WhereToEatNow Review
You walk through an unremarkable door on Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, up a staircase, and into a Moorish-revival courtyard that has no business being there. Casa do Alentejo is a regional association first and a restaurant second, and the building is the reason to come: tiled walls, a first-floor ballroom, faded grandeur that has not been renovated into blandness.
The food is Alentejo home cooking, served in large portions in rooms that were built for occasions. Açorda, migas, pork with clams, sheep's cheese, decent regional wine by the jug. It is honest, generous and priced fairly, and on a good day the kitchen turns out a plate as good as anywhere on this list. The bread, in the Alentejo tradition, does a lot of the work.
What you are really buying is the room. Eating a plate of migas under a painted ceiling in a half-empty ballroom, with the noise of the Baixa muffled below, is one of the odder and more memorable meals in the city. Go for lunch when the light comes through properly, and have a look around the building before you sit.
Honest notes: the kitchen is inconsistent — it can be very good and it can be ordinary, and you do not always get to choose. Service ranges from charming to entirely absent depending on the day. It handles tour groups, which shows. Come for the architecture and the regional cooking and treat any brilliance on the plate as a bonus rather than the plan.