The Best Restaurants in Lisbon

Modern, fashion forward decor with inventive food, although there are hits and misses I have to give kudos to this place because I’ve seen more females employed here in FOH than any restaurants we’ve been all over Portugal. The vibe is fashionable & clean modern, both in decors and food presentation. It was diffrent than most other restaurants in Portugal that are all about seafood. Just don’t order the seaweed lobster risotto. Where’s the lobster? You practically have to get a magnifying glass out to find it. But still worth a trip if you’re looking for something nice but diffrent than most other restaurants in Portugal.

Amazing carvejaria!I have visited Ramiro twice and it is one of my favourite restaurants in Lisbon. The ingredients are excellent. Must visit when in Lisbon!

Starred creative cooking with the best Portuguese produce, by chef José Avillez. There’s quite a few Michelin Star restaurants to choose from in Lisbon, if you’re looking for that kind of fine dining experience (thirteen restaurants, fifteen stars in total). Belcanto was the first to get two stars in the capital (and the only Portuguese restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list), and chef José Avillez continues to push the high standards with a cuisine that creatively expresses some of our best ingredients. From the “Scarlet shrimp curry, cauliflower and green apple” to the “Suckling pig with orange peel purée and lettuce” or the “Smoked and cured horse mackerel, Algarve carrot and emulsion”.If you go for lunch, the light comes in through the windows adding even more charm to the beautiful dining room.

Old school is the best!Great restaurant. Old school Portuguese restaurant serving traditional fish and meat. Would recommend sitting at the bar, if space. Table side service is professional and seems like the waiters have worked here for 100 years.

Open horizonsI totally recommend this place to “omnivores”, amazing place, nice service and good wine menu.Makes you think how we can change in a near future to a different diet.

This place is entirely dedicated to the pig and all - and I mean all - of its pieces.This place is entirely dedicated to the pig and all - and I mean all - of its pieces. Ultra tasty pig steak sandwich (or “Bifanas”, as we call it) and other seasonal specials that can go from pork chops to offal very quickly. Great mostly natural wine list, too.

A nice and simple taberna, by Chef André Magalhães, super casual, with really incredible food.One of my favourite places in Lisbon. Taberna da Rua das Flores is a nice and simple taberna, owned by Chef André Magalhães. It’s super casual, with really incredible food and offers a nice, typical Lisboan experience. They do lunch too but I would go at night. No bookings - you just sign up at the door and go for a walk or a drink while waiting. The area is cool as well so worth walking down the street and see some other places and bars.

I had the absolute pleasure of visiting 1 star restaurant, Feitoria, in Bélem, where beautiful and locally sourced products meets the talent and skills of the team. The meal was absolutely faultless, with an excellent selection of Portuguese wine. This deserved a better Michelin rating - it should have been at least 2 stars!

This tiny hole-in-a-wall serves some of the most delicious “bifanas” in the city.There are many restaurants that have bigger walk-in refrigerators than As Bifanas do Afonso’s spot in downtown Lisbon. This tiny hole-in-a-wall serves some of the most delicious “bifanas” in the city. For those that might not be familiar with it, a “bifana” is a pork steak sandwich where the meat is thinly sliced and submerged in a special secret sauce (each house has their own mix) filled with garlic, paprika, white wine and bay leaves. This indulgent slab of meat is then wrapped in a light and crispy roll - and don’t forget to add some cheap mustard and chili oil. It’s the perfect hangover food and Afonso really knows how making them. If you want a more substantial meal, besides just the “bifana”, ask for a homemade soup (they change basically everyday) or samosa.

Great food and wines, in a creative contemporary Portuguese cooking. Chef João Sá has is very own approach Tasting menu and pairing or let yourself in the chef's handsReally good local wine selection focused on Lisbon’s reagion.

The perfect Portuguese restaurantIt’s small, packed, and affordable. Get the daily special, what ever it is, and take your time and enjoy a long lunch over lots of wine, which is almost as inexpensive as water. Make a reservation, or show up a few minutes before they open to ensure a table.

Head Chef PEDRO PENA BASTOS and his team will spoil and surprise guests with a modern-natural cuisine.One MICHELIN starred restaurant CURA at FOUR SEASONS HOTEL RITZ in Lisbon, Portugal. It is a culinary journey through Portugal! All the dishes of our menu "ORIGIENS" were excellent! Chef PEDRO uses acidity, umami, bitter notes, saltiness and sweetness very skillfully. The dishes are full of flavors, textures and different temperatures! It’s a really superb dining experience! Our wine pairing was equally on par with the food. The service is very professional, attentive and charming! Guests can watch the chefs prepare the plates in the open kitchen! The interior is beautifully designed in 1960s style. The CURA offers a wonderful overall experience and is an absolute tip for Lisbon!

Natural wines and great food with a creative Argentinian touch. Empanada. Beetroot with chèvre and cacao. Choripan.Tati is a popular wine bar with an ever changing menu with small dishes. Located in the residential neighborhood Penha de França, the bar with a marble counter and terrace gets lively every night with guests coming to enjoy the natural wines and great food with a creative Argentinian touch. Do not miss the beef empanada, the beetroot with chèvre and cacao and the house choripan. And pray for that the kitchen will have the chocolate mousse with toasted coconut and dulce de leche on the menu.

