Alfama-born chef who traded his restaurant for the neighbourhood
📍 Born and based in Lisbon, Portugal
Mateus ran a twenty-cover restaurant in Alfama for nine years before deciding the neighbourhood itself was the better dining room. Now he walks small groups between the kitchens he grew up eating in — his aunt’s, his old dishwasher’s, the tasca that still keeps his table.
He buys fish at the docks at sunrise twice a week and takes guests along, cooking what they choose together in a borrowed kitchen with the door open to the street.
Nothing on his routes has a sign in English. That’s the point.
“A tasca with a queue of tourists is already gone. I take you where the queue is neighbours.”
🍜 Food & Drink 
Led by Mateus · alfama-born chef who traded his restaurant for the neighbourhood 
🍜 Food & Drink Led by Mateus · alfama-born chef who traded his restaurant for the neighbourhood Six stops, every one a place we’d never have entered alone, every one where someone hugged Mateus. The green wine at stop three ruined all other green wine.
The sunrise fish market alone is worth it. Watching him argue prices in Portuguese at 6am is theatre.
Wonderful food and stories. Pace yourself — the portions are real.