Lisbon Portuguese Food Intro: Our Recommendations

Want to try Portuguese food in Lisbon but not sure where to start? Here are our suggestions.

We’ve been to Lisbon twelve times in the last nine years and we’ve become quite familiar with Portuguese food, which is delicious. We’ve also hosted lots of people who are new to Portugal so we’ve developed a method to show them what they’ve been missing. Here are four great ways to get a fast introduction to some really terrific local food.

1. Dine at Bairrices

Bairrices is a fun and casual local restaurant in the Cais do Sodré area whose name means “neighborhood.” We recommend that you start your Portuguese culinary journey at this restaurant. It’s a flat price of € 25 per person (drinks are extra), and you will try 22 different Portuguese specialties, including chorizo, caldo verde soup, fried squid, codfish, tomato rice, octopus, and pica-pau. It’s all-you-can-eat, so you can request more of anything you really like. This feast is followed by a dessert sampling that is fun and delicious.

It’s small so you’ll want to make a reservation. Also, be aware that it’s located in a building’s courtyard so it can be a little tricky to find. They have both indoor and outdoor seating (with large umbrellas).

2. Take a Food Tour

We are foodies and a food tour is our favorite way to get to know the cuisine of a new place. We love that they introduce you to great local places you wouldn’t find on your own. We’ve done these two food tours in Lisbon several times over the years and highly recommend them:

* Secret Food Tours – Lisbon Mouraria

Focused on Lisbon’s Mouraria and Alfama neighborhoods, you will try various Portuguese tapas (known here as “petiscos“) at local “tascas,” including cheeses, sausage, sardines, a “Bifana” (pork sandwich) and port wine, plus a “secret dish” while you learn about Lisbon’s history and culture, including its fado music. Approximately €79 per person.

* Taste of Lisboa: Lisbon Roots

You will learn about local history, architecture and culture as you stroll from stop to stop sampling local dishes at authentic hidden places where the locals go. Delicacies you will sample include cheeses, caldo verde soup, codfish pastries, and the iconic pastel de nata. Approximately €98 per person.

Both tours last between 3-4 hours with 6-7 stops and have a maximum of 12 people. You’ll walk around, learn some history, get great insight into the city and its residents, and try lots of delicious bites.

3. Visit TimeOut Market

Located at the Mercado do Ribeira in the Cais do Sodré neighborhood, the TimeOut Market is a food hall containing dozens of stands of many of the city’s most popular chefs and restaurants. It’s fun and easy to walk around and check out the different menus before making your choice(s), but it can be overwhelming if you’re new to Lisbon. And it can get very, very busy.

We always work in a stop or two here, and we always bring visitors for our favorite sampling, which is as follows:

• Croquetaria – Creamy delicious Alheira Croquettes
• Manteigaria Silva – Board of meats and buttery Serra cheese with bread, olives and quince paste from this charcuterie institution
• Henrique Sá Pessoa – Salmon Tataki with Glass Noodles, served cold from this chef with two Michelin stars
• Sea Me – Grilled Sardine Nigiri Sushi and the Fish of the Day from this well-known purveyor of seafood
• Café de São Bento – Pica-Pau, classic Portuguese steak dish
• l’Éclair – Delicious selection of stunningly beautiful éclairs
• To drink: ice cold Super Bock or vinho verde – or both

4. Dine at A Taberna do Mar

This very intimate and highly-rated tavern in Lisbon’s Graça neighborhood offers a creative and adventurous tasting menu of ten plates consisting mostly of seafood delicacies (as the name implies). It costs around €30 per person – a steal for a dinner of this caliber. Some examples of dishes are Toast of Razor Clams with Homemade Marinade, Pork Dumpling with Fish and Kimchi Cabbage, Grilled Sardine Nigiri Sushi (like at TimeOut above; this chef actually developed it for Sea Me when he worked there), and Horse Mackerel Portuguese Ceviche. We’ve dined here a few times and it’s always a delicious and local culinary journey.

Taberna do Mar has two seatings each evening: 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM. Reservations are required but you can easily book online here. Note: They only accept Portuguese debit cards or cash as payment.

