Last minute restaurant suggestions in Portugal
 

We are leaving soon and have not looked into any restaurants! Looking for local cuisine, seafood, toddler-friendly lunch and dinner spots in:
Porto
Pinhao region
Vila Nova Milfontes
Zambujeira do Mar
Odeceixe
Lagos
Lisbon.
Budget is very flexible. Also looking for cafes with excellent coffee.
We'd like to stay clear of tourist traps, and like to experience the culture through local cuisine. Toddler friendly is important, so super-fancy fine dining places would probably not work for us.
Thanks!

These are my notes on dining in Lisbon and Cascais:

"We also took the train to Cascais, which we liked a lot. Very small town, lots of beach activity, and small shops. While there, we found a classy and expensive-looking beachside hotel with a café overlooking the water. We stopped for lunch there. It is pricey, with very disginguished-looking hotel clientele. Looked like a great place for a honeymoon:

The Albatroz Hotel in Cascai
Rua Frederico Arouca
100- 2750- 353 Cascais
www.thealbatrozcollection.com

Our third day-trip by train was to Estoril, which is just two stops before Cascais. We had enjoyed the Atlantic seaside, so we returned to that area. We ate at a very simple seaside fresh fish restaurant. I am not a die-hard fish fan like DH, so I wasn’t as wild about my swordfish choice, as it was different than I expected. But they had free wi-fi and DH liked his salmon and my dish, too. The diner next to me had the squid, which looked good.

“Baiuka Bar Restaurante”
Praia das Moitas
2765 Monte Estoril
www.baiukabar.com

Restaurants in Lisbon we recommend:

1. “Duval”-- DH had walked by this very nice-looking restaurant on a tiny street up the hill, across from an historic convent. We returned to it for dinner, and were very happy with it. It has a more contemporary feel, with excellent service and an inventive menu.

The chef was short-handed, because her husband/chef was in the hospital for surgery, but she still made time to come to our table and help us choose wines with our orders. Our waiter was actually from their other restaurant in the Algarve, who had been pressed into service, and he could not have been more friendly and helpful. We enjoyed picking his brain about his hometown Lisbon.

The chef sent a complimentary garlic sardine appetizer to us, to tide us over because our order was behind a huge party of 30.

“Duval”, Rue Nova da Trinidade No 11 H/K
1200- 301 Lisboa
www.fazgostoslx.com

2. "Sancho"-- This place was very near our hotel, and looked good, so we stopped in for dinner. Service was excellent and fish was fresh and good. I had prawns and DH had salmon.
“Restaurante Sancho”,
Travessa da Gloria n.o. 14
1250- 118 Lisboa
www.restaurantesancho.com.pt

3. We did NOT like “Restaurante Valentino”, although it is a lovely restaurant, outside seating, on a charming narrow cobblestoned street directly down from our hotel. It had been recommended by our concierge.

Our experience was not good—service took forever, and both our orders were delivered wrong. We had to wait a while for the new orders to be delivered. The manager apologized, but offered no comp drink while we waited. The food was mediocre, shrimp was scarce in our sauce, pasta was too al dente. We noticed other diners were also drumming their fingers on the tables, waiting for their food. Maybe it was an off-night, as our waiter seemed to be new, didn’t speak English, and required the assistance of the manager several times. The restaurant was full, outside and in.

http://grupovalentinorestaurantes.co...auradores.aspx

Vila Nova Milfontes
Restaurante "A Choupana" - Praia do Farol (lighthouse beach)
Don't miss it. The kind of place where you choose the fish or meat you want to eat and they grill it for you - totally unpretentious.
Lisbon (depends on the district)
I appreciate "Adega das Gravatas", but it is somehow peripheral (you need to take a taxi). "Stop do Bairro" and "Casa dos Passarinhos" in Campo de Ourique are popular among the locals.

Can't help you about other locations, sorry.

Comment to my comment :-) After posting I read that the "Stop do Bairro" could have some smoke in the air and that can spoil the entire experience. "Casa dos Passarinhos" and "Adega das Gravatas" are both off the beaten track.
Whatever you decide, enjoy your travel.

<i>Last minute restaurant suggestions in Portugal
Posted by: sg123 on Jul 11, 14 at 1:06pm
Looking for local cuisine, seafood, toddler-friendly lunch and dinner spots in:
Lisbon. </i>

There are small cafes with grilled fishes and meats everywhere. I had a nice lunch in the 9th floor balcony cafeteria of the department store Pollux. Cheap.

With a toddler you are not likely to want to be climbing Lisbon's hills in summer looking for a recommended restaurant. You would probably get more useful answers if you said where you are staying and where you expect to be around lunch time so people can tell you what's worthy and what to avoid right nearby.

But I agree with spaarne that it is pretty easy to decode Lisbon's eating scene, including what is touristy and what is neighborhood.

Yes, Lisbon is a friendly place with good food and low prices. Our first night there, we were too exhausted to walk very far, so we went across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe. I can highly recommend the Hotel Avenida Palace. It is wonderful and great location. Superb service.

If you want to experience the culture through local cuisine, you might want to give the Hard Rock Cafe a miss.

sandralist, you state the obvious. I gave that as an example of the ease of finding restaurants in Lisbon, which are also child- friendly.

See my other suggestions above.

Lisbon: Pinquio in Restauradores Sq is casual and has outdoor seating plus the food is very good.

Taxis in Lisbon are plentiful and relatively inexpensive.

But when I was looking for Adega das Gravatas our taxi driver had to ask directions from his fellow drivers as he passed them on the street. He got us there though. Great dinner.

Also enjoyed Stop do Bairro, don't remember the smoke, do remember my husband hugging the waitresss by the end of the night.

You won't have any problem finding local cuisine or seafood - tis everywhere. We actually had a nice lunch in the modern art museum in Lisbon, and a great dinner in a little place in the Chiado called Xapuri. In Belem we had a good lunch at the Italian place right by the monument - no local cuisine but very kid friendly. Our best meal in Porto was in an Indian restaurant called Mindi. good luck, enjoy