A Casa de Chá da Boa Nova

Today this tea room houses a restaurant with two Michelin stars which, at the end of last year, received the “Portugal’s Best Restaurant 2021” distinction by the World Culinary Awards, a sister event of the World Travel Awards. But it wasn’t always this way. After being looted and vandalised, Casa de Chá da Boa Nova was abandoned for many years.

In 2014, invited by the municipality, chef Rui Paula turned this iconic space, classified as a national monument in 2011, into one of the hottest restaurants in the country.

Designed in the 1960s and built on the rocks at the west end of Boa Nova beach, beside the chapel with the same name, this was one of Siza Vieira’s first projects.

Mentioned regularly in architecture routes from all over the world, the structure stands out for its use of materials like wood and glass, creating a symbiosis with its location, nestling into the rocks and inviting the sea in through large windows.

Rua da Boa Nova