I should confess that it took me more that I’m proud to go to this place. Now I can only wait for forgiveness.

I should thank my dear friend and client Nuno Pinto, alma mater of P&R Têxteis, for that indelible day when he took me there, alongside co-conspirator Jorge Fiel, due to the cover of our T newspaper.

The restaurant Chuva (rain, in Portuguese) wasn’t exactly a discovery because it was never hidden. It’s just that I’ve been withdrawn and adrift, and now I think I will only be able to forgive myself by going back every chance I get.

The restaurant Chuva is just the way I like them: it does not aim to be pretentious, but it has everything that is needed. As far as I understood, it advertises itself as a barbecue restaurant, though that low standard is just to surprise the customers.

Chuva is so much more than a barbecue restaurant, but doesn’t want to be judged for more than that. Straight away, at the entrance, the shellfish aquarium, the fish stand and the matured meat window show us what we can do with the time we’ll be spending there.

Our host really wanted to give us the impression that Barcelos could be further from the ocean… than from the perfection with which they cook their sea dishes. When I thought I was going to eat rooster, I had the luck of tasting a lobster rice that might just be the envy of the best ones I have tried in the past, in restaurants with a view to the Ocean.

Before it, the Bulhão Pato clams had been a warning of the good things to come, and if I were to reveal to you that everything was accompanied by a Loureiro Green wine and with an Alvarinho, both from our guest’s Quinta do Monte. You may already guess which place I recommend for the next time you have to take shelter from the hunger, in Chuva.