Amazing pasteis de nata fresh from the oven and coffee. Finding the perfect egg custard tart, pastel de nata, in a city full of custard tarts, can be a challenge. The obvious choice is the touristy Pastéis de Belém, but many locals will go for the tiny Manteigaria in the more centrally located Chiado district. Manteigaria is a small and busy bakery serving amazing pasteis de nata fresh from the oven and coffee. Don’t forget the cinnamon sprinkle.

A place to discover the best Portuguese ingredients cooked in a sophisticated, yet simple, way and full of flavour.The restaurant of the beautiful Bairro Alto Hotel has one of the best views over the rooftops of downtown Lisbon. The project started with Nuno Mendes who came from London to create all the food concepts in the hotel (check also the more recent 18.68 Cocktail Bar). Now that Nuno left, talented chef Bruno Rocha continues the work they started together. Try the amazing barnacles toast to start and, if in winter, don't miss the mushrooms with cured egg before discovering the delicate texture of the sea bass, at its very best also in winter, when the fat of the fish melts in your mouth. For dessert, the soft and not very sweet farófias are a must. Also, go for the wine pairing and you will learn a lot about less well known Portuguese wines from small, independent producers, many of them organic or biodynamic.

* Michelin Restaurant located in center of the capital city, Lisbon, has 16 and 18 course menus for a fair price.Inspired by the chef’s life, Ljubomir Stanisic, the tasting menu tells you some of the culture and life experiences of the Bosnian chef who has juguslav ancestry. The cocktail is all signatures and is a must to try.The front of house and service quality is outstanding.

Mix of Spanish and Portuguese tapas restaurant at the heart of Bairro Alto. All the tapas were amazing, incredible service and good wine!For dessert I recommend the chocolate mousse with olive oil caviar.

Traditional tasca with a young kitchen team. Book early or queue. I love the little tabernas and tascas in Lisbon. O Velho Eurico is a very cool place with this typical Lisbon feel. When Zé Paulo Rocha and his young team took over this old tasca it got a youthful feel. The food is still relating to the past and and they play loud Portuguese music. I've been there a couple of times and I’ve taken friends there too.

A (great) local restaurant disguised as a TabernaTalented Chef Leopoldo Calhau, from Alentejo, recreated the feeling of a genuine taberna in the Mouraria neighbourhood. A menu hand-written on a chalkboard on the floor welcomes guests with a dozen original dishes reflecting his extroverted personality, preferences and family origins (from Southern Alentejo region). A trained architect turned chef, who enjoys bringing back many traditional recipes from his childhood with an occasional twist of his own. The plating is always down to earth and unpretentious.The menu changes regularly but “Hake, egg and coriander” is one of my favorites, but there’s so much more, like the “Hare and beans", “Cod and chickpeas”, “Asparagus ‘migas’ (traditional bread dish from Alentejo)” and the “Joana’s walnut pudding”.I love the bustling, lively ambiance, the ingenious but straightforward dishes and the magnetic personality of the chef Leopoldo Calhau with his flair for hospitality.

Marlene Vieira is the only Portuguese woman chef competing for the podium at fine dining experiences in Portugal. It can be troublesome to be a strong woman in a conservative industry like the food one, especially in an old-fashioned and misogynist country such as Portugal. However, as the Portuguese say, "a woman from the north" is born with extra strength and the ability to fight. Marlene Vieira has that muscle, and earlier this year opened a gastronomic restaurant aiming for a Michelin Star. Marlene, – the restaurant's name is exactly like this, with a coma – is an elegant stage for this chef's work. At the centre of the restaurant, the ethereal kitchen illuminates like a holy altar, leaving the rest of the space in half-light. One can choose from two different tasting menus representing the story of her life and her experiences, but above all, challenging the status quo that other fine dining restaurants have been following. She does not approach produce and recipes with the well-behaved vibe most haute cuisine restaurants in Portugal do. Crawling between dishes, one can see she is knowledgeable, down-to-earth, ballsy, and above all things, connected to her roots. At the beginning of her path in this new project, I tasted a Goose Barnacles Tart with Codium and Planetree, a very polished snack. A comforting Spring dish made with Broad Beans, Morilles, and Sheep Butter, and a disruptive meat dish: Fatty Milky Lamb cooked on Live Coal and served with its Sweetbreads, Roasted Onions Purée, and Pickled Chard. Marlene Vieira is a pillar and an example for young women cooks out there, but one can not ignore she is not only standing next to the big boys but has overcome most of them.

Grilled piri-piri chicken & fries. A secret comfort food destination with classic artworks & old aprons.There’s something about grilled piri-piri chicken and fries, with “esparregado” (a dense purée of turnip greens) on the side, that allures many of us. This simple place, despite its white tablecloths, reproductions of classic artworks hanging from its wooden walls and waiters in old aprons and ties, is one of my secret comfort food destinations. The piri piri is optional, but I don’t dismiss it. And there’s more than chicken but chicken is the thing.