Senhor Uva

Senhor Uva is a wine bar that happens to cook very well, or a vegetarian restaurant that happens to have an unusually serious wine list — the balance shifts depending on which night you visit and how thirsty you are. Either way it is one of the more quietly rewarding rooms in Lisbon, tucked into a residential stretch of Estefânia where almost no visitor has any reason to be.

The food is vegetable-led and mostly vegetarian, built from good produce with technique that would not be out of place somewhere far more expensive. Plates are small and seasonal, the menu turns over constantly, and there is usually something fermented, something charred and something raw. It is cooking that assumes vegetables are interesting on their own terms rather than needing rescue.

The wine is the other half. The list is natural-leaning, deep in small Portuguese and French producers, and the owners clearly buy what they personally want to drink. Tell them what you like and hand over the decision; that is how you end up with the good stuff.

Honest notes: it is small, open limited days, and books out — plan ahead rather than dropping in. Natural wine is a genuine acquired taste and if cloudy, funky bottles are not your thing, half the appeal is lost on you. The neighbourhood is quiet to the point of dead, so it is a destination rather than a stop on a bigger evening. For a slow dinner over interesting bottles, it is excellent.