WhereToEatNow Review
Taberna Sal Grosso is the kind of place people give directions to slightly reluctantly, because there are about thirty seats and they would quite like one of them. It sits on a sloping street below Santa Apolónia, well away from the tourist channels, and the room is barely bigger than a decent living room.
The menu is short, changes constantly, and is written up where you can see it. Order more than you think you need — plates are small and consistently excellent. Cured meats and cheese are chosen with obvious care. There is usually something with pork done slowly and something with fish done fast, and both tend to be the best things you eat that week. Portuguese cooking here is treated as a living tradition rather than a museum piece: familiar dishes, sharpened.
The wine is a serious part of the pleasure. The list runs toward small producers and low-intervention bottles, priced fairly, and the staff are happy to pour you something you have never heard of and explain why it works with what you ordered. Service is friendly and unhurried in a way that suits the room.
Honest notes: it is small and popular, which is a bad combination for planning. Arrive at opening or expect to wait, and be aware they do not always take bookings. The seating is tight, the acoustics are lively, and if you want a quiet conversation you will be leaning in. Also: it is genuinely off the beaten path, so budget the walk or the taxi. Worth every bit of the inconvenience.