Feitoria

A feitoria was a trading post — the outposts Portuguese ships ran along the coasts of Africa and Asia — and the restaurant takes the name literally. The menu is a route map: Portuguese fish and shellfish meeting spices that arrived on those same ships, handled carefully enough that the pepper or the coriander seed enhances rather than hijacks the plate.

Seafood is the reason to come. Whatever is best that week gets the least done to it, which is a harder discipline than it sounds. Scarlet prawns, turbot, a sea bass that arrives barely set — all treated with the sort of confidence you only get from a kitchen with a genuinely good supplier. The spice-led courses are where the concept earns its keep, and where the cooking is at its most interesting.

The setting deserves its own paragraph. You are on the Belém waterfront, the river is right there, and if you time your booking for sunset the room does something no amount of interior design could buy. It is a proper occasion restaurant: wide-spaced tables, a serious wine list, service that is formal without being stiff.

Honest notes: Belém is a long way from the centre, so factor in the taxi both ways. It is expensive even by starred standards, and a couple of courses can feel more diplomatic than daring — this is a kitchen that plays to its strengths rather than taking risks. Go for the seafood, the river and the sense of occasion, and it delivers all three.