Java occupies a position in Príncipe Real that takes advantage of the neighbourhood's preference for the courtyard and the terrace over the formal dining room. The rooftop garden is the evening room: string lights and wicker pendant lamps at table height, rattan chairs around tables set for dinner, the clock tower of the nearby church rising above the plant canopy. The menu is Indonesian and Portuguese in proportions that reflect the history between the two countries without performing that history. The food is the reason to come; the terrace in summer is the reason to book. The neighbourhood — quiet by Lisbon standards, residential and slow — makes the walk there part of the evening.
Príncipe Real, Lisbon, Portugal