From the family of Vasco da Gama comes this new Goa restaurant

The first time I walked into Panjim's delightful new Café Nostalgia, the bossa nova classic Águas de Março was playing on the stereo. "It's the end of the strain, the joy in your heart" is Antonio Carlos Jobim's own translation of his lyrics from Portuguese, sung along with Elis Regina in this "greatest Brazilian song of all time." It felt like the perfect accompaniment to this unusual, hopeful moment of Luso-Goan revival in the heart of the intensely atmospheric heritage district of Fontainhas, the capital city's oldest neighbourhood.

There are curious paradoxes at play here. The establishment has been operating for less than a month, but already feels timeless. Seemingly overnight, it has conjured itself into a beloved local institution, with friends and neighbours streaming in throughout the day. Its clientele—in keeping with the wildly diverse social landscape in Goa—is decidedly global, but the menu remains hyperlocal: prawn balchao, pork sorpotel, beef xacuti, sausage pulao.

But the greatest novelty is Café Nostalgia's charmingly unselfconscious celebration of the Lusophone aspects of Goan identity, forged in the crucible of 451 years of Portuguese colonialism. After the quick, overdue extinguishment of the Estado da Índia in 1961, the citizens of what became India's smallest state have been diffident about parading their inherently transnational cosmopolitanism in public, justifiably wary of being labelled insufficiently Indian. But the millennial generation has no such hang-ups. The difference is highly refreshing.

"The food of the soil is disappearing," says Nikhil Tavora, the affable, confident 28-year-old who has brought Café Nostalgia to life. Sitting over a bica, the talismanic Portuguese version of expresso (it's smoother than the Italian equivalent), he told me, "Lots of places around here have a Goan menu, and of course, people will try out the dishes because they don't know any better. But what about the story behind the food, all those essential cultural connections? Understanding that is what makes your dining experience truly meaningful. We are going to do our best to give you that, always."

The young man's own story is remarkable, beginning with the startling fact he's the 14th generation direct descendant of Vasco da Gama, the maritime explorer who became the first European to reach India by sea in 1498. According to genealogists, one branch of the pioneering navigator's progeny settled in Goa, which family tree eventually sprouted Nikhil.

In 2010, his aunt Margarida Tavora told the Times of India, "we could have gone to Portugal and got Portuguese passports as many are now doing, but we have integrated very well here. The blood in the veins, however, can't be changed." The ebullient 69-year-old is the "killer app" for her nephew's start-up, because she's the force powering the superb South Goa landmark restaurant, Fernando's Nostalgia (it was founded by her late husband, Chef Fernando da Costa). Everything Nikhil serves is made in her kitchen, to her unflinching standards. The result is genuinely outstanding soul food, as good as it gets anywhere in the world.

"It's a huge advantage to serve my aunt's amazing dishes," Nikhil Tavora told me, "I really value these elements of our past—the traditions, the food, this location—and I want to share what it means to me with an audience of my generation." To that end, he's packed his menu with perennial favourites drawn deep from the Cozinha de Goa, the overlapping Goan cuisines born from millennia of back and forth between distant shores and this tiny slice of the Konkan, capped by centuries functioning as the nerve-center of Portugal's maritime empire extending from Japan to Mozambique, and across to South America.

Café Nostalgia serves small plates of beef croquettes, cheese and prawn rissois (fried turnovers), salted tongue, and pão (Goa's iconic little loaves of fresh-baked bread) stuffed with five different fillings. Its main courses range from chicken cafreal, and roasts of beef and pork, to mushroom xacuti and vegetable caldinha (a mild curry). Definitely save space for dessert, because there's serradura—the famous "sawdust pudding"—and alle belle, thin pancakes wrapped around jaggery and coconut. Best of all are the caramel-crunchy pastéis de nata, the irresistible custard tarts of Portugal, freshly made each day by the neighbour across the way.

Café Nostalgia, Next to St. Sebastian Chapel; Rua de Natal, Fontainhas, Goa. Call: 9970126006; 11.30am-10.30pm, Mondays closed. Meal for two: Rs800