Tabuleiro Restaurant

An eatery on the main street

The Tabuleiro Restaurant is on Rua Serpa Pinto, the Corredoura, the pedestrian street that runs from the old bridge over the Nabão to Praça da República, in Tomar's historic centre. It takes its name from the city's great festival, the Festa dos Tabuleiros. It is a house of traditional Portuguese cooking made with regional produce, with about a hundred seats, the kind that suits a family meal or a group. It is the simple, cheap option in the centre: the Tomar tourist office puts its dishes between €9.50 and €12.90.

What to order

The menu is Portuguese home cooking, with no gimmicks. There are several cods: the dourado, with straw potatoes and egg; the espiritual, gratinated in the oven; and cod with cream. For meat, oven-baked Iberian pork cheeks, grilled black pork secretos, lamb stew and, for hungry days, the cozido à portuguesa, with its meats, sausages and vegetables. From the sea, fish rice and feijoada de chocos, beans with cuttlefish. And, somewhat less usual, chicken and prawn curry.

Opening hours and booking

The official listing gives neither opening hours nor closing day, and the website it cites was not working when we checked. Call ahead, on +351 249 312 771 or the mobile +351 916 702 583, especially if you want to eat on a Sunday. With a hundred seats, outside high season there is usually room, but a group should give notice.

Getting there

It is on the pedestrian street in the centre, two minutes from Praça da República and the synagogue, and about fifteen minutes' walk down from the Convent of Christ. If you come by car, leave it by the river and cross the old bridge: Rua Serpa Pinto begins on the other side.