35 of the Best Lisbon Restaurants and Bars

We’re eating our way through Lisbon one restaurant at a time. If you’re wondering where to eat in Lisbon, read on to discover our picks for the best Lisbon restaurants and bars.

Our History in Lisbon

We first visited Lisbon during our honeymoon in 2007. Though we loved the city enough to eventually make it our home base, we didn’t have an easy time finding restaurants more than a decade ago. But now that we live in Lisbon, time is on our side.

Since moving to Lisbon in 2019, we’ve lived in three vibrant neighborhoods. We currently live in Baixa, a location that’s both centrally located and near numerous transportation hubs. Not only do we love our apartment, but we also dine out. A lot.

Lisbon Food Scene

We’d be remiss not to mention Lisbon’s lean years when its citizens survived the Inquisition, a major earthquake and totalitarian rule. As is the case around the world when resources are strained, these tough times resulted in creative cookery that evolved into a modern-day Portuguese food set that includes fresh seafood, tasty pork and thousands of uses of eggs.

The city is littered with tascas (taverns) serving petiscos (snacks) at all hours of the day and night. In fact, we have several tascas in our neighborhood that we frequent when we crave Portuguese food. But these humble eateries are just one part of the local food scene. For us, one of the biggest surprises about food in Lisbon has been its global diversity.

Discover our top tips for dining in Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.

Much of the city’s food culture can be traced to the past when Portugal played a role in global exploration and imperialism. Portuguese explorers brought back exotic spices like pepper and cinnamon from their travels and introduced new vegetables and grains to the local cuisine.

Fast forward to the present and people from former colonies like Brazil and Cape Verde now live, cook and eat in Lisbon. Then there are ex-pats who have moved to Lisbon for quality of life reasons. Who knows? Maybe even Americans like us can help shape the Lisbon culinary scene in the future.

Adventurous eaters can find all kinds of food in Lisbon. If we crave a certain cuisine, we can usually find it by crossing the city by metro or Uber.

If you look for numbing Sichuan food from China, ramen from Japan or curries from Nepal – it’s all here. We can even find solid Mexican food, albeit at a premium price compared to North America.

Lisbon Food Guide | Where to Eat in Lisbon

We have you covered whether you’re in Lisbon for a day or two during a whirlwind Europe adventure or if you’re a digital nomad in town for an extended visit. This city has food to satisfy a variety of palettes and budgets.

Our Lisbon restaurant guide is a living document that we’re updating as we continue to eat our way around the city. We’ve included Lisbon restaurants where locals eat as well as Lisbon restaurants worthy of a special occasion meal.

Top Lisbon Restaurants

Empire-building chefs have made their mark on Lisbon, elevating the city’s dining options for both locals and food travelers looking to eat more than bacalhau (salt cod) or a bifana during every meal. These chefs take advantage of the best products from all of Portugal along with locally sourced farm products.

The proof is in the pudding or, in this case, the egg tart. Lisbon has 13 Michelin-starred restaurants including two establishments with two stars. Considering the city’s size, this is an impressive feat that illustrates the city’s thriving high-end dining scene.

Belcanto

Alma

We were excited to dine at Chef Henrique Sá Pessoa’s Alma. After hearing good things about Lisbon’s second two-star restaurant from respected friends and colleagues, we booked a lunch reservation with plenty of advance notice.

Upon our arrival, the restaurant staff automatically gave us menus translated into English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese. The translated menus included two five-course tasting menus priced at €110 and €120 (prices subject to change) as well as individual dishes available on an a la carte basis.

Our meal followed the Michelin playbook starting with fun snacks like tapioca crackers with dollops of oyster mayo and jars filled with cockles ‘swimming’ in a salty brine. It ended with a cigar box filled with flavorful petit fours served over coffee beans.

Ironically, our meal highlight wasn’t a main course. Glazed carrots plated with goat cheese and dried fruit bulghur exemplified a synthesis of the kind of international sweet yet spicy flavors Lisbon does well. Another standout was bread service featuring fermented sourdough and smoked butter.

