5 Best Restaurants in Alcântara, Cais do Sodré, and Santos, Lisbon

One of the hippest tables in town, Tricky's is a collaborative project between natural wine sommeliers and creative next-gen chefs. Cooks in the open kitchen—the best seats are at the counter right in front of it—create a menu of sharable small plates with Portuguese, Italian, and Asian influences, and they're matched with low-intervention wines from across Europe.

Mushrooms are the star of the show at this stylish, low-lit new eatery in Santos. While the menu includes a few fish and meat plates, most of the dishes are vegetarian or vegan, spotlighting enoki, lamb's foot, portobello, porcini, and the restaurant's namesake black truffle mushrooms. The combinations are varied and interesting, ranging from Japanese chawanmushi custard to Italian-style gnocchi and pasta. 

Virtually everyone in the kitchen at this new-ish restaurant in Santos is from Mexico, making Boca Linda a more authentic alternative to some of the trendier taco joints sprouting up around town. The guacamole comes with chapulines (grasshoppers), the green aguachile is properly spicy, and the tacos come with fillings like cochinita pibil (suckling pig) and barbacoa (slow-cooked meat).

While the main street linking Cais de Sodré and Santos seems to be one natural wine bar after another, Cav 86 stands out from the crowd for the quality of its wine selection and for the sophistication of its food menu. There's not a perfunctory snack in sight; rather, the long menu of sharable plates includes dishes like duck rillettes, pumpkin arancini, and beef tartare with mussels escabeche.

Occupying a bright and breezy downstairs room at the LX Boutique Hotel (there's a branch in Cascais, too), this sophisticated spot is one of the best places in town to eat sushi. There are vegan and vegetarian options alongside the usual fish, seafood, and sashimi.