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Forget Ronaldo’s right foot; booze might be the best thing to come out of Portugal. From vinho verde to port, drinks fresh from the Iberian Peninsula’s west wing are on trend for summer. Seek them out at Londrino, a restaurant from Leandro Carreira with its own wine bar.
It’s a muted grey space, with geometric flooring and stark concrete walls. A few bits of greenery pep up the place, as do the cumbia beats, but otherwise it hardly oozes the warmth you’d associate with Lisbon and the like. In fact, when I compared it to the vibrancy and buzz from the restaurant, I felt a bit hard done by in the bar.
Something that cheered me up was the list of wine by the glass, which staff seemed to know by the letter. I asked for something ‘interesting’ and our waitress whipped out an orange-tinged, honeyed white from Alentejo produced by a chef-turned-winemaker. Most other wines also hailed from Portugal, with glasses starting at a fiver.
Alternatively, stick to Portugal’s Super Bock beer, sherries and ports – all great for swigging along with pesticos, snacks that range from oysters to bifana (a pork sandwich), as well as a cheese plate that included Bermondsey’s own Riseley and São Jorge from the Azores islands. The bar itself may be a little icy, but drinks were summer in a glass.