We wanted to love the meal but were surprised to leave Alma with a somewhat hollow feeling despite sharing five plates that ranged from very good to excellent. In retrospect, the missing link was related to service.

Additional Upscale Restaurants

Hip Lisbon Restaurants

Tasca Baldracca

Prado

Prado, which means meadow in Portuguese, hit our radar soon after we moved to Lisbon. Open since 2017 and located at the foot of Alfama, the restaurant has a buzzy vibe and chic decor. With its vaulted, modern space and open kitchen, Prado’s dining room buzzes at night and glows with sunlight during lunch.

Expect to share small farm to table plates when you dine at Prado. Chef António Galapito has crafted an eclectic menu filled with products sourced throughout Portugal. But this is not typical tasca food.

Galapito has reworked and rethought classics like Portuguese octopus – daring to top the cooked cephalopod with a thin layer of fatty sliced pigs head. In all honesty, the dish looks like something out of an interstellar horror movie. However, the extra layer of fat somehow works here, enriching and propelling every bite of the already tender octo to a level of luxury.

Prado offers a diverse wine menu filled with local bottles from all over Portugal with an extra focus on wines produced near Lisbon. The restaurant also serves non-alcoholic beverages including hot coffee drinks crafted with beans from local Fábrica Coffee Roasters.

Taberna da Rua das Flores

That being said, we classify Taberna da Rua das Flores as more of a casual Portuguese bistro. And, in a city with a dearth of mid-priced, casual yet romantic dining rooms, this Chiado classic serves some of the best chef driven food we’ve eaten in Lisbon.

While there’s a distant chance that you might see scallops on the menu at a Lisbon tasca, you certainly won’t enjoy them topped with umami rich miso butter, which is how we ate ours at Taberna da Rua das Flores.

The cooked scallops, served whole, as is common in Europe, were a fitting start to a meal that included a sharable hunk of seared tuna. Thankfully, the kitchen at Taberna da Rua das Flores didn’t cook the gorgeous, ruby tuna tasca style until it resembled shoe leather. Instead, the tuna’s center was gloriously rare as it should be.

Everything we ate at Taberna da Rua das Flores surprised and delighted us. Judging by dishes like crispy pork belly served over artichoke purée and a wonderful sweet ending of toffee-topped bread pudding, the bistro’s kitchen has mad skills. 

Zunzum Gastrobar

Although we had enjoyed Chef Marlene Vieira’s food at Time Out Market, we didn’t make the connection that Zunzum, that place we had walked by a million times next to the cruise ship terminal, was her restaurant. And we’re not the only ones. During our dinner at Vieira’s ‘gastrobar’, we overheard the table next to us saying that they passed the restaurant “about 70 times” without knowing what it was.

Vieira, a chef with Northern Portuguese roots, has worked in New York kitchens as well as all over Portugal. She’s adept at building flavors while keeping Portuguese concepts fresh. Zunzum is a great spot to experience her culinary art.

During our dinner, Vieira’s swordfish ceviche mingled tender fish with a touch of passion fruit acidity. Another standout was her comforting yet sleek version of Arroz Bivalves –  a shell-less mollusk-fest filled with chewy clams, tender razor clams and plump mussels – that was a cut above typical Portuguese rice stews featuring octopus, shrimp or duck.

Not all the dishes of our six course tasting menu landed splendidly. The black pork “presa” was served a little tepid but was redeemed by an excellent side of fried, herbed polenta. Also, service wasn’t without the usual post pandemic quirks.

However, an inspired bread service featuring super airy brioche with smokey chouriço pate and divine passionfruit meringue tarts provided excellent compensation for those guffaws. And then some.

Damas

With a menu handwritten on the wall, Damas is a great spot to meet friends in Graça for an early dinner. Later in the evening, the restaurant morphs into a concert venue. For those who enjoy live music, it’s a great alternative to Lisbon fado restaurants.

Reading the wall quickly reveals various snacks and bigger plates. Vegans and vegetarians will find options like hummus and salad. As for us, we typically eat seafood at Damas.

