If you go to Lisbon, be sure to weave one of chef Olivier da Costa's four restaurants into your holiday experience. We tried one out of the four and frankly you can be assured of a gastronomically delightful experience.
I’ve never met the 42-year-old chef Olivier da Costa, but I hear he is a bon vivant, a bit of a party animal, and a larger than life personality. And a salubrious celebrity chef in Portugal.
What I can say for sure is that this serial restaurateur has managed to stamp his personality with a quartet of restaurants in Lisbon, the country’s capital. So, hoping a little of his exuberance would rub off, I decided to go on an expedition of his much talked about gastronomy while I was in town.
I got the opportunity to dine at three of his four restaurants over a long weekend. Yakuza First Floor, Avenida and Guilty.
The Olivier da Costa restaurant experience in Lisbon - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1gr5Op-IzBRNEaSS3N1ld5s3IydNdulUF
He also has K.O.B. Steakhouse but that was was fully booked during my visit. Frustratingly, no string pulling could get me a table at this cosy, dimly-lit meat restaurant that, Olivier says, serves “the best mature meat in the world” – if you get to dine there do let me know.
1: Guilty Burger
Out of the four offerings, Guilty is the most casual and a pleasantly relaxed affair “with a twist” – so says the tag line on the logo of the restaurant door.
Leather sofas, simple wood tables, open brick walls, tanned floor tiles, it all sets the scene for a lavish amount of food but not necessarily lavish food. That’s available in another of his restaurants.
Here it’s about burgers (around 10 including a French one which is a fois gras escalope), pizzas, pastas, salads milkshakes and cocktails.
If you have a huge appetite you may like the super size burger with 500 grams of meat and a side order. It costs 50 euros, but if you can eat it within 60 minutes, you don’t have to pay.
Beef Carpaccio
Sure, I was hungry but instead started with beef carpaccio (Octopus Carpaccio is available too) followed by the American (200gr) burger which comes with lettuce, tomato, pickles, confit onion, cheddar cheese and cocktail sauce burger and chips. It was a sublimely juicy burger and cooked medium rare as requested with all the trimmings.
I went all the way with a milkshake and a glass of his house white wine. For desert it was a chocolate cake and ice cream. My partner opted for prawn pasta, a pizza (that is baked in an open fire) which had a divinely thin crust Blanco truffle pizza. Followed by a nuttela pizza – yes really.
Nutella Pizza
Is that something we should feel guilty about? Well perhaps just a bit.
Tip: If you are on a stags and hen do ask for a cocktail to share. It’s served in a huge cocktail glass and comes with several straws.