Terroir (Lisbon)

[honkman]

It doesn’t happen often that you have a Michelin-level restaurant kitchen as your “personal” chef but it happened to us at Terroir https://www.terroirrestaurante.com/ in Lisbon. Originally they had many reservations but due to the weather and other factors all of them cancelled throughout the day and when we showed up at Terroir it turned out that we were the remaining last reservation. Huge respect and kudos to everybody at Terroir that they gave us the full treatment of the full tasting menu without rushing, perfect service, great wine pairing of only Portuguese wines and wonderful, creative, modern Portuguese cuisine - a truly unforgettable night at Michelin star level

Taco with prawns and kimchi mayo

Tartlets with horse mackerel and tomato foam

Beef tartare in beetroot basket

Bread with olive oil, salt and muxama

Broccoli with teriyaki sauce, cured egg yolk, hollandaise foam and caramelized onions

Celery puree, cuttlefish, cuttlefish sauce

Duck ham, fennel salad, fennel puree, carrot, chimichurri sauce

Red prawn, pumpkin spaghetti, pumpkin puree and truffle foam

Hake, vegetables, potato, garlic sauce

Cod, chorizo and bean stew with cornbread

Veal cheek, cauliflower, vin rouge

Chocolate cake, tonka bean and coffee

Cardamom cake, noisette ice, pear and honey sauce

Mignardises

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

The meal looks terrific and kudos to the restaurant team for pulling out all the stops for you. But I am curious as to these “weather and other factors”. Can you elaborate? When did this happen?

[honkman]

They told us that sometimes during the week if the weather turns out not too hot and not too cold that suddenly people cancel restaurant reservations and prefer going to the beach in the evening. There was also a soccer game at the World Club Championships running with Benfica playing. I often don’t like using Tock for tasting menus in the US but in situations like that I can understand restaurants using it to get some certainties in the planning

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

So this was yesterday? Amazing. But, yes, it was the coolest day anticipated for the next ten days or more, but sunny enough to go to the beach. I am not impressed with this as a reason to cancel, though. People need to have some consideration. Terroir is Michelin-noted but not starred or with a Bib Gourmand. I wonder if the starred restaurants in town have this problem. (I don’t care about these distinctions, what matters is what is on one’s plate.)

I noticed you were treated to cuttlefish in its ink, one of my favourites, ostensibly traditional (well, not the preparation you had) but increasingly difficult to find in Lisboa for some reason (in contrast to Venice, where it is everywhere, but with varying levels of competence in preparation). Too rough on dishes and napkins? I remember a server in Venice grandly bringing an armful of cloth napkins and tying them around the necks of our family of four.

[Maribel]

I remember a restaurant owner on the Asturian coast on the hills atop Cudillero offering bibs and also spot remover to diners ordering cuttlefish in its own ink. I needed some!

But I love cuttlefish in its own ink (calamares en su tinta), spots be damned, and it’s readily available here on the Cantabrian coast, thank goodness!