Lisbon is changing so fast that it’s quite refreshing when a restaurant opens without proclaiming a twist or a “concept.” When Canalha was announced, it stirred great curiosity among local diners – and for good reason. A talented chef, renowned for Michelin-starred restaurant Feitoria, as well as the itinerant project Residência in 2023, was leaving fine dining to open a place with Portuguese fare sprinkled with a bit of Spanish inspiration. Just a few days after opening in November, Canalha became the talk of the town, and now you need to book a table for dinner weeks in advance.
The star of the show at Canalha are the ingredients: the freshest fish, vegetables and meat, cooked cleverly to preserve the flavors – something chef João Rodrigues knows how to do quite well. After all, he was the founder of Projecto Matéria, a platform which celebrates farmers and producers around the country. Rodrigues has been mapping them on Projecto Matéria’s online database since 2016 and has a close relationship with many.
The “normality” of Canalha starts with the design, that of a typical Lisbon restaurant with a marble counter and tables, comfortable chairs and a view of the kitchen, with the green Basque grill – a variable-height charcoal grill – facing the dining area. Sitting at the counter might not be the best for your back but it’s definitely a feast for the eyes, with a front-row seat to the well-rehearsed choreography of maestro Rodrigues, Lívia Orofino (the executive chef, who João met in Rio de Janeiro and who worked with him at Feitoria) and the efficient staff.
“I have always wanted to have something like this,” Rodrigues explains, although getting to Canalha included some detours. First and foremost was Residência, last year’s itinerant supper club, for which João traveled to 12 different locations in 12 months to work with producers and local farmers around Portugal, most of which were already in the pioneering Projecto Matéria database.
With that project over, Rodrigues is now able to fully focus on Canalha, a word that in Portuguese means “scoundrel” but can also be used for a group of children playing around. For the chef, the restaurant’s name takes on this latter meaning, as that was what his grandmother from Porto would call her grandchildren. When Canalha’s location, a space in Junqueira, close to Belém but far enough from the crowds, became available, it was an opportunity too good to miss. “It was also my desire to be in a residential area, with local clientele, not so touristy…all in all a happy coincidence to find this place,” Rodrigues says.
Some of the dishes served here were tested during the traveling project Residência, which features the producers of Projecto Matéria as major suppliers of the different ingredients. This is a continuation of Rodrigues’s work at Feitoria, the fine-dining restaurant he led for 13 years. Before that, he worked at Varanda in the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz (doing classic French cuisine), as well as Pragma with chef Fausto Airoldi and Bica do Sapato – an iconic Santa Apolónia restaurant which innovated Lisbon’s food scene at the turn of the 20th century. “I did a bit of everything – banquets catering, hotel bar, breakfasts – and that gave me a lot of good experience, from the most demanding fine dining to very basic things,” he says. “I wanted this restaurant to be a place where we could have fun at work based on good produce and wine, and simple methods.”
In addition to the producers from Projecto Matéria, Rodrigues also works with some located on the Portuguese-Spanish border, like Maldonado, a farm which is half located in Arronches (in Alentejo, Portugal) and half in Albuquerque (Spain). “The animals don’t know any borders, they will go back and forth,” he jokes. Naturally, there’s some Spanish influence in Canalha’s menu: “In Spain there’s a lot of this type of restaurant culture, focused on the produce; it’s the type of place I like to visit,” says João. “I can’t understand why we don’t have more [places like this] in Portugal.”
The lunch menu features two daily specials at a reasonable price, always traditional dishes without any twists: on the day of our visit Rodrigues had chosen raia alhada (stingray with garlic), and panados de frango (similar to a wiener schnitzel but with chicken) served along a side of carrot rice. There’s always a daily soup, such as a delicious green bean soup, one of several in Canalha’s great variety of soups in its rotation. On Thursdays there’s also the cozido à portuguesa (a traditional Portuguese stew with sausages, pork and vegetables).
The open tortilla (also called tortilla vaga in Spain) is one of the most popular dishes, as well as the tuna and the grilled squid with butter. The open tortilla, served with shrimp and red peppers, crispy onion and chives, is a delightful dish, one which evokes childhood memories of Galician restaurants in Lisbon long gone. In other dishes, vegetables take center stage, such as the leeks with vinaigrette, honey and pine nuts.
With some dishes finished at the counter, namely the torch-seared tuna, it’s an exciting chance to see the details of Canalha’s cooking first hand. It’s even a treat to simply watch Lívia prepping a big tray of mushrooms right after the lunch service is finished, as we did on our visit. “We don’t have any secrets here – it’s all transparent,” jokes Rodrigues.
In March the menu changed a bit to reflect the season, with asparagus and alheiras (a fermented bread sausage traditionally made with chicken or game) but keeping the “new classics” such as the tortilla, as well as the fish and meat choices by the kilo to be cooked in the Basque grill. Additionally, Canalha now stays open between lunch and dinner service, serving snacks throughout the afternoon.
Rodrigues estimates around ninety percent of the customers are lisboetas. This local vibe is especially felt at lunchtime, when people who are working in the area drop in for the daily special. There are few things more rewarding if you’re working, or just having a bad day and in need of a comfort meal. The chef’s vision for Canalha is clear: “The idea is to be a neighborhood restaurant, not a tasca or a taberna, but the type of restaurant that always existed, without any revivalism.”
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