Portuguese soul food

Piri Piri Chicken

Taverna de Portugal

By Yun Suh-young

Francesinha

Exterior of Taverna de Portugal

Inside of the restaurant

Everyone has their own type of soul food. This restaurant was recently added to my list of go-to places when I need food for comfort. The Portuguese chef’s food delights the palate and soothes the soul.

Hidden away in an alleyway in Sangsu-dong, Seoul, the Portuguese restaurant greets you with exotic Portuguese music. The semi-basement restaurant is small, with only about seven tables, exuding a cozy atmosphere.

Portuguese chef Agostinho da Silva and his wife run the place. Chef Da Silva had worked for over 15 years in five-star hotels such as Four Seasons, The Savoy and The Dorchester in London. The couple moved to Korea in 2010 and opened the restaurant in November 2013. At the time, it was the first Portuguese restaurant to open Seoul. It still is one of the very few that serve Portuguese dishes.

The store’s top two dishes are the famous “Francesinha” and “Piri Piri Chicken.”

Francesinha is traditional Portuguese hot grilled sandwich which is a thicker, heavier and cheesier version of the French croque-monsieur.

In between the top and bottom layers of bread are pork sausages, salami, lean ham, nut mortadella and choices of beef steak or pork loin steak as the main meat. The sandwich is covered with melted cheese (mozzarella) and showered with homemade beer-based tomato sauce called francesinha.

Alcohol takes up 80 percent of the ingredient that makes up the slightly sour tomato sauce. Eight types of different alcohol, mostly beer, are mixed into the sauce at this restaurant. The sauce is the chef’s secret as it varies with each house. The only common ingredient is beer and tomato.

The Piri Piri Chicken is whole grilled chicken glazed in piri piri sauce. Piri piri means chili in Portuguese. Despite the ingredient, however, the sauce isn’t too spicy but just right. The olive oil-based chili sauce is peculiarly attractive to remind you of the flavor even weeks after the first taste.

The dishes at Taverna de Portugal are northern Portuguese food from the city of Porto where the chef is from. If you want a taste of Portugal, this is the place to go for a comforting meal.

Store info:

Address: 1F, Wausan-ro 13-gil 9, Mapo-gu, Seoul (Exit 1 from Sangsu Station)

Phone number: 02-3144-4819

Opening hours: 12 p.m. – 10 p.m. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.