Portuguese Food: A Primer

Portugal, located on the sea and enjoying loads of sunshine, is home to lots of fresh ingredients that influence its cuisine. Among these are acorn-fed black pigs, tons of great seafood, like cod, sea bass, sea bream, fresh cheeses from the Azores Islands, roasted chicken grilled with piri-piri, an African spice, and fruit and vegetables grown in the Alentejo, Algarve and other regions. When we think of food in Portugal, we usually think of fresh sea bass grilled simply with salt and olive oil and served with bread and potatoes.

However, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of traditional Portuguese dishes to discover. Here are thirteen you shouldn’t miss.

13 Portuguese Dishes You Must Try

• Sardines. Forget what you think you know about sardines. Try them in Lisbon, freshly grilled on rustic bread, and you will be surprised by the flavor. Once you are used to them, buy them in tins (conservas) packed in oil in a variety of flavors and spread them on your avocado toast with some tajín. Delicious!
• Alheira. Soft spreadable smoked sausage with garlic, traditionally made with non-pork ingredients like chicken, duck or rabbit. Amazing in a croquette or spread on toast.
• Pica-Pau. The name means “woodpecker,” and it’s a traditional dish of sautéed meat, usually beef or veal, seasoned with ingredients such as garlic, bay leaves and white wine or even beer. Typically consumed as a snack, but found on menus everywhere.
• Bacalhau. Dried, salted cod, this has been a Portuguese staple for centuries and can still be found on most menus. Some say there are enough recipes to make it different every day of the year, while others say there are many more. Look for the Bacalhau à Brás, a Lisbon dish made with shredded potatoes and eggs.
• Caldo Verde. A simple soup from northern Portugal containing contains shreds of kale, potatoes, onions, garlic and chouriço.
• Leitão. Suckling pig roasted slowly over a wood fire until it is tender and juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Typically garnished with orange, it’s served with bread, chips or potatoes.
• Piri-Piri Chicken. Found all over Portugal at churrasqueiras but originally from Guia in the Algarve, it is chicken grilled over an open flame with piri-piri, a spice from the colonies of Africa.
• Bifana. A warm, hearty sandwich of pork cooked with wine and garlic, served with mustard.
• Prego. Garlicky thinly-sliced minute steak on a Portuguese roll, known as Portugal’s national sandwich.
• Queijo Serra Da Estrela. Very popular sheep’s cheese often found on tables as part of the couvert or as a starter. It is soft and can be spread on bread like butter. You can slice it, but mostly you cut the top off, then scoop it out with a spoon.
• Arroz de Marisco. Seafood rice is a stew similar to paella but closer in consistency to risotto.
• Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato. A typical clam dish from Lisbon made with a sauce of olive oil, garlic, white wine and coriander.
• Chouriço Assado. This dish is Portuguese sausage grilled over an open flame, then served with bread and cheese.

Portuguese Beverages

• Red and White Wine. Portugal is most famous for its wines, particularly from the Douro region. However, it produces excellent wines from other regions as well, notably the Dão, Alentejo, Setúbal, Algarve, Trás-os-Montes, Madeira, and Vinho Verde.
• Vinho Verde. I was always a red wine aficionado, but discovering vinho verde (“green wine”) in Portugal made me a lover of white wine as well. Sweet and refreshing, vinho verde is delicious with a light lunch or with fish or seafood. Or just by itself, while slaving over a hot laptop.
• Port. Portugal is very well known for its port wine, which is produced in Porto, at the mouth of the Douro river, in Vila Nova da Gaia. Port is a fortified wine (usually red but can also be white) and comes in two varieties, tawny and ruby. It is very easy to find bottles of port at shops and in supermarkets (we always grab a 10-Year Tawny when we arrive for sipping after dinner). If you visit Porto, you should definitely tour some port houses across the river in Vila Nova da Gaia. If you can’t make it there on this visit, then definitely go to Portologia in Lisbon for a port tasting!
• Ginginha. You cannot visit Portugal without partaking in Ginginha, a fabulous sour cherry liqueur. You will find it everywhere but one of the best purveyors is Ginginha Sem Rival (map), near Restauradores and Rossio. We also work in Ginginha do Carmo (map), a tiny place near Rossio where for €1,85 you can get your ginjinha in a chocolate cup, plus one free refill.
• Beer. Portugal has two national brands of beer, Super Bock and Sagres, both lagers. Apparently which one is preferred depends on your football team (Super Bock sponsors Sporting and Porto, while Sagres sponsors Benfica and the national team). Similarly, we have heard that people north of the Mondego River drink Super Bock and those south of it drink Sagres.