Expect to share plates, tapas style, loaded with the likes of tuna poke, shrimp and mussels. You can start slow and add extra plates as the meal progresses. A bottle of wine completes the equation.

Damas doesn’t take reservations on the weekend, so arriving early is a smart choice. Though Damas has a reputation as a hipster hangout, we feel comfortable joining friends here for an early dinner of tapas-style seafood in a relaxed, yet modern space.

Portuguese Food in Lisbon

That’s the easy part. The hard part is knowing where to eat Portuguese in Lisbon. As in any city, some Lisbon restaurants are better than others. The worst ones cater to tourists and serve mediocre food at high prices.

Cervejaria Ramiro

Cervejaria Ramiro has been a Lisbon seafood institution since it opened in 1956. Anthony Bourdain ate here as did Phil Rosenthal. It’s likely that you’ll follow the crowds and eat here too.

Iconic seafood dishes include Gambas Aguillo (garlic shrimp), Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato (clams in garlic broth) and Carabineiros (scarlet prawns). However, in-the-know diners know to order a meaty Prego sandwich for dessert. It sounds like an odd combination but it works.

Ponto Final

Ponto Final isn’t technically in Lisbon but it still qualifies as a Lisbon restaurant in our book. First, the necessary Cachilhas ferry ride just takes ten minutes. More important, Almada is part of the Lisbon metropolitan region.

We could argue about Ponto Final’s location all day; however, it’s a better use of that time to send an email to Ponto Final to request a reservation. No longer a hidden gem thanks to it starring role in Phil Rosenthal’s Lisbon episode in the Somebody Feel Phil Netflix series, Ponto Final is one of the toughest reservations to score in Lisbon thanks to its epic views that don’t stop after the sun sets.

Café de São Bento

If you’re looking for a typical Lisbon restaurant featuring an outdoor terrace with a beautiful view, enclosed and clubby Café de São Bento isn’t that restaurant. But this restaurant,filled with good food and excellent old school service, is a worthy destination that provides a quirky window into Portuguese culture.

Unless you know the address for Café de São Bento, it’s easy to walk past the classic restaurant that’s practically across the street from the Assembleia da República, Portugal’s Parliament. Those who walk inside the intimate restaurant find a space decorated with wood trimmed walls, plaid banquettes, red carpet and brass fixtures that resemble a hoity-toity private club open since 1924. More about the restaurant’s real age later…

Steak is the main event at Café de São Bento. Upon request, the restaurant tops its juicy bife with a bright orange fried egg called ovo a cavalo (i.e. on horseback). But the kitchen doesn’t stop there. Chefs also smother the steak with a generous amount of its signature tan cream sauce that’s reminiscent of au poivre without the poivre.

Rumor has it that Café de São Bento’s creamy sauce derives its tan complexion from the addition of a small amount of coffee. However, there’s no doubt that leftover sauce repurposes excellently as a dipping medium for the large bowl of crispy fries that accompany the melt-in-your-mouth ‘Bife’.

We get that not everybody loves to eat steak smothered in sauce. If you fit into this category, you’ll want to order Cafe de São Bento’s Prego, a sandwich that stuffs tender slices of mid-rare cooked beef inside two slices of toasted bread. The affordable menu has options for vegetarians as well as pleasant surprises for both wine drinkers and dessert eaters.

Petisco Saloio

Located in Campo Pequeno near the city’s bullring (yes, Lisbon has a bullring and apparently the bull lives), Petisco Saloio is a typical neighborhood snack bar that serves food worthy of a special trip. Since the location is central, it’s easy to access by metro or Uber from most Lisbon hotels and neighborhoods.

Owners Carlos Pinheiro and Diogo Meneses not only cook the food, but they also provide menu guidance and serve their dishes. The resulting vibe is casual and comfortable, with an atmosphere reminiscent of eating with friends at their home. The tasca has just four tables inside with more located on the sidewalk.

We first dined at Petisco Saloio with friends visiting from New York soon after the restaurant was featured in the New York Times. Though this tasca was more casual than the other restaurants they visited, they trusted us to order a selection of dishes. Starting with a bag filled with bread and littles snacks, we ordered a selection of dishes and enjoyed them all.

