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Quality Restaurant Café Martinho da Arcada Lisbon & Fernando Pessoa’s table

Opening in 1782, Restaurant Café Martinho da Arcada, located in the corner of the Praça do Comércio 37 near the Tagus river, is the oldest café in Lisbon.

Lisbon Restaurante da Arcada Praca do Comercio 37

The terrace under the beautiful arcades. Movie Praca do Comercio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhuLEkL0Ue4. Situated downtown, this cafe was once the ideal setting for the so called ‘tertúlia’s‘ (café talks). Well known names from Portuguese life, such as Bocage, Amalia Rodrigues and Portugal’s most famous 20th C. poet Fernando Pessoa, were some of its usual customers.

Lisbon Restaurante Martinho da Arcada Antonio Barbosa de Sousa

Owner of Restaurant ‘Martinha da Arcada’, senhor Antônio Barbosa de Sousa. Pessoa (1888-1935), worked and lived in the Baixa, he wrote pieces of his work in this restaurant after closing time.

Lisbon Restaurante Martinho da Arcada table Pessoa

Pessoa’s table is still there… his favorite dish: juliana soup, cod and fried eggs with cheese. Until the autumn of 1989 the cafe was retained in the style in which Pessoa enjoyed it. Meeting him for coffee….

Lisbon Restaurante Martinho da Arcada interior1

These days mainly employees of the surrounding ministries and businesspeople meet here for lunch. The staff is very friendly. Prices: not cheap, but the quality is excellent.

Lisbon Restaurante Martinho da Arcada staff

We enjoyed some fantastic fish dishes…all washed down with some excellent Portuguese wine. The menu lists regional Portuguese cuisine; try a cataplana (clam stew)! Open: daily from 08:00 – 22:00. Close on Sundays.

More about Fernando Pessoa on this website

restaurant Martinho da Arcada friendly waiter

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Baixa, History, Lisbon city center, Lisbon people, Pessoa, Praça do Comércio, Quality Restaurant, Restaurants, Tejo river, Wine, cafe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Quality Restaurant Café Martinho da Arcada Lisbon & Fernando Pessoa’s table”

  1. [...] par Martinho Rodrigues, en 1829, et, enfin, en 1845, son nom serait définitivement arrêté en Café Martinho da Arcada, pour ne pas être confondu avec le Café Martinho do Rossio, aussi fréquenté par Pessoa et [...]

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