A new restaurant is aiming to bring Portuguese passion to Plymouth. The Lisbon Bakery and Restaurant is a family restaurant that has recently opened and can be found in Frankfort Gate. The owners of the restaurant aren’t just looking to serve food but to have a lasting impact. The venue is both a restaurant and a bakery and the family that owns it is hoping that the combination will work out in their favour.
The restaurant wasn’t always in the plans and according to one of the kids, the father had only come to England seven years back hoping to find some sort of employment but he realised that the economy was good and the city of Plymouth had a lot of potential that people were yet to exploit. There were no Portuguese restaurants or bakeries anywhere close by and even those in London didn’t do things like they’re planning to which is to make fresh cakes every day. The family followed the father shortly after he’d left for England.
The father, Carlos, will be running the bakery while the mother, Maria will run the restaurant’s kitchen. The two children Tania and Rafael, who has just completed a foundation degree at Plymouth University will be operating the front because they have both grown up in the area and are much more fluent in English and have also interacted more with people from other cultures.
The family business has taken off quite well with the restaurant busy on many days. According to Rafael, this is because the spaciousness and brightness of the place make it feel like a Portuguese holiday for the customers and the customers don’t have to travel all the way to Portugal to have a taste of Portuguese food. The Pastel de Nata, a custard like tart, is one of the main attractions at the moment. Unlike a custard tart, it’s made with Portuguese ingredients in the Portuguese way.
The restaurant is located close to the city market and the location initially raised a few eyebrows but it has worked in their favour. Thanks to their humble beginnings, they have a different perspective on a lot of things. When setting up the restaurant, people had told them that things were tough in the market and they would have some dark days but because they are used to a tough economy, dark days don’t mean the same thing to them as it does to others.