Lisbon 5 Popular Restaurants Review (+ Pastel de Nata)

Day 1 Dinner：O Português Chiado

This restaurant on Tripadvisor is not outstanding, but the Google review is super good, with a 4.9 high rating (by the time I visited). Everyone says the food is amazing. The ceiling is high which offers generous space, and the price looks reasonable. Besides, there is live music every Friday at 7:00 pm. So I made a reservation to eat on the first night.

However, I was not well impressed in the first sight since they used white light, and it was dimmed in the evening, which made the food look dull.

The food overall was okay. The signature dish grilled octopus was tender and tasted good, but the side dish was too salty. The starters – cod cake and sausage bonbon, were in standard taste, but size was smaller than I expected in terms of the price they charged.

Day 2 Lunch：Casa da Tia Helena

This is a small restaurant located in the old district of Alfama, local style, nothing fancy. The price was very affordable, and the food was very good. We didn’t have a reservation, and there were quite a lot of customers on a Friday afternoon.

All the food we ordered was really delicious. I would say this is the best restaurant on the whole Lisbon trip. Perhaps the taste was the kind of home-style taste that can be eaten every day without getting tired of it. Especially the cod chickpea salad, which was very refreshing. After returning to Germany, I tried to cook it myself!

Day 2 Dinner：Duque

This is also a small and popular restaurant, while we saw many people were turned away in a Friday evening. It is recommended to make a reservation in advance.

The food was not exquisite, but the taste was okay, at a reasonable price. But I didn’t miss it afterwards.

We had paella (€13.5) and the traditional Portuguese soup Caldo Verde (€4), but we forgot to take pictures, maybe because the lighting was too dim, it didn’t look very good. The best thing to eat was paella, which was full of seafood and tasty enough; the confit duck leg was too dry; the ceviche was not like ceviche, it was just a salad with fish pieces, which had no refreshing feeling; the soup and dessert were not impressive either.

Day 3 Dinner：Prado

Prado is very popular. I was lucky enough to make a reservation a month ahead. So, my expectations for Prado were very high!

Just looking at the menu, you will think it’s a ‘okay price’, yet, the food portions are actually very small. The staff will also explain to you that all dishes are starter portions. So, you will probably order 2-3 dishes for each person. And the water charge was € 1 per table, unlimited refill.

I like their food will surprise you in some ways. You will wonder what it is? What is that? The way they presented was also interesting and unexpected.

The staff take good care of customers, and you will have a very relaxing and comfortable dinner experience throughout the meal. Travelling should be like this!

Day 4 Lunch：Lisbon Tu e Eu 2

We visited Lisboa Tu e Eu No. 2 store, which is near Lisbon Cathedral. I wouldn’t know there was a restaurant if I hadn’t paid pay attention.

We ordered these 3 dishes for lunch. Our favourite dish was Cod a bras, which was made of cod fish and stringy French fries with eggs. It was crunchy and cute in a heart shape.

The mushroom rice was also very tasty, but personally I prefer less salt. The Pica-Pau chicken used chicken breast, but not dried, a little spicy, so it went well with rice.

The chef was a Portuguese woman and a young girl. I was watching them busy in the kitchen. It made me feel like eating at home. It is recommended to give it a try.

Pastel de Nata

Pastéis de Belém vs Manteigaria

The egg tart in Portugal is called Pastel de nata, which can be bought in many places in Lisbon. We tried 2 of them.

The most famous is one Pastéis de Belém in Belem, which is said to have a long queue. Fortunately, we visited around 1:00 p.m. on a Sunday. There was no queue at all. We took away, sitting in front of the church and eating Portuguese tarts while enjoying the sunshine. It was crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, with a little sugar burnt, delicious!

Meanwhile, the other shop called Manteigaria, has a lot of branches in the centre of Lisbon, so it is easy to buy. It was also crunchy, and the custard was creamy, but the taste was sweeter than Pastéis de Belém. In fact, there was not much difference between the two, but my personal preference is less sweet, so I prefer Belem’s products.

To sum up, the restaurants we tried in Lisbon were tasty and the service was always good, plus at a more attractive price than in Germany. Hopefully, next time I can try out more local restaurants which have no websites, no tourists, but only hearty Portuguese food.