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Lisbon's dining scene has evolved dramatically in recent years to include any number of high-end dining opportunities, but amid the international fare, Michelin-starred restaurants, and molecular gastronomy, the city's simplest and most traditional restaurants still do a roaring trade. Meals generally include three courses, a drink, and coffee. Many restaurants have an ementa turistica (tourist menu), a set-price meal, most often served at lunchtime. Note that you'll be charged a couple of euros if you eat any of the couvert items—typically appetizers such as bread and butter, olives, and the like—that are brought to your table without being ordered.
Lisbon's restaurants usually serve lunch from noon or 12:30 until 3 and dinner from 7:30 until 11; many establishments are closed Sunday or Monday. Inexpensive restaurants typically don't accept reservations. In the traditional cervejarias (beer-hall restaurants), which frequently have huge dining rooms, you'll probably have to wait for a table, but usually not more than 10 minutes. In the Bairro Alto, many of the reasonably priced tascas (taverns) are on the small side: if you can't grab a table, you're probably better off moving on to the next place. Throughout Lisbon, dress for meals is usually casual, but exceptions are noted below.
This is a retro-chic spot for tea and cakes or cocktails and petiscos (small plates). The kitsch collectibles and bottle-filled cabinets make the space feel like being at someone's grandparents' house, and the board games and comic books add to the wholesome charm. Take a seat on the terrace in summer, or cozy up in the comfy interior when it's chilly outside.
This bakery specializes in pastéis de nata: delicious, warm custard pastries sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Although these sweet treats are ubiquitous in Portugal, the version here (made from a secret recipe since 1837) is the most celebrated. They're so good that lines snake out of the door of this traditional blue-and-white-tiled establishment.
The tables outside this reliable café are the perfect place to watch the old trams go by, while an interior reading room offers a quiet space to relax with a book and a meal or snack. Less touristy than some of the others nearby, it still attracts artists from the neighboring theaters who stop for a drink.
Offering a little respite from the rowdy nightlife of "Pink Street," this cute café-bar doubles as a bookstore, and it's not unusual to see local poets reading from their work. The bright primary colors and painted ceiling give it the look of a cozy kids' corner, but the coffees and mixed drinks are strictly for grown-ups.
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