Soul Searching at Alma // Lisbon, Portugal
When we decided we were headed to Lisbon for two weeks, the first thing I did was look for must-make restaurant bookings. Alma came up time and time again, as a 2 Michelin-starred and 50 Best Discovery restaurant.
We found the restaurant close to where we were staying, hidden behind a large green door, contrasted against the peach walls of the street.
Chef Henrique Sá Pessoa gained his first star with Alma in 2016, and his second in 2019. The Michelin Guide has a great piece on it here. Chef Passoa considers Alma his “soul-searching” project (the word alma is Portuguese for “soul”), and calls it a "tangible reflection of his spiritual being".
Alma has two tasting menus — Alma, the chef’s classics, and Costa a Costa (Coast to Coast), a fish and seafood tasting menu — and allows your party to choose different ones, which I really appreciate. They also have an a la carte option, which is what we chose to do, to sample a bit from each of the two menus.
Wine
To start, the wine was amazing. We asked for something Portuguese that would surprise us, as we drink a lot of wine in Napa and elsewhere. The sommelier did not disappoint. He described the Vadio Brut as being gastronomic, with small bubbles, and made of 7 different vintages. It was a fantastic start to the meal.
Surprises
Throughout the meal there were a number of surprises, so if you don’t want to have these ruined, you might want to skip reading this altogether. Alternatively, you can skip the two sections titled “Surprises.” In any case, this is a spoiler alert.
Crisp & Tartlet on an Azulejo
Portugal is well known for their azulejos, or ceramic tiles, which can be seen throughout Lisbon. Presenting the opening starter on these was such a beautiful ode to the history of this city, and it was even more special that the tiles they use are different colors, making each person’s plate unique.
The starters themselves were also fantastic. The tartlet had such a surprising burst of flavor, and the crisp reminded me of a shrimp chip, but much thinner, and it didn’t attach to your tongue (IYKYK).
Red Pepper Crisps & Red Pepper Fries
While I appreciate a chef trying to experiment using just one ingredient, I’m not sure this really worked. The dried red pepper crisps were decent, though similar to the one that came before and with less texture variety.
The red pepper fries were a fairly wimpy texture once you bit in past the coating (like lightly boiled red peppers), and the red pepper dip was good, but it felt like a lot of bell pepper.
Entrees
Scarlett Shrimp, açorda, seaweed
The scarlett shrimp was probably the best thing we ate that day. The shrimp were so flavorful, and buttery soft.
Onion Broth, monkfish, mussels, caviar
This broth, poured at the table, was absolutely delicious, and we pretty much wiped the plate clean. Neither of us are huge fans of mussels, but they were well cooked, and the monkfish was the star. Perfectly seasoned and well-balanced.
Bread
Having sat through several fine dining experiences in the last few weeks, the quality, quantity, and variety of bread varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant.
At Alma, we were served a mid-sized loaf of thick-crusted sourdough. Warm. And this is very key — it was served warm. All bread should be served this way.
It was accompanied by a whipped, smoked butter, topped with salt flakes (delicious), and olive oil from 3 different types of olives (good, but lacked bite).
Mains
Turbot, ceps, parsley root and black truffle
Taken altogether, the bites of this dish were very good. The turbot was perfectly flakey, and the truffle aroma punched through. It was slightly bland in flavor, though, especially compared to the pork cheeks.
Iberian pork cheeks, turnip, plum chutney
These Iberian pork cheeks were also perfectly cooked, with a very flavorful plum chutney, spooned out of the saucepan tableside. Together with the beet and puffs, dreamy bites were had. It tasted, however, like food I had eaten before, so while comforting, wasn’t particularly novel.
Dessert
Niepoort Port 1997
In general, we tend to not drink very much with food. However, Lisbon is well known for its port, so we had to order some port wine to accompany our dessert. It was 100% the right call.
Pumpkin, oat, walnut
It seems that a number of Portuguese desserts are made with pumpkin, which was surprising to us. But it was the dessert of the Alma tasting menu, and I really like pumpkin, so we went for it.
Unfortunately, we didn’t find the dessert to our liking. The jellies were very good, and the dish was not overly sweet, with savory notes that really balanced it, but I had one bite I actively disliked, and M didn’t like the dish much at all.
Chocolate “Bomb” salted caramel, hazelnut sorbet
This dessert was definitely better. However, while beautiful and a good chocolate dish if you like chocolate, it wasn’t the best chocolate dessert I had ever had, nor was it particularly creative. The textures were fairly one dimensional (various mouse-like textures) with the exception of a few roasted hazelnuts and a piece of crispy salted caramel. The chocolate shell that encased the bomb was similar to a mouse in texture, which was nice that it didn’t cut your mouth, but was also a missed opportunity to add some crunch.
Surprises p2
The surprises that they presented at the end of the meal was truly a surprise! It was very nice to get some truffles to wrap up the meal. However, only the first (green) one was good. The pasteis da nata truffle was very cold (almost icy) in the mouth, and the chocolate truffle was also much colder than room temp.
Service
The service here was very good, though started slacking as the restaurant got busier. Every drop & crumb was wiped from our table, but for the latter part of the meal, M sat with an empty water glass. Overall, I’d say it was 9/10 service.
Final Thoughts
While the food here is good and somewhat imaginative, I’m not sure it’s worth the fairly hefty price tag (ordering a la carte didn’t save us much compared to both getting tasting menus), especially when Belcanto is on the other side of the same block. If you’re curious about Chef Pessoa’s food, you can also try another one of his restaurants, Henrique Sá Pessoa, at Timeout Market.
To conclude, we’d say food was 8/10, ambience was 8/10, service was 9/10, and value for money was 6/10.
