Oh! Vargas. The restaurant where you can ask for good food and good wines in a detour in Santarém – Chefs and restaurants

Oh! Vargas. When we look at the name of this restaurant, it’s hard not to hear the phrase “Oh Vargas” ringing in our heads, as if we’re asking for the attention of this Vargas. And that’s how the name of this restaurant in Santarém came about, more specifically in Portela das Padeiras, one of those places that accumulates experience, in addition to years of life, more than 40 to be exact. It was the clientele of the restaurant that gave it its name at a time when the owners were not thinking of building a brand, but only of serving quality traditional food. The name and the cuisine have endured and continue to do so.

Oh! Vargas has, in fact, a new life since May 2019, when it reopened after a major intervention that lasted almost two years, carried out by Manuel Vargas, who is the third generation to take care of this business, and by Teresa Esteves, his wife. From the informal tavern of the grandparents’ time or the restaurant signed by the parents, we only find the address because nowadays everything is different. “I usually say we have 200 chairs,” answers Manuel Vargas when asked “what is the capacity of the restaurant,” which has grown with the latest renovation.

Today we find three distinct spaces: the main room, which operates mainly à la carte and which fills lunches during the week, a second room ideal for groups or events, which is more protected and where the connection of the space with the bullfights and the team can be seen. pitchforks from Santarém, whose posters cover the walls of this space and most importantly (although not fully functional now), the terrace which in warmer weather is embraced by a wisteria over 200 years old, although in winter we don’t get a chance to appreciate all its greatness.

With a renewed face, but with the same premise – to remain strong in the traditional cuisine, where grilled meat stands out – the owners also have Oh!Rio, in Valada do Ribatejo, a seasonal restaurant, more focused on fish.

In charge of the restaurants, since August 2019, is chef Rui Lima Santos, who has worked at Arola, Penha Longa, Bica do Sapato or The Presidential. At Oh!Vargas the chef states that “we like to give a new look with features of modern cuisine. But good food.”

And that stands out inside veal croquettes (€2), where the meat is unrolled into threads, at rabbit marinade (€9), a crisp proposition, at open omeletteinspired by those of Gordon Ramsay, but with smoked cod (€9), at Txistorra puppy (€6), which is a success that carries over from the previous letter and remains in the winter letter, inside Bairrada Style Chicken (€8), a twist on a well-known Portuguese culinary region, at cod fillet with onions with coriander soup and mashed potatoes (€60), aged for 13 months, from Iceland, and one of the shareable menu dishes that serves up to four people, or one of the side dishes, such as fried rice with sausages (€6.5), made with sausage broth or in a vegetarian option, pumpkin carolina (€14), among other dishes that you can learn more about here. The winter letter will be available by May at the latest.

Honorable mention for the already traditional sweets lighthouse (€5) from the restaurant, made with orange blossom cream or Alfeizerão sponge cake with rosemary ice cream (€6). You might be lucky enough to find one. Orange piewhich although not fixed on the menu, can be made with oranges from the restaurant’s garden.

For those who already know it well, it is not surprising that it is often heard that Oh!Vargas is the restaurant with the best cellar in Santarém. And this is due to the more than 300 wine references, of which almost 100 are wines from the Tagus or through the collaboration with Juve & Camps. But this is not the restaurant’s only collaboration, where you can also find Riedel products for sale or buy cigars and cigarillos thanks to the partnership with Casa Havaneza.

The truth is, anyone who knew the former Oh!Vargas will understand that a lot has changed. And change is good. “For me, evolution in the kitchen is: buying a good product, there is little transformation, treating the product well and what we usually can’t do at home, we do here”, summarizes Manuel Vargas, who started to working in his restaurant aged 13, but who went through other places – namely Tascá, also in Santarém, and projects in the Algarve with 25 years of experience in the field – before embracing the family business. “What we want is to have a differentiated product, cooked with care,” adds Rui Lima Santos, showing that he is in line with the thinking about the new life of Oh!Vargas.

The invitation was made: the detour from the motorway is not so long, only five minutes by car. And good food at fair prices never hurts.

SAPO Lifestyle was at Oh!Vargas at the restaurant’s invitation.