100 Maneiras takes you on a gastronomic journey into the world and life of chef Ljubomir Stanisic. It’s an experience that’s as surprising as it is impressive, and one that’s easier to live than to talk about.

It’s been several years since I put 100 Maneiras on the list of restaurants to discover in Lisbon, on the advice of a friend in whom I have full confidence. Unfortunately, I always booked at the last minute and never managed to find a table when I was there, especially as the restaurant had meanwhile been awarded a Michelin star. This time I went a little ahead with the idea of spending my birthday dinner there. Unfortunately the restaurant is closed on Sundays, so the dinner in question was at the excellent Cura, and I ketp 100 Maneiras for the following Saturday before returning to Paris.

You will find at the bottom of the page all the articles about this trip to Portugal.

The concept of the restaurant

100 Maneiras is more than just a restaurant: it is the story of the life of Chef Ljubomir Stanisic. The restaurant only offers a tasting menu (available in longer or shorter versions), and is built around this logic: you start with his youth in Serbia, and follow his life through to his arrival in Portugal. dishes that evoke key moments in his life, whether it’s his travels or more personal memories.

Don’t look for a particular style or geographical anchorage: the cornerstone of the restaurant is the Chef and his history.

The setting

Simple decor with wood and floral arrangements. Well thought-out lighting: if the room is just the right amount of dark but not too dark, spotlights are shone precisely on the table so you can see exactly what you’re eating.

There are two rooms: a fairly small one in the hall where I dined, and a larger one afterwards.

Tasteful, simple and warm.

The restaurant has a partly open kitchen between the first and second parts of the dining room.

The menu

As I said, the restaurant offers a 17-course tasting menu, a shorter version and a vegan version.

The menu is not displayed on the website.

It’s not communicated at the start of the meal, and you discover it as you proceed. On top of that, due to last-minute changes, neither the document I was given at the end of the meal nor the menu displayed in front of the restaurant were totally accurate and I had to reconstruct my experience by myself at the end of the meal.

Here’s what was displayed, even if what I was served differed very slightly.

Dinner and service

I arrive at the restaurant on time.

I’m greeted very warmly and in French.

I am asked to confirm the menu chosen (already specified at the time of booking). I’ll also order a bottle of water and skip the wine pairing, letting the sommelier recommend glasses at my own pace rather than being locked into the rhythm of the menu.

And we’re off to a 17-course menu. Hold on tight!

Welcome to Bosnia: flower bread, ajvar, kajmak, pasteta and sea butter

With these appetizers, we discover Serbia, the chef’s native country.

You taste everything with the bread, and the game is to guess what you’re being served. Good and tasty.

We continue with an assortment of three dishes:

The quantities reassure me a little, I was afraid of having 17 dishes in “normal” portions.

Orient Express : shallot pickle, baba ganoush and papadum

Feel the Beet : smoked and pickled beet with coriander mayo (photo forgotten, but you can see it in the overall photo).

Mr. Potato Head : fried potato, beef tartare, smantana and truffled egg

After these appetizers, we finally get to the heart of the matter.

Lucky Charm : roasted broccoli, cashew emulsion, sorrel vinaigrette and avocado puree

You can eat everything, even the leaf.

Sarajevo Cigar: potato foam, smoked tea bread and duvan ¿vard/ “tobacco”i (pork crackers)

This dish has a history that refers to the chef’s past: the Bosnians used to pretend the smoked pork was tobacco to avoid getting into trouble with the Muslims!

A visually stunning dish with lots of personality, very smoky.

Mixed Salad: anchovies, truffle, parmesan and raspberry powder

A very original and surprising setting for a salad! You eat it with your fingers (and you’re warned beforehand that you’ll spill it everywhere, and that’s normal…).

Fresh and crunchy, very tasty with a successful marriage of truffle and anchovy! A real treat!

A warm oshibori is brought in to clean hands and is very welcome.

Clams in coriander sauce and caviar

The clams are like a rock (crust) that needs to be broken so that they can bathe in the sea water.

The blend of tastes and flavors is very successful, fresh, smoky and iodized.

The Dark Knight: hamachi (amberjack), ginger and garlic

Another reference: the color black refers to Pico Island, in Portugal, overlooked by a volcano.

The blend of tastes and flavors is a success, fresh, smoky and iodized all at once.

XOXO: ognion, banana, purslane chimichurri and XO sauce

XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong.

The onion and banana make for a very interesting sweet and salty combination, and the sauce is very smoky.

As you can see, there are worms in the dish, but with the sauce they won’t be noticeable. But if you’re a fan, you’ll be able to pick some up afterwards!

Tea party : red mollet in smoked ham “tea”

The presentation is sober, perhaps a little too so, but the aim is to highlight the essential in all its simplicity.

The fish itself is excellent, with a perfect texture and no fat. A perfect blend with the tea and a surprising combination of land and sea, as the sea is the solid (fish) and the land the liquid (infused smoked ham).

Miss Sarajevo: scarlet shrimp sarma

It’s shrimp rice with pork sauce, as I understand it. The taste is very smoky, but with a well-balanced presence on the palate. Another very good dish with personality.

The Last Supper: cow head, horseradish, kupus and somun bread

For me, this is the most emblematic dish of the dinner. This is a traditional Serbian dish, a cow’s head as prepared by the chef’s father.

It is served with a very spicy “poison” sauce. You eat it like a taco, with your fingers!

A real treat, very tasty and spicy just the way I like it. And since I also love offal…

Foie pour tol: foie gras, Dr. Bayard mint, “Mais Vale Tarde do Que Nunca” late harvest jelly; yogurt and ras el hanout

A delicious exercise around foie gras that I forgot to photograph. It’s a pre-dessert with a foie gras terrine and 5 crackers in different flavors.

Praia das Maçãs : aguardente ice cream, apple and codium

This isn’t an popsicle, it’s a dish!

Very tasty and fresh, which is nice when you’re coming to the end of such a long menu.

Tart Attack: pineapple, geranium and sorrel

Light and good.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: fermented garic, white chocolate and passion frult.

A final wink from the chef to finish with this dish with a surprise composition that you have to guess. I could only find passion fruit.

I’ll finish with a green tea, accompanied by small cakes in memory of the chef’s mother.

I usually find oriental pastries a bit heavy and too sweet, but at the end of a long menu it was really complicated.

All in all, a very surprising meal that really made an impression on me, because unlike many Michelin-starred restaurants where, in terms of cuisine, you’re on familiar ground to which a chef adds his creativity and quality of execution, here it was a real journey into the unknown.

So the meal was one long discovery, an immersion in the chef’s universe, punctuated by dishes that were all the more surprising because I discovered them one by one without knowing the menu beforehand.

This is perhaps the only criticism I can make: such a 17-course experience, with the need to discover and understand a dish that you’re not expecting and that goes off the beaten track, generates, as the dishes go by, a certain amount of cognitive overload which can at times prevent you from concentrating on a dish and enjoying it.

I would add that even if some of these dishes are only bite-sized, 17 is long, very long. In the end, I couldn’t eat anything more.

But all in all, an excellent meal that I won’t forget, a journey that will stay with me for a long time.

Oh, I forgot: 240 euros including wine for a 1* is not bad at all.

The atmosphere

Convivial, neither stuffy nor too noisy.

The service

Excellent, very friendly and available staff and a waiter who insisted on serving me in French.

Bottom line

There are meals that can be told, and others that are better experienced, and 100 Maneiras is one of the latter, and no article can fully reflect the experience of that evening.

It’s not just about the food (the restaurant “only” has one star) it’s about the story, the person (the chef) and the context.

Articles about this trip to Portugal

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