10 Best Restaurants in Lisbon I’d Actually Recommend (After Eating My Way Through the City)
One of my favourite things about Lisbon is how ridiculously well you can eat here, as long as you know where to go.
I spent a full week eating my way around the city on my second trip, joined a guided food tour and tried far more Portuguese food than was probably necessary.
No regrets, although I definitely needed a detox afterwards.
The tricky part is that some of Lisbon’s most obvious restaurant streets are also packed with places I would happily walk straight past.
So if you are a foodie who wants to go beyond pastel de nata and the usual tourist menus, these are the 10 Lisbon restaurants I would genuinely tell a friend to book.
This list came together over what became the perfect 3 days in Lisbon, and if you are still deciding whether Lisbon is worth visiting, the food alone tips it for me.
1. Magokoro Ramen Izakaya (for a change of cuisine)
Sometimes you need a break from Portuguese food, and this Japanese spot delivered.
🍽️ What I ordered: A pork ramen bowl, and it was absolutely delicious, rich broth, tender pork, everything you want from a proper bowl of ramen.
The staff were lovely and every dish that came past our table looked incredible.
If you’re craving something completely different halfway through a Lisbon trip, this is where I’d send you!
2. Tree Story (Georgian Food)
This was my first time ever trying Georgian food, and it completely blew me away!
🍽️ What I ordered: Eggplant satsivi, chicken shkmeruli, and adjaruli, and every single dish was packed with flavour.
They didn’t have the traditional dumplings on the menu that night, which was the one disappointment, but honestly everything else made up for it.
I was with a friend who’d actually lived in Georgia, and she confirmed it tasted properly authentic, which meant a lot given the owners are Georgian themselves.
The prices were reasonable too, and the staff couldn’t have been friendlier.
3. A Ginjinha Popular (Bifana and Fireman’s Chorizo)
This was our first stop on the Eating Europe food tour, and it’s about as local as it gets: a handful of tables inside, a few more outside, and older men drinking their coffee standing at the counter.
🍽️ What I ordered: The bifana, a Portuguese pork sandwich, and it was one of the best versions I’ve had.
It’s just meat and fresh bread, so you need a generous amount of mustard or it turns dry, and being half Dutch I have no problem with that.
We also tried the fireman’s chorizo, which isn’t spicy at all, it’s simply set alight at the table, then eaten warm once the flames die down.
Green wine, a lightly sparkling white made from grapes picked early, poured straight from a tap rather than a bottle, rounded it out.
If you would rather have someone walk you through bites like this in one go, the Eating Europe food tour covers several of the same flavours in one afternoon.
4. Cantinho do Aziz (Mozambican Samosas)
Portugal colonised Mozambique, and that history shows up on the plate here in the most unexpected way.
🍽️ What I ordered: Beef and chicken samosas, and nothing about them tasted like the Indian samosas I know, they’d been completely reworked using beef, since cows are sacred in the Hindu tradition the original recipe came from.
The beef one was my favourite, packed with flavour and served with a handmade piri piri sauce that had real heat behind it!
The restaurant used to run several locations worldwide before COVID forced most of them to close, and there’s a photo on the wall of the owners cooking here as children.
I’d go back just to work through the rest of the menu.
5. Tasquinha do Fado (Bacalhau à Brás and Octopus Salad)
This traditional restaurant was the third stop on my food tour, and it’s the kind of place with genuinely old antiques on the walls and a family running the kitchen.
We started with goat and cow cheese mixed together, soft and delicious, alongside olives and bread.
🍽️ What I ordered: Bacalhau à brás, salted cod with crispy potatoes, apparently a favourite of a certain famous Portuguese footballer, and it might be one of the best things I ate in the whole city.
The dish comes finished with a touch of honey mustard, which sounds strange until you taste the sweet, salty combination working together.
We also had octopus salad, the octopus impossibly soft, and a house red wine the owner makes himself.
6. Fábrica da Nata (Pastel de Nata)
I thought I knew what a proper Portuguese egg tart tasted like until I had one from here!
🍽️ What I ordered: A single pastel de nata, straight out of the oven, and it was the best one I ate anywhere in Lisbon.
The pastry was almost audibly crunchy, and the custard inside was still warm and gooey.
Our food tour guide told us the golden rule: never buy one from a place that isn’t making them constantly, because they should come out of the oven roughly every 15 minutes and be eaten within 15 minutes of that.
Fábrica da Nata does exactly that, which is why it’s the one place I’d point you to if you only have time for one.
Most of these are an easy walk from where I would actually stay in Lisbon, so you will not need transport for a proper food crawl.
7. Antiga Wine Bar (Clams and Croquettes in Alfama)
A friend who actually lives in Portugal took me here, and it’s tucked into Alfama, which I’ve written more about in my guide to lisbon neighbourhoods.
🍽️ What I ordered: Clams à bulhão pato, swimming in garlic and a bright, herby sauce, plus pork belly and pork croquettes.
If I had to pick a favourite, it was the croquettes, but honestly the clams were right behind them.
It’s a proper wine bar with a huge Portuguese wine list, and it’s small, so it fills up fast, don’t expect to just walk in on a Friday night without a wait.
8. Monte Verde (Seafood in a Park Setting)
This one’s a little out of the centre, tucked inside one of Lisbon’s parks, so it’s worth the trip mainly if you’re already staying on that side of the city.
🍽️ What I ordered: Whole octopus in a sauce that reminded me of the burnt butter my dad used to make with Dutch meatballs, oddly comforting for a Portuguese seafood dish, and a side of garlic prawns we mopped up with bread.
The staff were genuinely warm, and eating lunch surrounded by trees felt like a proper break from the city.
One honest warning: they close for a few hours in the afternoon, so check the current hours before you turn up hungry.
Book ahead if you are visiting during the best time to visit Lisbon in spring or autumn, since tables fill fast.
9. Lisboa é Linda (Beef Pica Pau and Chocolate Mousse)
Another recommendation from a friend, and this one earned its name, which translates to roughly “Lisbon is beautiful”.
🍽️ What I ordered: Beef pica pau, chunks of beef in a garlicky, slightly sharp sauce I still think about, plus duck and orange croquettes that had a beautiful balance of sweet and savoury.
The cocktails were genuinely incredible, I just told the bartender what flavours I liked and he built something perfect around it.
The real highlight was dessert: a huge bowl of chocolate mousse arrived at the table, and the waiter drizzled olive oil and sea salt over the top right in front of us.
It might be the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever eaten, and I am not exaggerating even slightly!
10. Talego (A Proper Local Tasca)
Another one recommended to me by a friend, and it delivered.
🍽️ What I ordered: The full €14 set menu, vegetable soup to start, bread and olives, duck and orange with rice and chips for the main, and coffee mousse for dessert.
The family running it were lovely, and the place was packed with what looked like local office workers on their lunch break, a queue formed outside the second the doors opened.
If you only eat at one tasca in Lisbon, this is exactly the kind of place I mean when I say it in my things to do in lisbon guide, no fixed menu, just whatever’s good that day, and better for it.
Between all of this, I came away completely convinced Lisbon is a serious food city, not just a pastel de nata photo opportunity, and the wine prices alone (a glass for one or two euros in plenty of places) make it an easy city to eat and drink well in without wrecking your budget.
If you want general practical tips for eating out, Lisbon’s own traveller information page covers the basics.
Just be prepared to go up a dress size or two!
Wandering between tascas after dark never felt unsafe, in line with what I found looking into whether Lisbon is safe overall.
I arrived hungry after taking the bus from Porto to Lisbon, and this list is exactly what I went looking for that first night.
