Tasca da Esquina

The service was slow but the food was very, very good. This is not really a tasca, it is a gourmet restaurant. Be forewarned, it is also not priced like a tasca.

This place is quite fantastic!
I was brought here by a local who I came to visit in Lisboa. We had a late reservation, around 10pm, and I was glad to know that they accepted such late reservations because we had had a very long day touring many different parts of Lisboa.
We decided to try the chef’s tasting menu option so that we could try more of a variety of dishes. This was a great way to go! Especially since they sent us different appetizers and entrees, so we were able to share food to experience all of the different flavors. The food is more nouveau cuisine, rather than traditional Portuguese dishes. However, there was not one dish we tried that we did not like.
The local I was with ordered the wine. There are so many amazing wines in Portugal that it is tough to go wrong with anything you choose.
The dessert was my favorite. It was similar to a flan or custard in texture, but had a passion fruit flavor, & passion fruit happens to be my most favorite fruit!
There was not anything unique about the ambiance or location at all (hence, one less star), yet overall it was a wonderful experience. It is a little spendy compared to other places I tried, but well worth it.

Quando quero refeições e petiscos do mais tradicional possível, costumo ir à Tasca da Esquina. Lá encontro um pouco de tudo o que posso imaginar e outras coisas que nem consigo imaginar comer. Sim, sou um pouco conservador relativamente a alguns pratos. Nunca me imaginei, por exemplo, a experimentar o rabo de porco. Nem vou fazê-​lo. Mas encontro muitos outros pratos, menos excêntricos e de partes do animal que mais aprecio, que gosto muito nesta tasca. Os pratos de peixe costumam ser muito bons e os bifes são do melhor que se encontra na zona. E depois há outros petiscos mais sazonais mas que sabem sempre bem.
O espaço é todo ele tradicional mas não se deixe enganar pelo termo ‘tasca’. Parece uma tasca mas não tem preços de uma verdadeira tasca. Não é, contudo, caro.

A mim os preços não permitem ir muitas vezes, mas é um ótimo lugar para aproveitar para ir numa ocasião especial — fui lá recentemente jantar com a minha namorada, para celebrar 6 meses de namoro! Abrimos a refeição com pão com azeite acompanhado de queijo da Serra para dividir, e continuámos com um delicioso bife do lombo «à casa», preparado pela equipa liderada pelo conceituado chef Victor Sobral. A sobremesa deixámos para um gelado noutro sítio, mas não deixámos de acompanhar a nossa refeição com um excelente vinho tinto. Aconselho sem qualquer dúvida!

O nome faz lembrar um espaço escuro e nada convidativo, mas a tasca de esquina é um restaurante confortável e cheio de vida! Entrei e receberam-​me logo com a maior simpatia. Sentei-​me e o mais curioso são os petiscos, que são à conta e muito saborosos. A morcela com maça é a mais doce e a que me fez querer lá voltar. Um bom local para conviver com amigos, rodeados de boa comida e bebida também!

Português que é português gosta de petiscar! E os petiscos aqui são de um rácio quantidade/​qualidade/​preço estupendo. Sítio ideal para dar a conhecer aos mais conservadores uma dose de passarinhos fritos ou rabinhos de porco de coentrada.
O Chef Vitor Sobral é conhecido por dar um toque actual aos petiscos mais tradicionais, por isso não estranhe se o pica-​pau não se assemelhar ao que está habituado. A verdade? É de comer e chorar por mais! Outra recomendação ainda passa pelas Tostas de Porco Preto que são de um sabor distinto. A ementa está sempre em renovação e não é só de petiscos que vive esta tasca! Para aqueles que sentem que estão a precisar de um bom bife, também vão encontrar aqui variedade para o seu desejo. Sugiro como sobremesa o Crème Queimado ou o Pudim Abade de Priscos acompanhado de um Moscatel Roxo.

O chef Vítor Sobral no seu melhor, deu origem a duas tascas, uma em Lisboa e outra além-​fronteiras em São Paulo.
O ambiente é muito simpático e funcional, onde a simpatia dos empregados e os deliciosos petiscos são pontos característicos deste restaurante.
Apenas um senão…o espaço reduzido, mas o saldo é tão positivo que é apenas um pormenor.

A lot of restaurants in Lisbon are closed on Monday so we took the precaution of booking a table at Tasca da Esquina a couple of weeks before our mini break. This was a very good idea as this charming gourmet restaurant, run by the famous Portuguese chef Vitor Sorbal, was absolutely packed by 9pm.
We managed to get a great table in the back room which is very light and airy, a wall of big glass windows providing a good view of the world passing by. The tables are well spaced; simply but beautifully laid with quality cutlery which was very pleasing on the eye and felt great in the hand. The crockery had been similarly well thought out and really complemented the wonderful food.
The front room of the restaurant contains the open plan kitchen and a few bench type tables with high stools; again it’s light and airy with white walls and light wood. I’m guessing this would be quite an entertaining place to eat if you like watching chefs at work and seeing the hustle and bustle of a modern, well run kitchen.
To drink we ordered up some water and a bottle of the reasonably priced Quinta do Pinto Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from the Lisboa region. Nicely chilled, this was crisp, fresh and a good accompaniment to the food that was to come.
In the evening there are three ways you can go about ordering here. There is the standard type menu which gives you a normal sized portion of a modern take on classic Portuguese dishes such as the Bitoque or baked cod. The is also the option to order from a selection of twenty or so petiscos (a Portuguese variation on the small plate concept) or you can go for the four, five, six or seven portion mystery tasting menu in which you place your meal in the hands of the chef. After much debate we went for one, five portion, tasting menu and a few specific petiscos and just shared the whole lot.
With that out of the way we turned our attention to the olives, bread and the intriguing cheese. Well this was a great start to the meal; the beautifully flavoured, plump juicy olives were the best I tasted during this mini break. The cheese was very special, a small round with a thick but edible skin which contained a runny, pungent yet very flavoursome, centre. Think of a cold fondue and you will not be far off the mark. Wow.
We had too many dishes to recall in any great detail here but on the fishy side of things there was a really good dish of crab mayonnaise which came with very delicate toasts, a beautifully cooked and seasoned rare tuna, a lovely dish of plump little clams which came with a tasty sauce and a delicately flavoured piece of ray which sat on top of small mound of mash and olive oil. Meat highlights were the black pork toasts, wafer thin and strongly flavoured they came on top of an aubergine purée, and the rare sirloin steak.
By this point in the proceeding we were pretty well stuffed and as much as we wanted to partake of a dessert even one to share was beyond. My advice would to make sure that your eyes are not bigger than your belly. Having said that I was very impressed with the two Portuguese chaps who had the table behind us, they managed to devour two seven course tasting menus between them!
The patrons of this fine establishment seemed in the main to be well heeled locals with the average age somewhere in the 40’s. The staff are young, knowledgeable, proud of their trade and eager to help you find a tasty supper.
A very fine dining experience and one which I look forward to trying again when we are next in town.