Harmonia

• Alameda (Linha Amarela/Vermelha)
• €€€
• R. Actor Isidoro 3, 1900-014

With the sun shining as much as it does, and wine cheaper than water, it's no surprise that the Portuguese see the grill as the best way to go about cooking. And as everyone knows, meat - especially the noble cow - really comes into its own when grilled over hot coals. This lustre for grilling, may be why a country of only around 10 million still manages to find itself as one of the leading kg/person consumers of meat on the planet.

At Harmonia, you are greeted with a menu inviting you to try and separate your carnivorous desires across a long list of meat and fish, with a strong focus on the custom of grilling. This menu is designed for those for whom maximising your daily protein intake is of grave importance. A delightfully unassuming restaurant just off the Alameda park, you walk in and are immediately presented with that day's jamon ready for serving.

After consulting the seriously impressive wine list and jumping in for the delightful Castello D'Alba Grande Reserva red blend, we accepted the couvert and requested the croquetes de fairinheira to start. This is where we began to acclaim our decision to sidle in off the street.

The basket of bread, including corn, brown and white breads, came with a bacon infused butter. If a commitment to meat means you turn it through your butter, then who are we to decry such efforts? This is a seriously indulgent uptick in how to consume churned fat, and every part of us (except maybe a heart valve or two) sung at the porky goodness smeared across the vessel of bread. The croquettes themselves, excellently shredded sausage meat deep fried and served with one garlic and one mustard sauce to flirt with. All five bite sized pieces were inhaled as opposed to eaten.

The issue with such a carnal approach to meat is that, like the bacon in the butter, we are rendered down to our most animalistic form.

Next up came the two steak mains, Bife à Portuguesa making its contribution to the kg/person meat statistics by serving up a hunk of sirloin with extra smoked ham and chips. There's a good argument to be made that maybe Old MacDonald was Portuguese and he had his farm just to create multi-beast dishes like this.

For the other, the dry-aged Rib Eye. Cooked to perfection for the medium-rare audience, these glistening slates are as good a steak as we've had anywhere in this city so far. Opting for sides of creamed spinach and black beans, the feast was a true celebration of all that is carnivore.

Obviously for the vegetarian and vegan crowd, Harmonia probably isn't the ideal restaurant. Fortunately for us, we are neither. We'll be back to worship the grilled goods again very soon.

Drinks: A €40 bottle of wine, bottle of still water and two coffees

Don’t forget to order: To not order from the grill would be a missed steak