cream sandwiches on this plate.)
Mahjong anyone? Dramatic presentation of bread and butter service (definitely the best bread by far I have had so far in Portugal). The interior of the butter was laced with an aged soy sauce.
To say that there is crab salad under that roe does nothing to describe the buttery yuminess of the dish.
Mackeral two ways, here with ice cream masquerading as almonds.
And here stuffing pastry straws, underneath referencing the kind of canned fish that Portugal is famous for.
Tempura of langoustine in a yuzu sauce.
Scarlet prawns of some ethereal kind.
Something with a sesame cookie at the bottom…I don’t know but my mouth was happy, even if my soul went to this devil!
And of course a fortune cookie with an edible fortune.
But that’s not all, petit fours:
Not sure what it was (except delicious) and we got to lick the yellow part out of the ingenious cubed “plate.”
So, the wines (by the end all of my pictures got very wobbly, so you are missing some courses, but you have enough to get the idea)…We drank all Portuguese wines from a wine list that was huge (I left this choice to my betters at the table), rather than either of the pairings (from which I could not have recovered in a day). Three of us started with a glass of rosé bubbly (the only sour drink note was for our gentleman at the table a now-retired star bartender who ordered an Americano and got something that wasn’t. He was a great sport about it, and it was all uphill from there for him). For the rest of us, we were immediately seduced:
We drank two different whites, first this:
Then this:
Then a red with the quail:
Three of us had a glass of port with dessert and the other a malvasia dessert wine:
All of the wines were interesting, complex, truly delicious. I will let my traveling H.O. friend speak more about her expertise here. I will say this is a once in a lifetime experience, not for everyone, alas, but just a fantastic experience.
