Lisbon Food Guide: Pasteis de Nata, Seafood and Where to Eat

The pastel de nata is a custard tart in crisp, flaky pastry, baked at very high heat until the top blisters and served warm with cinnamon and icing sugar on the table. You pay €1.40 to €1.60 at the best bakeries and €1.20 to €1.50 in ordinary cafes, and the standard order is one or two with a bica (espresso, €0.90 to €1.50).

Pasteis de Belem, next to the Jeronimos Monastery on Rua de Belem, has made its tarts (called pasteis de Belem here) to the same recipe since 1837. The takeaway queue outside can be 20 minutes, but the tiled sit-down rooms inside seat hundreds and usually move fast, so walk in. The pastry is thinner and crisper, the custard less sweet. Manteigaria, with its main shop on Rua do Loreto in Chiado and branches including the Time Out Market, bakes nothing but natas, rings a bell when a fresh tray comes out and is the favourite of many Lisboetas for its richer, more caramelised custard. Try both on the same trip and decide. Other reliable bakeries include Confeitaria Nacional on Praca da Figueira (open since 1829) and the Alcoa pastry shop in Chiado for convent sweets from Alcobaca.

• Bifana (€3 to €5): thin pork steak marinated in garlic and white wine, simmered and served in a soft roll with mustard. As Bifanas do Afonso in Alfama and Cafe Beira Gare by Rossio station are classic counters.
• Prego (€4 to €9): a garlicky thin steak in a roll; the traditional way to end a seafood dinner at Cervejaria Ramiro.
• Bacalhau a bras (€10 to €16): shredded salt cod scrambled with egg, onion and matchstick potatoes, with black olives. The most popular of Portugal’s hundreds of salt cod recipes.
• Bacalhau com natas and pasteis de bacalhau: salt cod baked in cream, and fried cod-and-potato croquettes (€1.50 to €3 each) at every cafe counter.
• Sardinhas assadas (€10 to €16 a plate): grilled whole sardines with boiled potatoes and salad, best from May to September when they are fat.
• Polvo a lagareiro (€16 to €25): octopus roasted with plenty of olive oil, garlic and small “punched” potatoes. Salada de polvo is the cold version.
• Arroz de marisco (€18 to €30 per person, usually for two): a soupy rice of prawns, clams and crab served in the pot.
• Cataplana (€35 to €60 for two): seafood or pork and clams steamed in a hinged copper pan, an Algarve dish found in many Lisbon restaurants.
• Ameijoas a Bulhao Pato (€12 to €18): clams in olive oil, garlic, coriander and lemon; mop up the juice with bread.
• Carne de porco a alentejana: pork and clams with fried potato cubes.
• Caldo verde (€2 to €4): kale and potato soup with a slice of chourico.
• Choco frito: fried cuttlefish strips, the speciality of Setubal across the river.
• Peixinhos da horta: green beans fried in batter, the Portuguese ancestor of tempura.
• Cozido a portuguesa: a winter boiled dinner of meats, sausages and vegetables, usually served on set days in tascas.
• Travesseiro and queijadas: the almond-cream pastry and small cheese tarts of Sintra, from Piriquita in the town centre.

Sardines are Lisbon’s summer dish, and June is their month. The Festas de Lisboa run through June and peak on the night of 12 June, the eve of Santo Antonio, Lisbon’s favourite saint (13 June is a city holiday). That evening, neighbourhood marching groups (the marchas populares) parade down Avenida da Liberdade, and Alfama, Mouraria, Graca, Bica and Madragoa fill with arraiais: street parties with paper garlands, charcoal grills, plastic cups of beer and sangria, and pimba music until 3am or later. A grilled sardine laid on a slice of bread costs €2 to €4, a bifana or a plate of sardines with bread a few euros more; at June prices stalls are cash-friendly and fast. The whole month is busy, but the weekends and the 12th are packed: go early in the evening, mind your pockets and wear shoes you do not mind ruining. Outside June, order sardines in restaurants from May to September; in winter they are frozen or absent.

Tascas are Lisbon’s best-value restaurants: small, family-run, with a handwritten daily menu, house wine by the jug and mains from €9 to €15. Many offer a lunch “prato do dia” (dish of the day) or a set menu with soup, main, drink and coffee for €10 to €15 on weekdays. Look for them in Graca, Mouraria, Campo de Ourique and the side streets of the Baixa and Alfama, avoid places with picture menus and touts in doorways on Rua Augusta and Rua dos Correeiros, and expect to wait for a table at popular ones that take no bookings.