Our return visit proved equally enjoyable. Based on both meals, we recommend the Queijo Gratinado (baked cheese) and Chouriço Assado (grilled chorizo) as starters. Considering the quality of the food and reasonable prices, you can choose a selection of additional dishes without much risk of disappointment.

Fábrica Imperial

Proving that cheap food in Lisbon doesn’t have to be fast food, Fábrica Imperial serves traditional Portuguese food for reasonable prices. Closed on weekends, the cozy restaurant serves lunch every weekday and dinner on Friday nights. Not only is the food tasty, but the friendly service is on point.

Daytime visitors at Fábrica Imperial choose between two or three courses. We typically go crazy and order three courses (soup, main dish and dessert) plus wine. At under €20 for two people, can you blame us?

Restarante Primavera

Located just a few blocks from Parreirinha do Chile in the Arroios neighborhood, Restaurante Primavera serves a reasonably priced menu filled with traditional Portuguese food favorites. However, locals know to order the restaurant’s signature dish – frango assado (piri-piri chicken).

Cooks prepare grill chicken at the front of Restaurante Primavera, serving it to customers who dine in the restaurant as well as to a non-stop queue of people ordering takeaway. Plan to spend about €20 for dinner for two in the restaurant or half that to take away a whole chicken with rice.

Zé dos Cornos

Located at the bottom of Alfama, Zé dos Cornos feels local despite its prime location near both Castelo and Mouraria. The tasca’s space is compact with communal seating at long tables with basic, rustic tasca decor. But the space’s simplicity doesn’t matter one iota – eating at Zé dos Cornos is all about the food and experience.

Zé dos Cornos serves a selection of Portuguese food favorites to crowds who arrive early for lunch to avoid waiting for a table. The wait, which isn’t exceedingly long, is worth it.

Although Zé dos Cornos serves a range of Portuguese food favorites including bacalhau and pork sercretos, plates with spare ribs and fried potatoes fly out of the kitchen and for good reason – the tasty ribs are generously sized and tender. We also like egg-topped alheira, grilled non-pork sausage with a history that dates back to the 16th century when Jews invented the farci during the days of the Inquisition.

Zé dos Cornos attracts a mostly local crowd but welcomed us warmly both before and after we moved to Lisbon. Expect efficient service, solid food and fair prices.

Faz Frio

Although open for over a century, Faz Frio has a modern vibe thanks to a major renovation and recent infusion of young talent. The compact Príncipe Real restaurant is aesthetically pleasing with blue and white tiles and a sleek marble bar. Two private rooms are available for families or groups of six.

Starters include light bites like pastel de bacalhau (cod fritters) and alheira croquettes as well as shareable meat and cheese platters. The menu’s main dishes offer multiple bacalhau options as well as dishes geared to both carnivores and vegetarians.

Invicta Madrigoa

We’re not sure why travelers stick euros into textured walls when they dine at Invicta Madragoa. We’re more certain, however, as to why they fill the tiny restaurant to capacity every night. This highly-rated restaurant is a gem that serves great food at reasonable prices.

Can the Can

Eating canned fish is far from a new concept in Lisbon. The Portuguese people have been preserving fish for centuries. Though it was originally a survival technique, canned fish has become trendy with Lisbon shops now selling decorated tins throughout the city.

Open since 2012 on Terreiro do Paço, Can the Can takes the canning concept to the next level by serving the preserved protein as cuisine. Curious about the concept, we stopped by for mid-afternoon snacks and drinks during a day of touring the city.

Though we enjoyed the experience, we haven’t felt a need to return for a second meal. However, we recommend Can the Can for food travelers looking to fully explore the full range of food that defines Lisbon cuisine.

Tasca do Mercado

Located at the Mercado de Arroios, Tasca do Mercado is an airy tasca with big windows and fun menu. We originally discovered the modern Lisbon eatery while shopping for produce and later returned to share petiscos (snacks).

