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Wrought-iron staircase with framed pictures and the lantern

Fado house, in Alfama, by the Cathedral

About Us

The house a guitarist founded

Clube de Fado was opened in January 1995 by Mário Pacheco — a guitarist who accompanied Amália Rodrigues, Alfredo Marceneiro and Carlos do Carmo, and composed for Mariza, Camané and Mísia. He wanted a house that mirrored what fado is to those who play it: a place of gathering and of silence, where the music rules the night.

That origin is what sets the Clube apart: it was not born a restaurant that later added fado — it was born of fado, and dinner came to take its place around it. In 2006, Casa da Imprensa distinguished it with the Fado House Award.

Three hundred years of stone, by the Cathedral

The house occupies part of a building over three hundred years old on Rua de São João da Praça — the street that wraps around Lisbon Cathedral, in the heart of Alfama. Inside, stone arches divide the room into nooks, velvet curtains hold the sound, and red-clothed tables wait for the first voice.

Alfama is the neighbourhood where fado was born, and this is one of the oldest streets in the city. To step into the Clube is to continue the street: the same stone, the same intimate scale, the same night.

How fado happens here

It is not a show with dinner served beside it — it is a whole evening, with fado at the centre. The sets alternate with the courses; when someone stands up to sing, service pauses and the room falls silent.

Those who come to listen stay silent during each fado. That is the rule of the house — and it is the only one.

Discover our menu

The Clube’s musicians walk the street together at night
A corner of the house with an orange-shaded lamp and bare stone
Old dresser with bottles and a lamp, beneath the wrought-iron balcony
Guitarist stepping through the velvet curtain, the piano beside him
The house is over three hundred years old.
The club opened in 1995.
Rua de São João da Praça, 94 · Alfama
Narrow Alfama street at night, an archway at the end
The ham being carved at the counter, in a red apron
The Clube de Fado banner in the street, musicians against the wall
The musicians on the Alfama cobbles, instruments in hand
Fado singer reflected in the mirror of the house bar
Fado singer coming down the red-carpeted stairs, beneath the arch
The Clube’s dining room: red curtains and set tables
Double bass player in the stone archway by the set tables
Fado singer between the red curtains, before stepping in

The stone, the street, the stage

Three things make this house: the arches that shelter the room, the Alfama street the night arrives by, and the stage right by the tables where fado is sung.

The arches

The room is divided by centuries-old stone arches that create nooks and hold the sound. The light is low, the scale intimate — you sing to a room that listens as one.

The street

Rua de São João da Praça wraps around the Cathedral and is one of Lisbon’s oldest streets. The musicians arrive along it, on foot, instruments on their backs — and sometimes the fado starts out there.

The stage

There is no raised stage, no gap between those who sing and those who listen. Fado happens among the tables, steps away from your dinner — as in the fado houses of old.

Book an evening at the Clube

Fado starts at 20:30. The kitchen opens at 19:30. The stone room is small for the demand — and Alfama’s evenings fill up in advance.

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