João Rodrigues, from the Canalha restaurant, was one of the biggest winners of the Mesa Marcada 2024 Awards, which also highlighted the Portuguese-French Chef Louise Bourrat, from Boubou’s, and João Sá’s Sála.
At an event that honoured Chef Justa Nobre with the Career Award for her 45 years dedicated to gastronomy, there were many surprises throughout the evening of another Mesa Marcada Awards, which highlighted Portuguese gastronomy at the Estoril Congress Centre.
The night’s winners
João Rodrigues and the Canalha restaurant in Lisbon won the main awards. The Chef reaffirmed his dominance with 1st place in the chef and restaurant rankings.
The Canalha restaurant, despite not being a fine dining venue, was the jury’s favorite, reflecting a change in gastronomic trends, with a greater appreciation of accessible and authentic proposals.
This year, the first non-Michelin restaurant to top the ranking, Prado, came in 3rd place.
Chef João Sá’s Sála, on the other hand, stood out for its rise from 29th to 10th place, and even won the Etrella Damn Special Award as the outstanding restaurant of 2024.
One of Lisbon’s newest restaurants, Santa Joana, earned Chef Nuno Mendes a rise of nine places in the top of the best, and Makro also distinguished him as Outstanding Chef of the Year.
The Special New Restaurant of the Year Award went to Ciclo, in Mouraria, an intimate project led by José Neves and Cláudia Abreu.
In the Daily Table category, Taberna Os Papagaios once again stood out. Queijaria was voted Gastronomic Shop of the Year.
Also noteworthy was the victory of the Chefs on Fire project, led by Gonçalo Castel-Branco, which retained the title of Gastronomic Event of the Year for the third year running.
Another of the night’s big winners was French-Portuguese chef Louise Bourrat, winner of the French Top Chef in 2022, who picked up the 2024 Breakthrough Chef Award, with her restaurant Boubou’s winning the Room Service of the Year Award.
Honorable mentions
For the first time, the Cascais Restaurant of the Year Award was given to Tiago Penão’s Izakaya.
Sara Soares, from the pastry shop Caos – O Futuro é Vegetal, was crowned Pastry Chef of the Year.
Pedro Escoto, from the Michelin-starred restaurant Feitoria, in Belém, stood out as Sommelier of the Year.
Gambrinus was recognized as Classic Restaurant of the Year, while in the area of sustainability, Herdade do Esporão , in Reguengos de Monsaraz , and A Cozinha de António Loureiro, in Guimarães, were awarded in the rural and urban categories.
As for the bars, Torto (in Porto) won Bar of the Year, while Flôr was voted Restaurant Bar of the Year.