Menu highlights include a trio of croquettes filled with meat, alheira and cuttlefish as well as tangy tuna ceviche and tomato rice. For those not into sharing, Tasca do Mercado’s menu has more than a dozen dishes featuring fish, meat and veggies. Beyond food, the tasca serves Portuguese wine that transcends typical house varietals.

Bifanas

Parreirinha do Chile

The day that we discovered Parreirinha do Chile in our neighborhood was a good one. Just a five-minute walk from our Lisbon apartment, at the foot of the eternally under construction Arroios metro station, the tiny restaurant serves some of the city’s best bifanas to a constant stream of customers hungry for cheap, tasty Lisbon street food.

This version at Parreirinha do Chile is better than a typical Lisbon bifana stuffed with a slab of meat. Here, you can observe stewing pork bubbling in a pan through the location’s window and you can smell the garlicky aroma a block away.

Savvy locals skip overhyped O Trevo and instead go to barebones joints like Parreirinha do Chile for the chance to eat amazing sandwiches currently priced at just €2 each. If they’re really hungry, they can add a bowl of soup and a beer and still spend under €5. As for us, we typically order one bifana each.

Global Cuisine in Lisbon

Ajitama

Located in Picoas near Marquês de Pombal, Ajitama is the best restaurant in Lisbon to experience the global phenomenon known as ramen. Crowds flock to Aitama, making advance reservations necessary for those who want to slurp down bowls of Japanese soup while in Portugal.

Ramen options include Shoyu, Shio, Veggie, Miso and Hakata Tonkotsu, with prices currently ranging from €12 to €14.50 per bowl. We’ve eaten at Ajitama three times and love the ramen starting with the imported noodles and ending with the hot broth. We’d probably eat at Ajitama weekly if it weren’t relatively expensive for Lisbon. It’s that good.

Chong Qing

Although Chong Qing has a menu filled with Chinese food favorites, hot pot is the main event at this Arriois restaurant. Groups of Chinese and Portuguese friends fill the spacious restaurant so they can cook tasty food at their tables and scarf it down with chopsticks.

For a set price of €14.95 (subject to change and exclusive of drinks), diners have unlimited access to a smorgasbord of meats, seafood, tofu, vegetables and noodles. Refrigerator cases offer enough options to satisfy both carnivores and vegans, with an entire section dedicated to condiments and sauces.

Be sure to specify that you want to do hot pot so the staff can set up a cauldron of garlic and/or pepper broth. We opt for both, alternating between the mild garlic side and the hellishly hot pepper side. Then start filling plates with as many mushrooms and rice noodles as you can handle.

Yakuza

Split into different sections, Yakuza has ample tables, many offering a garden view. However, the best seats in the restaurant are arguably located at an expansive sushi bar where diners get a front-row view of chefs slicing fish and assembling unique sushi creations.

Sushi is the main event at Yakuza and the primary reason most walk upstairs to dine at the Lisbon restaurant. We were no exception and ordered a Yakuza sushi combination to share. Priced at €85 at the time of our visit, the dish was a stunner, arriving on a plume of dramatic dry ice.

As the plume faded, the dish’s true bounty was revealed – thick slabs of fresh, top-grade sashimi including tuna, yellowtail and salmon. We reveled in each buttery piece that practically melted in our mouths.

Lumbini

One of the best Indian restaurants in Lisbon, Lumbini is a great spot in Madragoa to enjoy Nepalese momos (meat-filled dumplings), Indian dishes and Portuguese wine. Though the small neighborhood restaurant is typically quiet, it often fills in the evening with savvy diners looking for inexpensive food filled with big flavors.

Each meal at Lumbini starts with crispy papadum and chutneys. We typically add an order of garlic nan before choosing from dishes like saag paneer and lamb pokhara. Most dishes at Lumbini are served with a mountain of basmati rice.

Flor da Laranja

Flor da Laranja features cuisine from Portugal’s former conquerer, Morroco, but without a 1,000 kilometer journey. Unlike the Moors who decorated Lisbon with azulejo tiles Lisbon centuries ago, Rabea Esserghini is making her mark with homestyle couscous and tagines.

