Oriental Bafon

Not being a Japanese restaurant, Soão dedicates one of his menus to the Japanese kitchen ex-libris. With its Sushi & Sashimi Menu, Soão honours the profile and the professional path of the chef Luís Cardoso, who was born with a silver spoon regarding oriental gastronomy, or Japanese. He was the first Portuguese to take the lead of the legendary Aya, from the master Takashi Yoshitake, an icon in Japanese kitchen in Lisbon.

Talking about the Bar Menu, Vasco Martins, the restaurant’s head bartender, took his time researching Asia’s most traditional drinks with the purpose of creating a Bar Menu that was genuine and faithful to the Asiatic traditions. Through sakês he arrived to the universe of the Japanese whisky and to the less-known distilled, such as shochu, soju and baijiu. The cocktail menu drinks inspiration from the courses: it’s the countries they come from that inspire every tailor-made cocktail, thought as an extension to the gastronomic options. In addition to these, there are yet three more classic cocktails, as the Osakini, inspired on the Bellini, and the Sojito, inspired on the Mojito. The gins, rums, vodkas and beers are equally from Asian origin. The tea also deserved the attention of the bar team. From a unique partnership in Portugal with the tea sommelier Sebastian Filgueiras, founder of Companhia Portugueza do Chá, resulted Soão’s six teas, ideal to pair with the course, and also three surprising harmonisations of tea and whisky.

In Soão’s Main Menu it is possible to travel around the world and taste specialties from India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and Laos. From India come the typical samosas, from Thailand the aromatic pad thai and from Vietnam the famous pho; the dim sum take us on a journey to China, the spicy kimchi makes us jump to Korea. The spicy sambal udang, with prawns and clams, comes directly from Indonesia, and the duck soup with rice noodles tastes like Laos, but also Thailand.