Nuno Mendes puts a small Lisbon hotel on the map

It’s hard to keep up with the hoteliers behind Locke. After a handful of years running design-led serviced apartments for a post-Ace generation, they’ve parlayed a few popular UK properties into a European concern in half a dozen countries. The latest opening, Locke de Santa Joana, is in a location almost too beautiful to be true — a revived 17th-century convent in leafy Liberdade with high ceilings and marble accents. And it has now lured acclaimed Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes to lead its ground floor restaurant Santa Joana, a calm, creamy space with wood tables and an elevated zinc bar.

With small mullioned windows throughout the space, the Lisbon restaurant benefits from dappled light that changes in value throughout the day. It splashes across tilework and antique wall frescoes and beams down from new roof lights throughout the day. The room is filled with greenery, offering privacy between marble tables and upholstered banquettes.

Mendes, whose tenure at London’s Chiltern Firehouse made him a star, does what he does best here: bold Portuguese dishes you won’t forget in a hurry. He’s built a menu around local oysters, charred foraged vegetables, poached line-caught fish and seafood rice. The menu claims to source all its ingredients from a network of farmers, growers and artisans within 186 miles of Lisbon.

The restaurant opens daily for dinner, but Mendes hopes to offer full-day dining within the year.

www.santajoanalisboa.com