The female chef cooks a range of North African specialties in a tiny Bairro Alto kitchen and serves them in the restaurant’s cozy dining room. Dining options include starters like dolma (stuffed grape leaves) and main dishes like lamb tagine with prunes and chicken with preserved lemon. Add wine and dessert to complete your culinary immersion.

Coyo Taco

Mexican food is easy to find in Europe. Good Mexican food is another story. We say this after being disappointed in cities like Zagreb and London.

Based on recommendations from trusted sources, we checked out Lisbon’s Coyo Taco and were pleasantly surprised by the taqueria’s menu and genuine Mexican flavors. Coyo’s owners originated the restaurant’s concept in Miami before opening their Lisbon outpost in Príncipe Real in 2018.

Coyo Taco’s menu features a range of Mexican food favorites including tacos, burritos and quesadillas, all constructed with house-made corn tortillas. We especially like the restaurant’s guacamole and esquites, two dishes popular on the streets of Mexico City. And we always add a healthy splash of Valentina hot sauce for an extra dose of Mexican flavor.

As a bonus, Coyo Taco has several options for Vegetarians. On the downside, prices skew high for Lisbon. In other words, eating good Mexican food on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean comes at a premium.

Ground Burger

Eating American-style hamburgers is a bit of a novelty in Lisbon. When we get the craving for a juicy burger, we scratch that itch at Ground Burger.

Ground Burger has been slinging burgers near the Gulbenkian Museum since 2015. Chefs grill the burgers in an open kitchen, making each version with 150 grams of black Angus beef and freshly baked buns. The joint has a second location in the trendy Time Out Market.

Diners choose from ten burgers including ground turkey and veggie options at Ground Burger. We personally like their cheeseburger smothered with cheddar as well as the signature ground burger that adds lettuce and special sauce to the mix. To wash it all down, we typically order beer from the restaurant’s extensive craft beer menu.

Lisbon Desserts

Pasteis de Nata

Ice Cream

Ice cream lovers will not be disappointed when visiting Lisbon. The city has a slew of gelaterias scooping cones to crowds all year long, with queues longest during warm summer months. Most gelaterias are good with a handful achieving great status.

Lisbon Bars and Coffee Shops

Lisbon Coffee Shops

Lisbon Wine Bars

Portuguese wine flows through the city at tascas, restaurants, wine bars and even grocery stores where the selection transcends young Vinho Verde and fortified Port. And the best part? Prices are typically ultra-reasonable compared to drinking in other European capital cities.

We recommend starting your Lisbon wine exploration at dedicated wine bars like Black Sheep, Prado Mercearia and Senhor Uva where you can taste a range of Vinho Tinto (red wine) and Vinho Branco (white wine) varietals.

Be sure to sample wines from different regions like the Douro Valley and Alentejo in your quest to discover your favorite Portuguese sip. Then take your Lisbon wine journey to the next level with a Porto Tonico cocktail made with white port and tonic.

Craft Beer in Lisbon

As much as an imperial (small draught beer) from Sagres or Super Bock can hit the spot on a hot summer day, there’s nothing better than drinking a pint of locally brewed craft beer. In Lisbon, beer drinkers will find a number of quality breweries and bars where they can whet their whistles.

Cerveteca Lisboa is probably the most convenient place to drink craft beer in Lisbon. Not only is the craft beer bar centrally located in Príncipe Real, but it also serves an eclectic selection of local and international brews both on tap and in bottles. Regulars hang out at Cerveteca for its quality beer and chill vibe.

Lisbon Cocktails

Travelers who crave a proper drink won’t be disappointed in Lisbon. The city has a burgeoning cocktail scene with a plethora of cool clubs and luxe lounges. These Lisbon bars kick into gear once the sun goes down each night.

Cocktail connoisseurs can drink at a different bar every night of the week without getting bored. Some bars like Lost In offer rooftop views while classic establishments like Café Klandestino, Onda Cocktail Room and Toca da Raposa provide more intimate drinking experiences.

Things To Do in Lisbon

Original Publication Date: November 18, 2019