Frommer's Review
Until only a few years ago, the premises of this unusual restaurant had evolved into a slum, overloaded with impoverished families, some of them refugees from Portugal's overseas colonies in Africa. Even today, the Madragoa neighborhood that contains it intersperses areas of grinding poverty with antique pockets of breathtaking luxury, including the embassy of France, which lies within a few steps. Your taxi -- the best way to reach the place -- will deposit you within a warren of narrow, cobble-covered alleyways, and point you toward what was built in the 17th century as a convent. Today, three of the convent's largest rooms, and part of its arcade-ringed courtyard, contain the restaurant. Loaded with business workers at lunch, and with chattering friends and romantic couples at night, it seems to celebrate the Portuguese knack for survival, good food, and strong wines. At least part of your meal might arrive unannounced from a communal platter wielded by the restaurant's congenial owner, Antonio, who might dish a portion of duckliver stew, or perhaps scrambled eggs with exotic black trumpet mushrooms, onto your plate as an amuse-gueule before your meal. We enjoy the best-prepared John Dory in saffron sauce we've ever had in Portugal. Other options include filet of wild boar in port-wine sauce; escalopes of foie gras with muscatel; and at least four different preparations of steak.
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