Casa de Cha da Boa Nova - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Casa de Cha da Boa Nova

by gabriella-opaz • August 14, 2017

As waves crash on the rocky shores of Leça de Palmeira, and gentle Atlantic winds carry salty aromas inside Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, the division between space and time dissolves. Famed Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza built the Boa Nova Tea House in 1963, and restored it 50 years later to house chef Rui Paula’s grand vision, a minimalist space that honors nature’s inspiration. It’s worth the 20-minute drive from Porto to experience it: Here, every dish incorporates the elements surrounding the restaurant both in its ingredients and its plating. Thick chunks of juicy Wagyu beef nestle alongside four types of cauliflower—pickled, puréed, chopped and diced—and wild mushrooms appear on a transparent box of bright green lithophytes taken from the surrounding shore. Silky sea urchin brûlée is served within a spiky glass ramekin perched on a fresh bed of seaweed. It’s the gentle play between nature and cuisine that heightens each dish. Choose the wine-pairing option to get the most out of the tasting menus, or pick from the 800-bottle wine list deep in Portuguese wine. A personal favorite of head sommelier Carlos Monteiro is the Terrantez do Pico 2015. A tiny-production wine grown on the volcanic soils of the archipelago of the Azores, it unveils everything the sea has to offer: maritime aromas and bright mineral acidity to balance the chef’s fresh fish.

AddrRua da Boa Nova, Avenida da Liberdade 1681, 4450-718 Leça da Palmeira, Porto, Portugaless

Portuguese, Seafood

+351 22 994 0066

casadechadaboanova.pt

This story appears in the print issue of August 2017.
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TAGS Porto Portugal Portuguese Restaurant Seafood

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.