Godinho Historic family owned restaurant

Feasting on Portuguese and Indigenous Goan flavours, relive the calm and quiet of a time long gone by,

- Bunny Suraiya

It's 1938.

A young couple in their 20s make the long journey from the little southern village of Curtorim, up the length of their tiny country of Goa, to Panjim, the capital city in the north, to try their luck at making a better life for themselves. The young man is Antonio Salvador Godinho and his wife is Rosa Fernandes Godinho. Foodies both, long before the term was coined, they set up a small eatery near the Panjim Residency. Perhaps to their surprise or perhaps in accordance with their expectations, the food they serve is a hit with the officers of the colonising power, Portugal. They decide to move to bigger premises, and on November 4, 1938, Godinho the restaurant as it stands today, came into being on Rua Ormuz in Panjim.

It was the only restaurant of note in the area, and soon Antonio Salvador counted the Governor of Goa as one of his regular patrons, who threw lavish dinners at the restaurant, enjoying the Luso-Goan cuisine – a blend of Portuguese and indigenous Goan flavours. The Portuguese, who brought chillies from Mozambique and introduced them into Goa, and thence to British India, had a decided preference for spicy food, so the Goan spice flavours melded into their Luso cuisine suited them very well. Godinho prospered as a restaurant, the young Godinho couple were happy.