We visited the charming city of Lisbon for the first time this May, and I completely fell in love with it, with its food, its colors, and its wonderful, vivid spirit. I put together a little list of all the places we loved (which was honestly almost every place we tried). I divided them into three categories: breakfast, lunch/dinner, and of course, desserts. I hope you’ll enjoy it and find it helpful for your next trip to Lisbon. We stayed in the city for five days.

One of those days, we took the train to Cascais, a simply lovely city by the seaside. After Lisbon, we continued our trip and visited Sintra, Coimbra, Nazaré, and finally Porto. Hopefully, I’ll share some recommendations from those places soon as well.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to present this foodie list, so I added photos underneath each place so you can get a better idea. I really want to thank my dear virtual friend Ines (she is also a food photographer and food stylist based in Portugal) for all her amazing and friendly recommendations, go check her highlights on Instagram! She tries so many nice places all over Portugal and the Azores.

As for transportation, you should definitely take the tram. Try to avoid the crowded central stations, the tram ride is truly a unique experience. We also walked a lot, but when we got tired, we took Uber or Bolt, which are quite cheap in Portugal, so I highly recommend them. The city also has a metro, so there are plenty of options to get from one place to another. But beware: as I like to say, every day in Lisbon is leg day! 🙂

There are so many great breakfast spots all over Lisbon. You might come across some queues, but there are plenty of options to choose from! Here are the places we tried and we loved them all.

Breakfast & Coffee

The Bifanas do Afonso – you definitely must try this bifana sandwich (with pork slow-cooked in wine sauce) and a chicken sandwich (you add the mustard and piri-piri sauce yourself). It’s a simple sandwich but so tasty and so cheap. It’s pretty empty on weekday mornings, but on weekends there’s a line 🙈. After that, take a walk through the Alfama neighbourhood.

Marquise da Mobler – a super nice bakery with Nordic-inspired goodies and gorgeous design, you can also take the pastries with you and enjoy them in a park nearby. One thing I loved about Lisbon was that every few minutes you can find a little green oasis with a pagoda from where you can have a drink and relax on a bench.

The Folks – they have a few locations in Lisbon, we’ve been to the one in São Bento, they even have a flower shop inside and right next to it there is a nice dessert shop, see more details below in the sweets section.

Seagull Method – is a really nice cozy breakfast place with great coffee and food, they also had some super cute pancakes in the menu, will keep them in mind for our next visit.

Lunch/Dinner

Aheste – oriental cuisine, very cute for dinner, so cozy and intimate with very nice staff, we absolutely loved this place and the food was super delicious, we’ve been there the night we arrived, you might want to make a reservation as there are only a few tables.

• O Cartaxeiro – a very local lunch spot in Alfama. We waited a little in line, but I really recommend it: fresh fish, cheap and really finger liking food.

• O Corvo – a lovely, tucked-away place with tender octopus and fish. Perfect spot for lunch.

• Lupita – a super nice hipsty pizza place, it has a nice friendly vibe and the pizza was absolutely delicious and we definitely couldn’t say no to the cheesecake.

• Tasca dos Poiais – in the same area as Aheste, an unpretentious restaurant with very local, honest food. It’s on a quiet, charming little street with a few other restaurants. Our airbnb was nearby, and we really loved this location.

• Pils – if you happen to be in this area, it’s a very nice place, good food, though a bit pricy

• Koppu Ramen – we love trying ramen everywhere we go, so we stopped at Koppu for a decent ramen. We also had O Velho Eurico on the list (the photo in below right corner), a traditional restaurant, there was a line, and they have only a few tables, but this place definitely called my name.

Desserts – now my favourite part, of course pasteis de nata, wherever you look, one pastel de nata a day keeps the doctor away, right? But we also had some other desserts that we truly enjoyed.

• Gelato at Nannarella – I don’t remember the flavour we tried but all of them were soooo good, oh I remember the one with Porto wine, amazing
  

• Juliana Penteado Pastry – a super beautiful dessert spot; the coffee and hazelnut tart was amazing (the photo with cups is from a ceramic shop, you can find few lovely ones all over the city like Cecile *M or A loja Azul)

• Casa do São Miguel – a super cute place, perfect for your Instagram photos, they have many desserts you can choose from, maybe a bit too sweet for me, but definitely worth relaxing there and enjoy them along with a cup of coffee.

From Casa São Miguel, you can walk up to Miradouro Santa Luzia for some lovely photos ☺️

On the quiet little streets, especially in Alfama, locals sell their sour cherry liqueur called Ginja. You’ll see small open doors, a little table with many shot glasses, and a lady offering you a shot. It’s very similar to our romanian vișinată, maybe just a touch more alcoholic 🤭

And of course, pasteis de nata, we loved the following ones, have a pastel with a cup of espresso and get ready to explore the city:

Manteigaria (simply perfect pasteis, buttery & delicious, they have many locations in the city)

Nat’elier (you can find here different flavours like tiramisu flavored pasteis)

Castro (classic and delicious)

And then of course, the famous pasteis of Pastéis de Belém, once you grab some you can enjoy a nice walk along the Tagus river. From Belém, you can walk to the Tower, then stroll along the water to the MAAT Museum, which has a really interesting architecture. From there, you can see the 25 de Abril Bridge, and head to the LX Factory, a cool, hipster area, this way you can discover a different part of the city with a different architecture, also the street art of Bordalo an artist who has a few mural installations made from recycled trash all over the city.

São Jorge Castle is definitely worth a visit too, very beautiful, relaxing, amazing architecture and the gardens are full of colored peacocks.

When you want to take a break, you can enjoy a beer with a nice view here or here (this might have been my favorite miradouro)

Speaking of miradouros, if you’re into them, we joined a Guru Walk that covered most of these panoramic viewpoints. It’s a bit of walking 🙈 but a fun experience! Here’s the link:
Guru Walk – Top 8 panoramic views

We ended our trip to Lisbon with a glass of vinho verde in a cozy bar called Berlineta

Hope you enjoyed this article, we just can’t wait to discover more of beautiful Portugal in the future.