Our Favorite Restaurants in Lisbon

We’ve visited Lisbon over a dozen times in the past ten years. We have assembled a list of restaurants we return to again and again, and we continue to add to it as we try new places. While there’s plenty of Portuguese food to choose from, Lisbon is packed full of many great restaurants of every food genre.

Traditional Portuguese Food

A Nossa Casa

Small, intimate restaurant in Bairro Alto offering elevated Portuguese dishes. Fresh ingredients beautifully presented, plus warm and attentive service. Definitely make a reservation.

Paço Real

This busy little place in the heart of Lisbon is a great place to get an inexpensive menu do día of fresh sea bass or bream grilled simply with olive oil and salt and accompanied by potatoes and a glass of Super Bock.

Floresta das Escadinhas

This small restaurant in Baixa with big ratings is only open for lunch six days a week and doesn’t take reservations. They have a daily menu of either meat dishes or grilled fresh fish for only 12 euro and it’s delicious.

By the Wine

Restaurant in Chiado featuring Portuguese tapas like chouriço, cheeses, Iberian ham, pica-pau, and octopus. They exclusively showcase wines from SOGRAPE, Portugal’s largest wine producer, including from their properties in other countries. It’s a fun place with good food and a nice vibe.

Belcanto

Star chef José Avillez’s restaurant with two Michelin stars and one of the Fifty Best Restaurants in the World. We dined here once and were taken on a lovely journey through elevated versions of some traditional Portuguese dishes.

Bairro do Avillez

Located in Chiado and meant to evoke a typical Portuguese neighborhood, this restaurant, also by José Avillez, has a Taberna in the front for hearty fare and the Páteo in back for fish and seafood. Don’t miss the Shrimp Açorda and the scrumptious Pavlova do Bairro for dessert.

As Bifanas do Afonso

A small but incredibly busy counter specializing in only one thing: the perfect bifana, a warm sandwich of pork cooked with wine and garlic. For nearly fifty years this place has been slinging bifanas that are widely regarded as the best in Lisbon. Look for the line, order it with a beer and add a little mustard.

Solar da Madalena

If you don’t wish to wait in line at nearby Afonso, the bifanas here are also very good, plus you can get it with a bowl of caldo verde, a delicious traditional soup.

Seafood

It’s hard to separate Traditional Portuguese from Seafood, as so much of Portuguese is seafood, but these places are primarily seafood restaurants, and excellent ones.

Cervejaria Ramiro

A Lisbon institution for over sixty years, Ramiro serves some of the freshest seafood in town. A large two-story building near the Intendente neighborhood (and Metro station), they don’t take reservations, so expect a long wait. Get there early! This was the first place I ever tried percebes (goose barnacles), which are a pricy delicacy. For dessert, they offer… a prego (Portuguese steak sandwich). Who knows why – but it’s delicious.

Sea Me

A modern seafood restaurant that pays homage to the Portuguese fishmonger, paired with Japanese influence. We’ve dined at their restaurant as well as their location inside TimeOut Market (where you can sit at their counter), and we can always count on them for fresh, delicious fish. One of our favorite bites is the grilled sardine sushi topped with smoky sea salt.

A Cevichería

This is a hip Peruvian ceviche place in Principe Real dominated by a giant octopus that hangs over the bar. Chef Kiko produces delicious ceviche but the restaurant is also known for its awesome pisco sours which you can order from a window while you’re waiting for a table. We don’t always eat here when we’re in Lisbon, but we always have drinks here. They have a nice outdoor space for when the weather’s nice. BONUS: It’s a short walk from our favorite Lisbon viewpoint: Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara (map).

