Founder, Daily Diogo Costa
Most chefs build one great restaurant and spend the rest of their career protecting it. Henrique Sá Pessoa has done the opposite. He has closed, moved and started again three times. Every time, the cooking got better.
That is why I respect him more than almost anyone cooking in Portugal today.
The first Alma
In 2009 he left a comfortable job as head chef at the Sheraton Lisbon to open his own place in Santos. He called it Alma, soul.
It was the worst possible moment. Portugal was entering a crisis. His answer was what he called low cost fine dining: serious food, served without the solemnity. It worked for a while, and then in May 2014 he closed it.
The second Alma
In October 2015 Alma reopened in Chiado, on Rua Anchieta, inside an 18th century building that had been a warehouse of Livraria Bertrand. Bertrand was founded in 1732 and is the oldest operating bookshop in the world.
Nine months later came the first Michelin star. In the guide for 2019, announced in Lisbon in November 2018, came the second. No Portuguese restaurant had climbed from zero to two stars so quickly.
For a decade, that room of stone and books was one of the best tables in the city. At the end of 2025, when his partnership with the group that owned the space ended, Alma closed there too.
The third start, with his own name
On 17 February 2026 he opened again, this time at Páteo Bagatela, between Rato and Amoreiras. No more Alma. The restaurant is simply called Henrique Sá Pessoa.
It is small on purpose. Thirty seats. A counter for two facing the kitchen, which I think is the best seat in Lisbon right now. A private room for eight to twelve guests with its own kitchen.
The interiors are by Rebeca Perez, of Tabula Rasa Design Studio. Even the bathroom has art, by Kruella D'Enfer.
A few weeks later, at the Michelin ceremony in Madeira on 10 March 2026, the new restaurant kept both stars. Moving a two star kitchen and keeping it is much harder than it looks.
What you actually eat
There are two tasting menus. Clássicos revisits the dishes that made Alma famous. Costa à Costa is a journey through Portuguese fish and seafood, coast to coast.
The cooking is Portuguese at heart, with the confidence of someone who trained in Pennsylvania, worked in London and spent years in Australia. Nothing is there to impress you. Everything is there to taste exactly like itself.
Francisco Garrido runs the kitchen day to day, Ana Canhoto signs the pastry and Manuel de Cambournac e Gil leads the wine.
My take
On his website he writes that sixteen years of building teach what no school teaches. I believe it. You can taste the patience.
If Belcanto is the classic, this is the modern Lisbon table: quieter, more personal, less theatre. Ask for the counter. Watch the kitchen. It is the closest thing to a private lesson in what a two star kitchen really is.
Curious facts
- He trained at the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts in 1994, then cooked in London and Australia before coming home.
- The old Alma in Chiado was literally built among books, in a former Bertrand warehouse.
- The private room has its own kitchen, so a dinner there can be cooked entirely for one table.
- He also keeps a counter at the Time Out Market, which is the easiest way to taste his cooking without a booking.
Where and when
Henrique Sá Pessoa, Páteo Bagatela, Travessa da Légua da Póvoa 11, Lisbon.
How to book
Book online at henriquesapessoa.com, by email at reservas@henriquesapessoa.com or by phone on +351 218 384 605.
Ask specifically for the kitchen counter, and book it well in advance. There are only two seats.
Images. Banner: Henrique Sá Pessoa official image (henriquesapessoa.com). Gallery: Henrique Sá Pessoa official image (henriquesapessoa.com).
