Recently we took a trip to Portugal for a long weekend. Exploring Lisbon on foot was fantastic. But we also enjoyed the opportunity to head out of the city and explore the castles and coast of Sintra, Cascais and Cabo da Roca. Like most of our trips, the day often revolved around food. From the moment we finished breakfast at our hotel, we were always in search of our next meal. Or next drink. Or next snack. Even though we were in Portugal, not all the food we ate was Portuguese. Afterall, Lisbon has a great culinary scene and we were lucky enough to have some fabulous meals nearly everywhere we went. Here are some of our favorites and where you can find them.
I know it’s hard to tell, but under that pile of mushrooms is a steak. Generally I believe that if you smother anything with mushrooms it’s delicious, but I’m pretty sure this steak stood on it’s own. This wonderful piece of heaven is from Stasha Restaurant in the Bairro Alto section of Lisbon.
We were told you can’t go to Lisbon and not have codfish. Turns out, that was correct. It is actually difficult to avoid it but thankfully there’s no reason to, because it’s delicious. If you want to have this check out Largo Restaurant but make a reservation or you’ll be waiting for awhile!
Restaurante da Adraga is way out in the middle of nowhere. If you travel west as far as you can go within Europe and then down the end of a long and winding road, you’ll find this culinary gem perched on the beach near the crashing sea. These may be the biggest tiger prawns I’ve ever seen but they were so good they needed no sauce, no flavoring, nothing. Delicious.
Check out this fish. It’s the real deal. The whole sole comes out and you don’t know what you should do first – take a bite or take a picture. Clearly I chose the former. I couldn’t resist! Fish like this is all over Portugal, but this is also at Restaurante da Adraga near Cabo da Roca.
When we posted that we were going to Lisbon on Facebook a friend of Chandra’s responded that we had to check out this chocolate place in Principe Real. Claudio Corallo Cioccolato e Caffe uses only imported chocolate from the island of Sao Tome and Principe. To say their chocolates are “unique” would be a bit of an understatement. Drinking their hot chocolate felt like I was doing drugs and their unique chocolate flavors like “pepper and salt” will leave you wanting more.
Risotto is one of my weaknesses. If it’s on a menu, I have a hard time nor ordering it. This prawn risotto is filled with chunks of shrimp throughout but then also topped off with one giant prawn on top. Check out Largo Restaurant to have one for yourself.
When you sit down at a nice restaurant in Lisbon there is already food on the table. All sorts of little appetizers and tasting plates await having the plastic-wrap pealed back off them. It’s not uncommon to receive an entire cheese like this one at Stasha Restaurant in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto. I’m not a cheese fan, but Chandra was raving about it.
These garlic shrimp are also from Stasha Restaurant. This place was probably our favorite restaurant in Lisbon – or at least top two. The description of these shrimp made them sound like they would be fried but what we got was so much better. The sauce was so garlicky delicious we ate all the bread in the basket sopping up all the goodness we could.
Okay this is the last dish I’m sharing from Stasha Restaurant. Nearly all the reviews we read about Stasha mentioned the octopus so of course we had to try it. It was unlike any octopus we’ve ever had. Mostly because we were served the entire whole octopus! They cook the thing in garlic and butter and oil for hours until the entire octopus is so succulent and delicious you can hardly believe it. Seeing it’s head on the table was a bit off-putting at first, but it made it no less delicious.
I love churros and was looking for them the entire time I was in Lisbon. Being so close to Spain, I figured churros would be plentiful. Not the case. But we did find this crepe at Amorino (which apparently has a location in New York City too). Pretty much anything doused in Nutella is the perfect way to end a good meal.
So those are our favorite things that we ate in Lisbon. What about you? Have you been to Portugal and eaten something delicious? Share it in the comments.
Lisbon looks like a very good place to eat!
It definitely is! Everything is so fresh, we really enjoyed it a lot.