Seafood halls (cervejarias and marisqueiras) sell shellfish by weight with beer. Cervejaria Ramiro on Avenida Almirante Reis in Intendente is the famous one: queue from opening, order tiger prawns, clams Bulhao Pato and percebes (goose barnacles), and finish with a prego. Expect €40 to €70 per person, and check the per-kilo price on anything sold by weight.

Markets: the Time Out Market occupies half of the Mercado da Ribeira at Cais do Sodre, with stalls from well-known chefs and bakeries. It is a good way to sample a lot quickly and it is open late, but it is noisy, crowded at lunch and dinner and priced 30 to 50 percent above a tasca (€12 to €20 a dish). Go at 11:30am or after 9pm. The neighbourhood market at Campo de Ourique has a smaller, more local food hall.

For a splurge, Lisbon has several Michelin-starred restaurants, including Belcanto in Chiado, and well-known chef-run places in Chiado and Bairro Alto. Book them weeks ahead. For river views with your fish, cross to Cacilhas by ferry from Cais do Sodre, below the Cristo Rei statue, and eat at the restaurants along the quay facing the city.

In Portugal, bread, butter, olives, cheese, pate or small starters put on your table when you sit down are the couvert, and they are not free. Each item has a price on the menu, typically €1 to €3 for bread and olives and €5 to €12 for cheese or presunto. The rule is simple and legal: if you do not touch it, you do not pay for it. Push it aside or say “nao, obrigado” and ask the waiter to take it away, and check that it is not on your bill. If you eat even one olive, it is charged. Most tascas charge €1.50 to €4 for a basic couvert, which is fair; tourist-street restaurants sometimes lay out expensive cheese and ham without asking, and this is where surprise €15 bills come from.

Ginjinha is sour cherry liqueur, sold by the shot at tiny standing counters around Rossio: A Ginjinha on Largo de Sao Domingos (since 1840) and Ginjinha Sem Rival on Rua das Portas de Santo Antao. Order “com elas” for cherries in the glass or “sem elas” without, for €1.60 to €2. In Obidos it comes in a chocolate cup.

Wine is cheap and very good. A glass of house wine costs €2.50 to €5 and a bottle in a restaurant starts around €12. Vinho verde, the light, slightly sparkling young wine from the north, is the summer choice with seafood; Alentejo reds go with pork; and the Setubal peninsula makes Moscatel de Setubal, a sweet dessert wine. Port comes from the Douro Valley near Porto, but Lisbon bars serve it widely: try a tawny after dinner or a white port and tonic as an aperitif on a rooftop. Beer is Sagres or Super Bock, ordered as an “imperial” (a small draught, €1.50 to €3). Coffee is a bica (espresso) at the counter for about €1; a galao is a milky coffee in a glass, and coffee always costs more seated on a terrace.

Lisbon eats later than northern Europe but earlier than Spain. Breakfast is light (coffee and a pastry at a counter); lunch runs from 12:30pm to 3pm and is the main meal for many locals; dinner is from 7:30pm to 10:30pm, and many kitchens close between 3pm and 7pm. Cafes and pastry shops fill the gap. Many traditional tascas close on Sunday or Monday, and some shut for two to four weeks in August.

Service is not added to the bill. Tipping is modest: round up or leave 5 to 10 percent in sit-down restaurants for good service, nothing extra at counters. Ask for the bill (“a conta, por favor”); waiters will not bring it until you do. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, but small tascas and festival stalls may be cash-only or have a minimum. Tap water is safe to drink, and restaurants will serve bottled unless you ask for “agua da torneira”.

Traditional Portuguese food is built on fish and meat, and even soups may use meat stock, but Lisbon has one of Europe’s larger vegetarian and vegan scenes, concentrated in Principe Real, Arroios and around Cais do Sodre. In tascas, ask for “sem carne e sem peixe” (without meat or fish); peixinhos da horta, caldo verde without chourico, salads, cheese and egg dishes such as omelettes are the usual options. Gluten-free diners should note that bread, pastries and fried croquettes are everywhere; say “sem gluten” and check for cross-contamination in fryers. Shellfish allergies are worth stating clearly, since seafood stock flavours many rice dishes and sauces.

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