Best Lisbon Restaurants
Local Expert Restaurant Recommendations
Local Expert Restaurant Recommendations
About Lisbon Restaurants
Exploring Lisbon’s restaurant scene is to discover a feast of cosmopolitan food and flavours.
Eateries across the city serve up a banquet of traditional Portuguese cuisine, local and regional fare influenced not only by the sea but also by the rich culinary heritage of the hinterland.
The most authentic menus are often those chalked up on blackboards displayed outside the most unassuming of tascas – small, inexpensive taverns usually family-run and tucked away off the beaten track.
There are the inevitable tourist traps, where waiters hover outside touting for custom, but the vibe is always friendly and these haunts can be convenient for families, larger groups and casual, unfussy eaters.
Many fine-dining venues have adopted a contemporary and innovative approach in the kitchen. Their menus combine the finest Portuguese ingredients with the tastes and textures of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and even the Far East.
For a truly memorable occasion, dine out at a fado house. The haunting strains of this beautiful but solemn musical expression is played out between meals in a hushed room over flickering candlelight.
But if it’s a spicier, more exotic menu you’re after, make for one of the city’s colourful Brazilian or Africa restaurants where the mood, like the food, is hot.
And for those seeking an elite dining experience, there are a handful of world-class chefs, some with Michelin Star credentials, presiding over Lisbon’s most celebrated gourmet restaurants.
About Paul Bernhardt
Read more about Paul here.