W hen the late and great Anthony Bourdain visited Lisbon in 2012, among the chefs he met was the Michelin star-winner José Avillez. Since then, Avillez has opened on an average almost two restaurants a year, each offering its patrons a different theme and dining experience. A section of critics in the Portuguese capital fears that the chef is stretching himself out too thin and consistency is beginning to waver at some of his restaurants.

But diners at his latest address Cantinho do Avillez have no complaints. They hold that the food in the new eatery in the former industrial and warehouse environs of Expo Lisbon, or Parque das Nações, always hits the spot.

The restaurant sits on a sunny boardwalk by the Tagus River. The décor is of an updated mid-century summer home with blocks of powder pink, teal and grey on the walls, floors and chairs. A smart Iberian wine bar attracts both hipsters and families. The easy nature of the interiors is matched by the menu which makes you feel as if fine dining has taken a chill pill. So, while there are low-temperature cooked eggs and tiger’s milk marinades (a spicy citric mix), there’s also a judicious inclusion of burgers and steaks and generous lashings of Iberian pork and beans to make one’s belly sing. Avillez’s famous hazelnut three-ways dessert figures on the very first page of the menu as if to say, no excuses later.

To set the pace, I start with a deliciously sharp citrus and sweet summer cocktail as an aperitif – a blend of basil, lemon juice, egg-white foam and gin. I ask that all my pairings be with Portuguese wines. The locals I’ve met are proud of their wine heritage and comparisons to Spanish, Italian or French equivalents are generally a poor conversation starter. I open with tuna tartare with daikon noodles, rice balls and chives on garlic mayonnaise. It’s a cold medley of satiating crunches with a good whack of garlic and acid to break up the flavours. Next, its pork tacos paired with a Pluma Reserva green wine made from Alvarinho grapes. There’s a touch of sweetness in the acid and crunch, followed by a hint of a chipotle chilli burn.

Despite the refrain that Portuguese food isn’t just about cod, there’s a lot of it to go around. My flaked cod with breadcrumbs and cabbage is briny, crunchy and filling. The exploding spherified olives (like squishy beads) are unnecessary in this already saline combination. The egg hidden in the mix gives it a rich sheen, but it feels like something better suited to a cold evening. The wine pairing of Inventum is good, the Antâo Vaz grape offering tangerine on the nose and spice and oak to the palate. There’s a streak of Asian ingredients running across the menu, so the gargantuan Algarve prawn I’m served with jasmine rice in a Thai sauce doesn’t disappoint; it is as delicious as it is large. The hero prawn’s succulent sweetness marries with characteristic ginger, coconut and lime but is offset with the heat and tang from the Portuguese malagueta paste — a mix of fermented malagueta chillies, salt and vinegar. The combination with a Quinta do Monte d’Oiro Madrigal wine is perfect, the Viognier — a white wine grape variety — giving off an apricot fragrance.

The risotto wins with its earthy portobello mushroom and basil tastes amid a cockle-warming depth and creaminess you expect of this dish. The pork, however, is comparatively unexciting. The two dishes pair superbly with Avillez’s own wine, JA, made of Syrah grapes with lots of cherry, pepper and blackberry profiles in the mix. Rob, the sommelier, clearly knows what he is doing. To finish, I brave the three-way hazelnut dessert Avillez has made famous. There’s chunky cold hazelnut ice cream in between layers of whipped cream and hazelnut mousse, and heaps of nut crunch. It’s a dessert balanced to a fault; not too sweet with good intervals of fleur de sel to give it a twist. Blandy’s five-year-old Alvada Madeira wine is a great accompaniment to this with its vanilla, chocolate, cherry and caramel notes bringing robustness to the finesse of this dessert. Overall, I’d thoroughly recommend a trip to Avillez’s cantinho, as long as you’re not going dancing later. A Brazilian evening on the docks was not quite the right end to a great meal — not when I wanted a delicious food-induced nap.

Govind Dhar is a journalist based in Sri Lanka