About Us
Our origins
Rajan was born in India, worked in London and Boston, and came to Portugal in 1994. He had studied at Harrow and Oxford, and was in his twenties when Portugal was still finding itself after decades of isolation. He saw something in this northern coastline that the world would only later discover: untamed, authentic beauty and a quiet sense of possibility. What began as a single plot of land in Caldas da Rainha became Obrana. Not through a master plan, but through a growing conviction that the places we live in shape the lives we lead. That community, neighbourhood, and experience are not features of a development. They are its entire purpose. Thirty years on, that conviction has not changed. Only deepened.
Obrana group
Established in 1993, the Obrana Group is one of Portugal's longest standing independent property developers, with over thirty years of work across the country. Rajan and his wife live and work in the communities they build. At its heart, it is a living connection between people, ideas, and a shared sense of belonging, built on a lifetime of living and working across Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the Antipodes. That breadth of experience is not incidental. It is the foundation of everything, informing how we think about place, about people, and about what a neighbourhood can and should be. We do not simply develop land; we cultivate communities, drawing on a deep understanding of what gives a place its soul. That commitment has been recognised seven times over on the international stage, with awards spanning design, planning, and architecture. Each one a testament to a quiet but enduring vision of how people deserve to live.
The experience
To experience Obrana is to become part of something. Not just a building, not just a location, but a living community, one where connection happens naturally and belonging feels effortless. Every detail has been considered with that in mind: the spaces that invite conversation, the atmosphere that draws people back, the neighbourhoods that grow richer with time. We do not build for the moment of arrival. We build for everything that follows.
The cocktails
The region had long deserved better. Not just another restaurant with a cocktail list, but a genuine destination, somewhere designed around the art of the drink as much as the food, where the vibe is as considered as what arrives at your table. East 23 was born from that absence. A premium cocktail lounge simply did not exist here, and the opportunity to create one felt both obvious and overdue. Especially one perched above the Atlantic, where the ocean views and dramatic sunsets become part of the experience itself.
The pan-Asian Kitchen
The pan-Asian concept came from the same place. There is no shortage of Chinese, sushi, or Indian restaurants along this coast, but authentic pan-Asian cuisine that draws on the full breadth of the continent's culinary traditions and brings them into genuine conversation with one another was nowhere to be found. East 23 changes that. It is not a fusion exercise or a compromise. It is a kitchen with real conviction, a bar with genuine craft, and a space where the two sit together as they should.