After an afternoon of recovery and exploration of the pleasant little city of Caminha, it was time for a full post-hike celebratory dinner. One place we had found just inside the city walls on the north end of town particularly caught our eye: Canto do Lobo (“Wolf Song”).
Canto do Lobo is in a nice stone building next to a dead-end alley that has a staircase up onto the city wall. Most of Canto do Lobo’s seating is in this alley, which would have been pleasant on a less rainy day. Instead, we reserved an indoor table. Normally the interior is set up with a large service bar and a a bunch of smaller tables, but there was a large family gathering coming in that had most of the tables combined, so we found ourselves as one of the few smaller tables floating in the space next to the banquet configuration. But it was a nice, friendly atmosphere that I’m curious to know what it is like during a busy summer day instead of a cooler, wet fall day.
The menu at Canto do Lobo is basically Portuguese gastropub-style petiscos: smaller dishes shared by the table, a good selection of large main courses, and an impressive selection of both local beers and wines. As we were figuring out our main course, we started with some veggie croquettes, with chickpea, courgette, dried tomato, and spinach filling. These were shockingly good, with a nice “Falafel-ish” note of the filling combining with the precision execution of a Dutch-style croquette, and the result was particularly crisp on the outside and moist on the interior.
Next up was an order of fried cassava (‘yuca’ if you are doing South American cuisine). I always like a good fried cassava, but it’s a lot more fussy than just potatoes, since there’s a pretty narrow window between the cassave being slightly sticky and gummy, and falling apart because it is now overcooked. They got the texture here just right, so these were a great accompaniment to the local stout I was drinking.
For our first main course, I went for their “Steak of Autumn”: a sous-vide veal with flavored butter, chestnuts, and dried fruit. The steak itself was the nicely tender slab that you expect from a combination of sous-vide and veal, and they managed to get a particularly good crisp on it as well. The combination of an herbed butter, roasted chestnuts, and dried fruit gave this a really nice mix of fresh Autumn flavors while not burying the nice veal flavors.
Alongside the Steak of Autumn was a pan of potatoes that were described on the English menu as “punched potatoes”. We weren’t originally sure if that was a bad translation of “mashed” or if this meant “smashed potatoes”, but as they arrived at the table, it was clear they were the latter. These were really nicely executed, like a particularly good Cuban Tostones de Papa, nicely finished with some local large-grain sea salt.
Across the table, Dan and Sophie went for sous-vide pork ribs with hot oil and house-made mayo: like the veal steak, these were a really nice combination of tender, fall-of-the-bone ribs from the sous-vide, but finished with a good sear to crisp them up, and the combination of the hot pepper oil and mayo added a nice, bright counterpart to the excellent pork.
But dessert was where Canto do Lobo really shined, starting with an Abade de Priscos. This is a traditional Portuguese-style dessert that’s basically a very rich crème caramel (most recipes I’ve seen use bacon as an ingredient), served flambéed with brandy. A good, rice crème, a very nicely caramelized sauce, and everything tied up nicely with the fresh brandy flambée.
Rounding out our table’s dessert choicese was a chocolate tart. But this was a particularly good one, featuring a rich, stiff local cream and house-made vanilla ice cream.
Overall, we liked Canto do Lobo. The food and drink were excellent, the staff friendly, and despite the raucous family gathering at the big table, still a pleasing ambiance. I’d love to come back on a nice summer evening and dine at one of the outdoor tables.
