O Frade (Time Out Market)
Bar side dining away from the masses
- Cais do Sodre (Linha Verde)
- €€€
- Av. 24 de Julho 49, 1200-109
Just over a year into living in Lisbon, we've gone back to language classes with the excellent Frederico at Lisbon Language Cafe. This means we are currently finding ourselves around the corner from the market at dinner time every Friday evening for the next few weeks. So having bundled out of our last class full on verb conjugations, we sought something more calorific inside of Time Out Market.
It's a curious selection of eateries here, a number of the stalls have actual restaurants out in Lisbon, with the prices higher and the portions less generous than your typical Portuguese restaurant, however we had this priced into our visit. Eschewing the hubbub of the main hall, we took our seats at the bar in O Frade, tucked away down one of the sides of the building.
Having opted for the pig cheek risotto and asian duck rice, we shared a really rather compelling empada de porco, where the pork is mixed with some sort of creamy, mayo type concoction. The mains arrived shortly after and both were very delicious. The cheeks braised to collapse upon a sticky, caramelised risotto and the duck shredded into the rice and accented with an orange source. Like almost all the food here, both in the €15-€20 range.
All tourists find their way to the Market at some point, so it's good to know that you don't always have to battle the queues in the centre. Maybe stop in at O Frade if you want a more relaxing meal. We're even lining up a trip to its original home in Belem as a result.
Don’t forget to order: Get a round of empada de porco's and wash it down with some Alentejo wine.