Breakfast and Brunch

Seagull Method Cafe

A cool, popular brunch joint in Principe Real with a quirky name and – most importantly – a 4.7 rating on 1,300 reviews. It’s in a cute little place with stone walls and lots of plants and the service is friendly and efficient. They serve sweet and savory dishes for breakfast and brunch, including omelettes, pancakes, and a “breakfast burger,” plus some really nice coffee. Make a reservation or be prepared to wait in line.

Nicolau

Located in the heart of Baixa just a few blocks from the Elevador de Santa Justa, this cute brunch place (also with multiple locations around Lisbon and Cascais) offers delicious pancakes, eggs, french toast, smoothies, and other brunch dishes.

Pizza and Pasta

Il Forno d’Oro

Authentic Neapolitan pizza at this restaurant which is consistently one of the 50 Best Pizzerias in the World. They just won 12th place for best pizzeria in Europe in 2024. It’s small and popular so make a reservation and they will take great care of you.

M’Arrecreo

Another great Neapolitan restaurant in Lisbon. We eat here every time we’re in town and it’s always delicious. The staff are warm and friendly, and the cocktails are really good. Be sure to try the Portuguese Candy. You’re welcome!

Japanese

Yakuza by Olivier

We love this upscale Japanese restaurant in Baixa, especially for lunch. They have a set menu for 25 euro that gets you a gorgeous selection of 19 pieces of sushi, sashimi and rolls, plus miso soup or gyoza, plus beer or wine, plus coffee.

Hachiko Ramen

This is a cozy new place in Estefânia. The chef worked ten years in Japan and makes authentic ramen with hand-stretched noodles and broth simmered for 16 hours. Also, really good gyoza!

Best Gelato

We’ve tried a lot of the ice cream and gelato places around town – Santini is a popular one. However, our favorite is Gelateria Nannarella in Principe Real for 100% natural artisanal gelato and sorbets in over 30 flavors. We always bring guests here and it never disappoints. Look for the line.

Fado and Dinner

O Corrido – Casa do Fado

This is a traditional fado house which gives you an authentic experience in an intimate setting, where the singers perform just a few feet away. Reservations are required, and the menu includes the couvert (bread, butter, and olives), one starter, one entree, and one dessert, plus the show. Drinks are extra. It makes for a lovely blend of Portuguese culture and gastronomy.

Port Tasting

Portologia

If you can’t make it to Porto on this trip, stop into Portologia for a port tasting. We’ve done this several times with friends and it’s a great way to introduce them to this delicious fortified wine, which can be red or white, tawny or ruby.

Favorite Pastel de Nata

The pastel de nata is Portugal’s most famous dessert and no list of Lisbon Portuguese food would be complete without it. It is a small crispy pastry tart filled with a custard of eggs, cream, and sugar, often sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. You will find them EVERYWHERE. However, they are not all the same. Our three pastéis favorites may surprise no one, but after much testing, here they are:

1. Pastéis de Belém. The OG. They are a massive institution for a reason, their recipe is secret and closely-guarded, and they can only be found in one place: their location in Belém. It is right next to the Jerónimos Monastery and most tours to Belém will stop here.
2. Fábrica da Nata. When we can’t get to Belém, we head here (we prefer the location in Restauradores, near Rossio). The pastry is always crispy and the cream is delicious.
3. Manteigaría. We used to live near one of their locations (Largo do Camões), and when they have a fresh batch of pasteis, they walk outside and ring the bell to let everyone know. It was a total ‘Pavlov’s dog’ situation and we were powerless to resist.

Summary: Lisbon Portuguese Food Intro

Here we present four ways to sample Portuguese food in Lisbon for those who are unfamiliar with it. It’s an easy way to try lots of traditional dishes without worrying about choosing the wrong thing. Also included: our favorite restaurants in Lisbon – tried and true places we’ve discovered during our many visits to the city.