Lisbon · Portuguese comfort cooking
Mãe — Cozinha com Amor
Home cooking, served the way only a mother knows.
Our Story
Like eating at your mother's
Mãe — Cozinha com Amor is a Portuguese restaurant in Lisbon, on Rua de Dona Estefânia, between Saldanha and Arroios. It opened in 2018. The kitchen is led by chef João Diogo Saloio, who reinterprets family recipes from the Ribatejo with Portuguese produce and a charcoal Josper oven. In 2026, Guia Repsol named it a recommended restaurant.
The Concept
Mãe was born from a simple idea: to recreate the feeling of eating at your mother's house. Portuguese comfort food, made with traditional recipes, national ingredients and that emotional touch no technique can replace.
The restaurant's walls tell that story. They are covered with photographs of mothers and grandmothers — at first, only the founders' own. But soon guests started bringing theirs, and the space became a collective tribute to motherhood, family and the memories we share around the table.
The Inspiration
Chef João Diogo Saloio, born in Casével, Santarém, learned to cook the way we learn everything that matters: by watching. First his mother, then his grandmother, in a Ribatejo kitchen where everything was made slowly and with time.
Mãe's recipes come from those childhood memories. The menu blends tradition and contemporary technique, focused on comforting dishes and fresh national ingredients — from oven-baked duck rice to line-caught squid, from codfish to pork cheeks that fall apart on the fork.
“Cooking is a way of loving.”
The service is warm and informal, like a family meal. Because that is exactly what this is.
The Chef
João Diogo Saloio
João Diogo Saloio is the chef and one of the founders of Mãe — Cozinha com Amor, a project born in Lisbon with two childhood friends. Born in Casével, Santarém, he grew up close to the culinary traditions of the Ribatejo and found in cooking a form of expression deeply tied to family memories and Portuguese comfort food.
His path didn't start at the stove: his first training was in Management and Marketing. But the kitchen spoke louder, and after working in renowned hotels and restaurants in Lisbon and Santarém, he took over the kitchen at Mãe.
His approach is built on reinterpreting traditional Portuguese cuisine, with a special focus on family recipes and homemade flavours. In dishes inspired by the cooking of mothers and grandmothers, he champions the produce and the techniques that preserve authenticity — served with a contemporary presentation.
Demanding and meticulous, he cooks with memory, emotion and identity: turning simple dishes into experiences of comfort and personal connection. That vision gave birth to Mãe — a tribute to the founders' mothers, and to the mothers of everyone who sits at the table.
“Cooking with memory, emotion and identity.”
Philosophy
What guides us
Portuguese produce
From north to south, the best Portugal has to give.
Seasonality
We cook what each season offers, when it offers it.
Small producers
We work with the people who work the land and the sea.
Slow cooking
Time is an ingredient. We don't rush it.
Made to order
Every dish leaves the kitchen at its own right moment.
Memories at the table
Food that tastes of childhood, of Sundays, of home.
The Menu
Dishes that taste like memory
Family recipes, Portuguese produce and the fire of the charcoal Josper oven. Oven-baked duck rice, Josper-grilled sirloin, corvina and shrimp rice, tuna tacos, black pork cheeks, grilled sardines and the chef's grandmother's chocolate mousse — these are the dishes our guests won't let anyone take off the menu.
Tasting menu
#Cheeky Mother's Menu
Couvert, starter, main course and dessert of your choice, coffee included. The most complete way to get to know the house.
35€per person
See the full menuThe Experience
A seat at Mãe's table
It's not just what's on the plate. It's the light, the soft music, the wine racks on the wall and someone who knows your name by your second visit.
The room
Warm wood, olive green and the photographs of every mother who has passed through here.
Warm service
Informal and attentive, like a family meal. No ceremony, all the care.
The Josper
Our charcoal oven gives soul to the sirloin, the black pork neck and the duck rice.
Portuguese wines
Douro, Dão, Tejo, Alentejo and Beira Interior — including our own Filhos da Mãe.
Mocktails & sangrias
Soft Mule, Palomita, sparkling sangria with red fruits. There's always a right glass.
Grandma's desserts
The chocolate mousse is the chef's grandmother's recipe. And you can tell.
Gallery
A place you taste with your eyes first
Testimonials
From the people who sat at our table
A fantastic restaurant! The food was exceptional — fresh fish, perfectly prepared and absolutely delicious. The service was friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere is modern and welcoming. For us, it's one of the best restaurants in Lisbon.
Nadim Taher One of the best meals I've had in years. Loved it.
Torsten Nelson Excellent restaurant. Very friendly and professional service. Food beautifully cooked and presented. I'll be back, no doubt. And I did come back 👌
Carlos Pinto The food really is made with love — everything was wonderful.
Vanda Laurencio The atmosphere was very welcoming and the staff very friendly. The fish dishes were spectacular.
LuisPa I went to Mãe for the first time. I loved it: welcoming, friendly, the food was very good and the desserts were excellent. Perfect for special occasions, like mine was.
Cidália Costa Mãe — which means mother in Portuguese — is a small, lovingly decorated restaurant serving traditional Portuguese cuisine. The walls are covered with photos of women — mothers! — of customers, friends and family. The food is just like your mother's, only better, if that's even possible. Excellent wines complete the experience. We've already made another reservation.
Stipan Saran Homemade food, generous portions, with good service and great quality. A highly recommendable place — what more could you ask for?
Yolanda Perez
Reservations
The table is set. We're only missing you.
Book online in under a minute, or call us — we answer the way we welcome you: like family.
+351 21 585 1792 · maerestaurante@gmail.com
For groups and private events (up to 60 guests), contact us by phone or e-mail.
Location
Where to find us
Opening hours
- Monday to Saturday
12:00 – 15:00 · 19:00 – 00:00 - Sunday
12:00 – 16:00
The neighbourhood
We're on Rua de Dona Estefânia, between Saldanha and Arroios, in the Avenidas Novas district. This is the Lisbon that is still a neighbourhood: old buildings, corner grocers, people who greet each other in the street. We're a few minutes' walk from Picoas, Campo Pequeno and Arco do Cego — an easy stop for anyone working nearby at lunchtime, or looking for dinner away from the crowded centre.
Street parking nearby (metered zone), with the Campo Pequeno car park five minutes away. By metro: Picoas (yellow line) and Arroios (green line) are a short walk; Saldanha serves both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before you come, you might want to know
Booking is recommended, especially for dinner and weekends. You can book online through our reservations page (TheFork), by phone (+351 21 585 1792) or by e-mail (maerestaurante@gmail.com).