Boulangerie by Stef

In the middle of the sirens and car horns, technical electricity problems and children screaming, it was possible to be in a nice and strangely pleasant atmosphere on the table near the window. Today I decided to try one of the croissants that make this house famous and, no wonders here, they were a-m-a-z-i-n-g! You don't need butter at all, butter is for weak people, bread has taste!... Well, ok, I added a bit of butter because I couldn't resist it. Crunchy, small, in a little basket, warm.

I usually take a galão with sweetener but this time there wasn't any, which makes sense since the place tries to convey its authenticity, flavors are real, no artificial stuff. This authenticity also goes for the typical french arrogance, it had to be present (don't take me wrong, french people, for me, have a lot of reasons to feel superior, so it is a justified snobbism).

They are not the most communicative people but one thing is for sure: the fact that different jams are in different tables helps to initiate conversation with people around you, this is a trading business, my pear jam for you apricot one!

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Before paying the bill (2.40€ for a croissant and a café au lait), I was able to try the bread with olives in olive oil they were giving out for free. At 15h the house is full but in the end of the afternoon the poor souls wandered away, and so did the bread and bakery products.

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Open from tuesday to saturday, from 10h to 20h, and sundays from 11h to 17h. Closes at mondays.

DeliDelux

Well, I gotta say I was badly impressed by the people serving at this coffee shop, but I am willing to give them a second chance still, some other day, maybe in a few months when they change personnel.

This was opposite of the Tuareg session, everything that could go wrong went wrong, the nice view offered by the window was totally blocked by a cruise ship so it looked like we were in the middle of the city. Neither could we use the tables outside because it had been raining and everything was wet.

The place itself has a nice concept, there is a biologic product store inside the café with no wall dividing it. This made me conclude I could just buy the product and eat it at the store, turns out I was wrong and I had to sit outside in the sidewalk to eat my just bought yogurt (1.70€). This almost made me steal one of their precious iron coffee spoons.

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Galão costs 1.40€, but it is a quite generous one. My friend ate a smoked salmon and philadelphia bagel for 6.35€.

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Open tuesday to friday from 12h to 22h. Saturdays from 10h to 22h and sundays from 10h to 20h. Closes on mondays.

Tuareg

Every time I go to Tuareg we have the same ritual, a new hookah flavour (today was watermelon and lemon), a new tea flavour (today was a cocktail of red fruits) for one friend, a new milkshake flavour (vodka and red fruits, called Magreb) for another, a new cocktail flavour for me (irish coffee, for 2.5€).

Well, excluding my coffee, everything was perfect. We nailed it completely. Dimmed lights, comfortably sitting on moroccan chairs or pillows, this place heals everything other than your pocket.

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The hookah was 9€, divided by three people (plus 3€ for each new charcoal, and 3 more if you want alcohol in it). All alcoholic milkshakes are 5€ and the teas are 2.50€. Nights here never last that long because we need to catch the last metro home, but no one says you need to arrive at dawn to have a good night.

Note: they have one of those "pee while you dance" bathrooms, where the light goes off if you don't move, so you have to awkwardly wave.

Facebook from Chiado's Tuareg Al-Andaluz
Open mondays and wednesdays from 15h to 24h and thursdays and saturdays from 17h to 2h in the morning. Telheira's Tuareg (the one mentioned in this post) it is open everyday form 20h to 2h in the morning.

Café da Dança/Mezzanine

Café da Dança (Dance Café) or Mezzanine, as we call it, is one of the last good spots in Algés. This was a popular area back in the days when our parents or grandparents were students. People got together in some cafés to study, talk or draw, a bit like the greek baths. Nowadays, unfortunately, the spirit got a bit lost, but there are still some students gathering here, after all, it is next to the library.

I ate a mini calzone of cheese and tomato (1.50€), sided by a coffee with milk that we call galão (1.10€), as a dessert I shared two crêpes: chocolate (2.50€) and cinnamon, lemon and sugar (2€), both sided with whipped cream. My friend had a merenda (don't know how to translate it) of ham and cheese (1.30€).

Mezzanine has a wonderful balcony that materializes the concept of spring evenings. It's a delicious feeling, and so are their crêpes.

Open from 11h to midnight.

Café Tati

As in... Jacques Tati aficionados! The environment is the one expected: a french touch, we fall right into an Amelie Poulain movie, spying discretely on her soulmate, sat on the next table with his back turned to her.

The place is well organized, you have places to read a book and take a coffee or to have a more serious meal. They also have children's drawings and some toys and games to play with.

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We shared two different toasts, a broccoli and carrot one, costing 6.5€, and one with eggplant, honey and crunchy walnuts, for 6€. Pleasant, but not fenomenal, they come with a side salad, tomato and sesame seeds. They also have a 10€ brunch on weekends. I am still hungry.

Salads are about 7€ and so is the plat-du-jour, soup is 2.5€ (today they had zucchini soup). They also have a fancy tea list, but I am a coffee person so I lack the information about this part.

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Open from tuesday to sunday, from 11h to 1h in the morning.