Casa de Chá da Boa Nova () – Leça da Palmeira, Portugal

During our last trip to Portugal, we got to try two fine dining restaurants, the first being Rui Paula’s Casa de Chá da Boa Nova. The restaurant is located around 30-minute drive from the center of Porto in Leça da Palmeira,. The building was built on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic ocean and has been classified as Portugal’s national monument. Wanting to take advantage of the view of the ocean, we decided to go to Casa de Chá da Boa Nova for lunch.

We arrived early for our 1 pm reservation and decided to walk around the area to take in the view. While it was raining that day, there was no denying the spectacular ocean view. As we were walking up the steps of the restaurant, we were greeted warmly by the host who took our coats and walked us to our table. I requested to be seated by the window when I made the reservation. They mentioned there’s no guarantee, but we were indeed sat right next to the big window overlooking the ocean. For lunch, we had quite a few options to choose, from a la carte to the full 21-course tasting menu. We opted for the full tasting of 21 “Takes” and sparkling wines to start our meal. We were then presented with a picture of the navigator, Infante D. Henrique, and then our waiter lit up the picture to reveal a story. Our journey began, and I knew I’d be in for quite a meal.

The first four takes were small bites meant to eat with your hand. For one course of three takes, the team brought out a map of countries that each bite was influenced by. We were then instructed to put together the puzzle after each bite. While playing the game, the bread was made table side. This reminded me of the bread course at Narisawa. However, here the bread was served with butter and shaved tuna and lemon instead of the moss butter at Narisawa. It would be too much to comment on each fo the 20+ courses. I’ll highlight a few that stood out to us. Take 5 of octopus and cucumber, octopus was perfectly cooked and paired well with refreshing cucumber mousse, a combination I didn’t expect to work as well as it did. Take 6 of oyster and tuna is chef Paula’s signature dish and was well done. Take 11 of Roja Prawn, Broccoli, and Kaffir lime reminded me of the taste of Southeast Asia, which I've always enjoyed. Take 14 of Crawfish, Wagyu, and Korean broth was an homage to Korean Kimchi stew. This was the only course with meat in it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor. All three dessert courses incorporated unique combinations of ingredients and were all delicious. However, a few courses missed the mark for me. The Squid “Chanel” looked pretty, but I didn’t care too much for the flavor. Main courses of Dover sole and John Dory were cooked well but quite boring in comparison to other courses. The full courses are below:

Welcoming Bite
Take I Charcoal/Clam
Take II Corn/Seafood
Take III Cuttlefish/Confit potatoes
Take IV Charru mussel/ Tapioca
Take V Octopus/Sweet cucumber
Take VI Amberjack/Radish/Jalapeno
Take VII Oyster/Tuna
Take VIII Scallop/Crab
Take IX Rock lobster/Codium
Take X Sea bass in its habit
Take XI Roja prawn/Broccoli/Kaffir lime
Take XII Scarlet shrimp/Salsafi
Take XIII Lobster/Pineapple
Take XIV Crawfish/Korean Soup
Take XV Dover sole/Asparagus/Meuniere
Take XVI Squid “Chanel”
Take XVII John Dory/Razor clam/Quinoa
Take XVIII Deja Vu
Take XIX Late harvest
Take XX From Algarve with love
Take XXI Chocolate/Corn/Sweet potato
Petit Four

Throughout the meal, Chef Paula came by a few times to ask how the meal’s been going. He was walking around the restaurant, interacting with all guests. Unlike a few other restaurants, the theatric element of the meal wasn’t too much, which I appreciated.

For the meal we decided to get a nice bottle of Portuguese wine to pair with the food. The somm asked what we usually like to drink. I let him know while we tend to drink a lot of red Burgundy, I think the I’d like to try white wine since it’s very seafood heavy. He insisted us trying to pair red with the meal, as we should be drinking whatever we want. Fair enough. To finish, we went for the 30-year Messias port.

The service was good throughout the meal, with minor slip ups. For instance, napkin wasn’t changed out or folded after a guest left for the restroom, something you’d expect at two-star level. Overall, however, the service team was personable and fun. We spoke to a few people from the service team about our recent trip to Japan, from restaurant recommendations to vintage watches.

With one seating for lunch, we were pretty much invited to enjoy our time for as long as we wanted. The meal ended up being close to four and a half hour long. Casa de Chá da Boa Nova is a restaurant that gives you a sense of place. While not every dishes would blow you away, I’d recommend anyone visting Porto to put this on the list. We’d certainly come back just for the view alone the next time we are back in Porto.