Lovely historical place, relaxed atmosphere: Lisbons’ Restaurant ‘Merca Tudo’ & the story of Fidel Castro
A little bit hidden in a typical narrow Portuguese street you will find restaurant/bar ‘Merca Tudo’, located Rua do Merca-Tudo 4, near Largo Conde-Barão, in an historical building decorated with original azulejos (Portuguese tiles). A popular place by actors and artists.
Soft background music like French chansons or jazz, create an atmosphere like being in a French bistro in the 70s.
Traditional Purtuguese cooking, but besides they serve French Cuisine, Moroccan- and Mexican dishes. Excellent service.
Owner of restaurant ‘Merca Tudo’ Guiomar Noronha: “11 years ago I opened this restaurant and I still love this place. Before that I was working for a travel agency and traveled a lot”.
“My background is half Spanish: my grand-grand mother married a Spaniard, they lived in Santa María del Mar. Don Angel and Linda Castro immigrated from Spain to Cuba. The Castros owned and lived on a 32.000-acre sugar plantation in the Oriente Province in Cuba. They had 2 boys: Fidel and Raoul Castro”.
Ementa (menu card). Merca is the short word for Mercado (Market), Tudo means all or everything. Guiomar Noronha: “This picture is about 300 years old. I found it by coincidence in a very old newspaper in a bookshop”.
“The beautiful creamy 80 years (!) old fridge is still working fine! It used to work on gas and the inside consists of marblestone. Sometimes it costs me a lot of trouble finding a part for the fridge, but I would never want to get rid of it”.
You can win a taste of Ginja if you manage to throw a coin in a small glas inside a big bottle filled with water. My friend Erika just throwed her coin into the bottle and… yes!
We enjoyed: two steaks au poivre € 30 ; two Greek salads (salada Grega) € 3 ; a bottle of great Portugese wine (Monte Velho) € 10, two coffees € 2:50. Sobremesa (desert): delicious Bolo Árabe (with almonds & pumpkin ) € 4.
Excellent venue for a relaxed informal dinner, max. capacity of 50 people. Our experience was absolutely lovely!
Merca Tudo, Rua do Merca-Tudo 4, 1200, Lisbon. Open from 20:00 – 02:00. Closed: Sunday. Phone 00351 21 396 93 68. Email: restaurantemercatudo@gmail.com
