Ceu Na Boca

Perto do meu local de trabalho, vim com colegas por sugestão de um deles. Foi-me vendido como sendo um restaurante típico português, com grandes doses, comida caseira e bons preços.
E realmente é mesmo isso. A comida é caseira - qualquer um dos pratos podia ter sido feito em casa pela nossa avó ou mãe. A meia dose é suficiente para uma pessoa, o prato vem bem cheio, e o preço é o praticado em restaurantes deste género.
Em relação aos pratos, pedimos salmão grelhado, borrego assado e carne de porco à portuguesa, este último a minha escolha. A carne estava bem temperada, desfazia-se mas estava ligeiramente seca. O arroz e as batatas fritas estavam óptimas.
Uma das coisas que me fez vir também a este restante foi estar escrito na ementa "mousse de chocolate caseira". A palavra "caseira" à frente de "mousse de chocolate" ganhar sempre o meu coração. E esta não desiludiu. Era óptima! Tão óptima, que aparecerem pessoas ao balcão só para a comer.
Em relação ao atendimento, querem típico português? Aqui há! Simpatia e piadas à pai. Vale sempre a pena!
Irei voltar noutra ocasião do género. Recomendo!

Entre visitar a embaixada do meu país em Restelo e voltar a trabalhar o estômago pediu a minha atenção. Não conheço muito bem os restaurantes de Belém mas aquele dia não queria aproximar-me demasiado às esplanadas turísticas, queria comer algo simples, português e rápido. Entrei no Céu na Boca e fiquei porque tinham coelho frito. Pedi meia dose só com salada, sem batata frita. O prato chegou à mesa num piscar de olho. Tinha miúdos dentro e um sabor delicado e carne macia, nada seca. Os pratos da ementa eram simples, rolo de carne, pescada cozida, frango assado, comida verdadeiramente caseira. Coisa rara nas tascas e nos restaurantes em PT, tinham sal e pimenta na mesa e ainda bem, porque eu adoro pimenta e normalmente faz-me falta a possibilidade de usar esta especiaria que tanto gosto, sobretudo em saladas com tomate.

Seeing as Belém is one of Lisbon's most touristy areas, realising that there are very few restaurants aside from the ones close to the Monastery was quite a shock. We stumbled across Céu Na Boca as we made way back from the Tower, close to which we'd only found a couple blatantly overpriced places; at that point, we were in dire need of food and rest, and couldn't bear the thought of walking all the way to the main road again, so we just walked into the first place that seemed to offer a reasonably priced selection.

The restaurant itself is cosy and clean, although quite cramped at busy times. It's clearly family-owned, and at the time of our visit, only two people (probably the owners themselves, husband and wife) were manning the kitchen and tables. Both were heartwarmingly friendly and polite, although neither of them spoke good English, which became an issue when we realised that the menu was entirely written in Portuguese. Between our very basic knowledge of the language (enough to tell beef, lamb and chicken apart on a menu!), and haphazard nods and signs, we managed to understand what was on offer and get our orders across, but I'd lie if I said it wasn't a challenge.

Both my partner and I ordered piri-piri chicken, which took quite a while to land on our tables, as the restaurant was packed and all dishes were made to order. As I'd noticed the chicken was being served with salad, which I'm not a massive fan of, I asked for it to be swapped with rice; although the waiter agreed to it, my request got completely lost in the pile of orders he had to cope with on his own. He was very apologetic about the mistake, and took my plate back, but got confused again, and came back with salted cod instead of chicken. At that point he looked genuinely upset, while I was more than willing to cut him some slack - there's never a good reason to make a catering worker's life even harder.

A few more minutes later, my chicken with rice finally came - and what a relief that was. Not only did it wipe my hunger away: it was absolutely excellent. Knowing it had been cooked on the premises, and finding out it was tender, juicy and generously seasoned with spicy sauce, made me appreciative about the wait, rather than annoyed. It was completely another league from the bland, dry chicken I'd previously had in a more popular Central Lisbon restaurant, and so were the chips on the side, fried so lightly I could have tricked myself into thinking they were oven baked. Yet more evidence that traditional Portuguese cooking is worth exploring in all its variants.