A meal with a view!

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'Do you have a restaurant that you can recommend' ? is one of the questions we most answer here at Casa do Valle.  Yes, we can recommend many, and there are many we don't recommend. We base our information on two things: on our guest-to-guest book and our consequent visits.
We have a book where our guests write to the future guests what they have most enjoyed, least enjoyed, what they would recommend doing and where they would recommend eating  - and also NOT eating.  We also ask that our guests bring cards of the restaurants they enjoyed and place them in the guests' common space, the internet house.

Recently a few new places started appearing in these comments.  This entry is of two of them, with a nice view of and over the town.  We visited both of them (easily by foot from Casa do Valle), and found them worth writing about.


Wine Bar Bistrô da Praça

The Port Wine Shop in the main street of town opened a wine bar on the 1st floor - with a fantastic view to the National Palace and the main square of the Historical Center, with a wide range of plates of cheese, sausages, hams, patés and other tapas-style meals.
They serve great wine by the glass which is wonderful so you can have one type of wine with your cheese, another with the presunto and a third with the patê.  I went with a Portuguese lady friend who knows good cheese and sausages, and also she was very happy with the choice of tapas that we ordered. The breads are especially noteworthy - I who prefer not having wheat was thrilled to have the most wonderful corn-bread in the bread basket alongside the wonderful local bread my friend devoured.
The Bistro is just in front of the National Palace
in the center of town

Good food, excellent wine, fantastic view, and the decoration is fresh and attractive. Mainly for lunch or an early dinner, as they are not always open for dinners.  Their Facebook page keeps you updated on what is going on.











Dona Maria
The view of the National Palace from the terrace of Dona Maria
At the top part of the Historic Center, in the premises of the old Hotel Vitor, is the restaurant Dona Maria.
Beautiful restaurant with painted walls, originally by the famous arquitect Luigi Manini.  The views from the terrace are fabulous over the town, all the way to the sea.  This is a restaurant of fine food with typical Portuguese ingredients. Great for a bit fancier occasion, both lunch and dinner.  They also serve high tea!
Patrcia and Vilma over dinner
                                                                                          

I went for dinner with my two collegues and we all had different foods, fish and meat, and we were very happy with our food.  To take a look at their menu and get further information, check out their Facebook page.




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