Daniel Estriga is not one to draw attention to himself, which helps explain why he's not talked about as much. The fact that he's slightly off the beaten path, in a residential area in Bicesse, Cascais, also influences this, but 13 years of history are proof that we should pay attention to the chef's journey and what he does at Conceito, alongside his wife, Vanessa. Confident in their path, the two have been raising the restaurant's standards, without compromising on what they consider essential: attention to the customer, the quality of the products and the creativity that makes each dinner a new experience.
"The menus are always a surprise, and sometimes it's not just about surprising; it's to avoid committing to always having the same product because we don't always manage to," says Daniel Estriga, pointing out the challenges of running a small, independent restaurant, far from the spotlight and even media attention (mea culpa). "I don't know if our path is more difficult because I haven't walked the paths of others, but it's true that when you don't make an effort, you end up being forgotten," he assures. "The mold differs from place to place. I also don't think that the path of those in the city center is made easier."
But it's not to talk about others that the conversation serves, rather to focus on Conceito, which was born in Bicesse because Daniel grew up here – his parents own Pastelaria Delícia, less than a kilometer away. "And I, who always wanted to escape this area a little, ended up landing here," jokes Daniel, who before opening Conceito worked for several years with well-known chefs like Bertílio Gomes, Paulo Morais, Miguel Castro e Silva, or José Avillez. "Then I started hosting dinners for friends and events, and this space came up. It was supposed to be a place where I could tidy things up and do some production, and it ended up being this," he says. Word spread, the business grew, and the obvious step was to open the doors and take Conceito as a restaurant.
"It's funny, the restaurant was the last thing that came up and it was the one that gained more strength over the years, even though we continue to host events. I think this has been a constant evolution. And there are things that we don't even control anymore," he laughs. That's what happened about seven years ago when, with Vanessa on board the project, some customers suggested creating a restaurant page on Tripadvisor. "That propelled us. In Cascais, for about two years, we were in first place," recalls Daniel. "In the years following Tripadvisor, 95% of our customers were tourists, which made us evolve into what we are today."
And what are they today? Daniel prefers to answer with intentions: "We don't want to be the fine dining place that you visit once a year, and that's why the menus are a surprise, our dishes aren't overly polished because what someone ate two weeks ago they won't eat again. I want the customer to come more regularly, it's also a bit about not being boring," he quickly adds. And Vanessa sums it up: "The commitment is - and the customer who knows us already understands this - to have good food, well presented, and attentive service. These are the premises."
After having worked à la carte, they opted to have only tasting menus. There are two options (€64 for five courses and €82 for seven), based on seasonality and Portuguese produce, and they change very regularly because the rule, as already understood, is not to become predictable. Contrary to what is expected in restaurants of this kind, at Conceito the meal doesn't start with snacks, but with a sharing moment "in the tapas style", such as a mussel escabeche accompanied by a perfect bread for dipping in the sauce, with the relaxed atmosphere that the situation calls for. From there, a cliché that always applies: "a journey of flavours", sometimes with a scallop with cauliflower and caviar, sometimes seemingly simple asparagus with tangerine gel, or a prawn and pea dish. "It's author's cuisine, but we make it very unpretentious," the chef argues.
"Our difference is that we are owners and I am in the kitchen. The evolution of the restaurant is done with the customer in mind. I have worked in other places and I know that I don't think so much about the customer because that's not my role, someone else is doing that. And here we think a lot about the experience in order to bring them back more often."
And it's here, Daniel assures, that Vanessa is the key piece. "More than me. My position is increasingly easier to replace and hers not so much," he asserts. It's Vanessa who handles reservations and who receives those who arrive. She, coming from dentistry, immersed herself in the restaurant business when she met Daniel. They are two distant worlds, but Vanessa managed to bring practices from one to improve the other. "For example, sometimes I had a patient who would come for a consultation and six months later he would come back. On the day of the appointment, he would say: I'm a little apprehensive, my son went to the United States to live for a while. And I would take note: the son went to the United States and his name is João Maria. When the patient returned, I would ask about João Maria. We started doing that applied to the restaurant. For example, he tried such wine and didn't like it much; the daughter is pregnant; things like that," she says, with the certainty that this is the attention that distinguishes the work they do, even in a zone, at first glance, unexpected.
The ambition now is for the work to continue bearing fruit and, increasingly, visibility. That's also why there's a focus on events, for example, with guest chefs. João Diogo Formiga, resident chef at the Michelin-starred Encanto, owned by José Avillez, was the latest to share the kitchen with Daniel Estriga, but this weekend there's another event. It's not a dinner, but an afternoon around wines and snacks (35€) with Carlos Nunes, from the Fifty Seconds team.
"If you ask me what I want, I just want to have customers. If you ask me if we want to achieve more: of course, otherwise we wouldn't be here. I would be at home and I would have a team working here."
Rua Pequena, Urbanização do Viso, Lote 1 Loja a (Cascais). 218085281. Tue-Sat 19.30-23.00