172 Best Restaurants in Lisbon, Portugal

Open since the 1700s, this café under the arches overlooking Praça do Comércio is thought to be the oldest in the city and was a favorite of archetypal Lisbon poet Fernando Pessoa. There's a formal dining space inside, with plenty of well-prepared traditional dishes on offer, but the real appeal is sipping a coffee on the flagstones and watching Lisbon life go by. For a quick bite, copy the locals and order a miniprato (a smaller serving of a main, from just €7.50), either at the counter or seated in the café section.

Before the World Expo in Lisbon in 1998, this place was called Green Apple (in English) and was just another snack bar selling hamburgers. After the Expo, owners Zé Carlos and Dona Laura translated the name and the menu back into Portuguese. Now it's a spacious tavern with lots of light and Portuguese flavors on the plates.

Shortly after opening, this restaurant was distinguished with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana certificate of authenticity. The ingredients are imported directly from Naples and used not just in the pizzas but in all the Italian specialties.

This peachy pink all-day café serves breakfast and brunch plates nonstop along with coffee and cocktails. Find plenty of vegetarian and vegan-friendly options in the extensive menu that mixes brunch culture and Portuguese cuisine with a healthy homemade twist.

A city-smart sister to the celebrated Monte Mar restaurant in Cascais, Monte Mar Lisboa offers the same superior seafood with a more relaxed riverfront ambience. Occupying one of the formerly disused warehouses along a lightly revitalized stretch of the waterfront, Monte Mar has a terrific view of the river, the Ponte 25 de Abril, and the Cristo Rei on the other side, while indoors it's all industrial-chic black and chrome.

This relaxed coastal eatery runs the gamut from great breakfast and brunch options to natural wines. A warm Ukrainian-Russian couple opened this dog-friendly café and bar close to the beach. Choose from a great selection of wine by the glass or bottle and an all-day menu with dishes such as traditional cheese pancakes called syrniki and a confit duck burger.

The self-anointed Beer Museum is a spectacularly colorful temple to the brew; it also hosts a branch of the Casa Portuguesa de Pastel do Bacalhau, a pit stop that is all about the codfish cake—a traditional Portuguese snack that here (to the horror of gastronomic traditionalists) comes with a rich creamy cheese filling. They also serve light lunches and good coffee.

This offshoot of a long-established uptown restaurant is worth seeking out if you yearn for classic Mughlai food. There's a huge range of dishes, with plenty of vegetarian options, all excellent value. Service is friendly and efficient, too!

A dressy crowd gathers at this ultramodern dimly lit restaurant specializing in Japanese-Peruvian fusion food. At Nikkei you can sample many varieties of ceviche and sashimi, as well as tiraditos (a sashimi-shaped raw fish dish that blends Peruvian and Japanese culinary traditions).

With two terraces, this very popular café is located in a corner of the Santa Catarina viewpoint, so expect bird’s-eye views over the port and the city. There are well-priced daily specials for light meals and refreshing drinks, but it’s the weekend brunch that attracts most locals. The occasional live DJ mixes a soundtrack of African beats, Brazilian bossa nova, and jazz.

Crustaceans of every shape and size are found at this classic marisqueira, the name given to restaurants that specialize in seafood of all kinds. A recent renovation turned this family-run spot into a glitzy, Art Deco–inspired space where high-quality Portuguese seafood remains the star and loyal locals still attend in droves.

The oldest cervejaria (relaxed dining and drinking spot) in the region has been serving cold beer, rich seafood stews, and delicious shellfish since 1890. The local crowd is a testament to the excellent seafood, and the sunset views over the river to Lisbon are magical.

Chef Kiko has several restaurants in Lisbon, each with its own specialty, but this was his first. O Talho means "The Butcher Shop," and this elegant meat-centric restaurant does double-duty as a working butcher shop.

One of the city's best tascas (traditional no-frills restaurants), O Zé da Mouraria features hearty traditional fare every lunchtime. It's a simple place but the servings are large enough to share, the wine list is decent, and the food is an excellent value.

A highlight among the food trucks in the hipster venue 8 Marvila, Oficina Craft Snackery specializes in "decadent," artisanal smashed-patty burgers. The menu is brief but hits all the bases, ranging from a double beef burger with bacon and cheddar to a portobello burger with red coleslaw and lime sauce. There are chicken and fish options too.

In a building that was once part of a religious foundation and later a factory, this smart space mixes the traditional and the contemporary; the same can be said about the food, which comprises reinvented Portuguese snacks such as mussels escabeche and slow-stewed moelas (chicken gizzards). Among desserts, the most famous is the Dona cheese tart—ordered by the slice, or whole to take away—and there is a good wine list, too.

The south of the river is more than just seafood. If you’re craving Italian, Valdo Gatti serves artisanal wood-fired pizza crafted with Italian and Portuguese ingredients. The dough is left to rise slowly for two days before it reaches your plate.  

Delicious vegan dishes (think mango-and-tofu curry or seitan steak) ensure that there's always a line for a table in this restaurant's extremely colorful dining room or on the pleasant patio next to the botanical gardens. It’s part of a Buddhist center where a small shop stocks books, incense, homeopathic medicines, and other products, and yoga and meditation classes take place upstairs.

This tiny welcoming Italian restaurant serves small plates designed to be shared among friends. There are excellent imported cheeses, sausages, and wines alongside mains and desserts typical of the Sardinia region.

The passion project of a French theater director, Palacio do Grilo is an immersive theater experience that also happens to serve good food. The restaurant occupies an 18th-century palace in what was then the far outskirts of Lisbon, built as a palace of dreams for a noble family. In its current incarnation, it leans heavily on the surreal for decoration and for entertainment, with dancers and actors creating new works of performance art every evening. The international menu is well executed, though not the main draw.

Although the name translates as "Bread Bread Cheese Cheese," this bustling place serves much more than these two staples. Expect lines out the door as hungry sightseers and locals line up to take their pick from a huge variety of sandwiches, salads, falafel, and wraps.

This glitzy restaurant is a high-end alternative to the bustling food hall in the Time Out Market downstairs. The menu leans toward fancified versions of Portuguese classics—olive-oil-soaked roasted octopus, grilled cod, and the namesake açorda, Portugal's famous bread-based stew rich in seafood (the luxury version contains lobster) and flavored with garlic and cilantro.

The food at this wood-paneled restaurant is expertly prepared and comes in portions big enough to share. It’s a popular choice in the neighborhood, especially in the summer when they bring out the grilled fish.

Sharing the building of the Pharmacy Museum, this smart restaurant with a large terrace faces one of the city’s most popular viewpoints and is open throughout the day for meals and drinks—including medicinal-themed cocktails. Chef Susana Felicidade, known as a judge on the Portuguese edition of the MasterChef television show, gives a twist to traditional Portuguese cuisine, featuring dishes from her native Algarve such as gazpacho and carob cake.

Chef Vitor Adão made his name across town at the fine-dining Plano, but at this casual all-day spin-off, you can find the same quality without the commitment of a tasting menu. The plates here are simple Portuguese classics—tempura green beans, octopus rice, and Alentejo black pork—but with top-notch ingredients and technique. Barman Kostiantyn Hutnyk won first place in a bartending competition in his native Ukraine.

The namesake tarts, queijadas, are super sweet little cheese cakes, but this casual spot can also satisfy a more substantial hunger. For lunch, don't miss the giant grilled tiger prawns, or the grilled sardines when they're in season.