Our main vacation this year was a two-week trip to Portugal, centering on a hike from Povoa de Varzim to Caminha along the Caminho Português da Costa. While our previous trip to Portugal was staged through Porto, between cheaper fares and sitting on a giant American Airlines credit from some weather-related delays back in March, we ended up booking through Lisbon and then taking the train over to Porto the next day to rendezvous with my brother and sister-in-law. This gave us a nice day of air travel recovery while exploring some of the lesser-traveled parts of Lisbon, including the excellent aquarium. Lisbon is a very popular and crowded tourist destination these days, so when it came time for dinner, I decided this would be a good opportunity to eschew the more popular parts of Lisbon (Alfama, Baixa, and Chiado), so I found a nice little family restaurant in the Lapa district west of downtown, Restaurante Raízes.
The Lapa district sits between Lisbon’s downtown area and the Ajuda and Belém districts at the mouth of the Tagus River, and is just far enough from the various public transit options (about a 15 minute walk from the Metro, and a 5 minute walk from the tram) that the neighborhood is quiet. Overlooking a simple fountain park, Chafariz das Janelas Verdes, Raízes is cozy little restaurant that also spills out onto the terrace outside during the warmer months. Inside, there are two dining rooms, both on the smaller side, with our table being situated right at the front window. The place was popular but not overly busy, primarily with local residents, so I’m glad I booked a reservation.
Raízes (the name means “Roots”) focuses entirely on traditional Portuguese food, and we decided to start off our meal with one of the Portuguese classics that we enjoyed on our previous trip to Portugal: caldo verde. The version at Raízes was quite good: a nice potato-based soup that had been nicely strained to be extremely smooth and silky, some nice bold seared chouriço, and instead of the more usual kale, this version primarily used spinach instead. A nice, hearty soup, and a great start to the meal.
Next up in our appetizers was a selection of different chouriços, including a soft chicken-and-pork one (left), a traditional (and very spicy one), a black morcella-like one that had a deliciously-cured fat band in it, and one with walnuts. This was a really nice cross-section of different takes on the same overall sausage concept, and some great flavors, with both of us really enjoying the texture and flavor of the morcella-like one.
For my main course, I did a grilled Iberico pork chop. Served up as a thinner chop with a very nice, delicate sear on it, over a bed of puréed sweet potato and sour cabbage, this was a great dish. The key to a good Iberico pork dish is to really work the layers of delicious fat without them breaking down, and this executed it perfectly, with the fat maintaining a luscious consistency while melting just enough to crisp up and add flavor to the potato and cabbage. This remains one of the more memorable dishes of the trip, and was quite affordable.
Carol, meanwhile, went for another Portuguese classic: octopus. A nice roasted octopus, served over a bed of rustic potatoes, spinach, and peppers, this was a very well-executed dish. The octopus was cooked to the perfect level, being tender while not being chewy, and having just enough of a crisp to it. With just enough garlic to give this a nice savory flavor, this was a very enjoyable dish.
While I often skip dessert, Raízes had some interesting options on their menu, so we both indulged. First up was Carol’s order of a flan. A very nicely executed flan flavored with pennyroyal. A cousin to mint, this is another of those flavors you don’t get in American cuisine, because pennyroyal at larger concentrations is a liver toxin and banned by the FDA (similar to the ban on tonka beans), so this was a bit of a unique combination of mint-like flavors that I’m not likely to experience back home. The flan itself was quite nicely done as well, with a nice firm-but-smooth texture.
Myself, I went for a very nice cake of almond and gila (a Portuguese squash, also known as a chilacayote, that has a similar flavor and texture to a pumpkin), topped with a very nice pistachio gelado. Again, a nice, unique combination of flavors, not overly sweet, and giving a lot of the more savory and nutty dessert flavors that I love.
Overall, we adored Raízes. A nice, friendly, family-owned restaurant in one of Lisbon’s quieter neighborhoods, they did a great job with both an array of Portuguese classics, and using a lot of flavors and ingredients uncommon in American dining. I’d definitely come back on a future trip.
