Lisbon Recommendations: Restaurants, Food tours, walking tours
 

I'm going to be returning to Lisbon on a part-business part-pleasure trip in early June. Most of my colleagues will be on their first visits. I would love to get some recommendations for:

- good intro walking tours (does "Chill Out Lisbon" still exist?)
- food / drink tours
- restaurants
- locales for Fado performances (I see some are already listed in a recent thread)
- distinctive shopping opportunities
- B&B's around the Rua de Angola / Rua Almirante Reis / Anjos Metro stop area
- personal or out-of-the-commonplace "don't miss" recommendations

Our business meetings will be at Rua dos Anjos 79, which is just west of Rua Almirante Reis. I stayed in the Baixa on my previous visit, and would like to do so again. While that is some distance away, it looks to me that there is a very direct Metro connection from the Rossio station through the Martim Moniz and Intendente stations and then getting off at the Anjos station -- but if anyone thinks I'm missing anything there, please let me know!

Thanks in advance!

I enjoyed fado and dinner at Clube de Fado. I don't think that appeared on the recent thread, which was devoted to places to listen to fado without dining.

good intro walking tours----there are too many to count, truly.
I use the 4 ladies of Lisbon Tour Guides (Luisa, Paula, Leonor and Isabel) but there are many other options, including Cristina Duarte's company (she does Rick Steves all Portugal tours) and Lisbon Walker, and on and on
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti..._Portugal.html
https://www.lisbonbeyond.pt
https://lisbonwalker.com

food/drink tours--I would go with Culinary Backstreets. I subscribe to their newsletters, and I can attest that they know the culinary scene extremely well.
https://culinarybackstreets.com/cate...tegory/lisbon/

fado----also too many options, but for a very good meal along with excellent fado, I would look at Clube de Fado in the Alfama, O Faia in the Bairro Alto, or the very traditional Sr. Vinho in the Lapa district.
https://www.clubedefado.pt/es/inicio/
https://www.ofaia.com/index_eng.html
https://www.srvinho.com

restaurants---too many great ones to mention. Depends entirely on your budget (most importantly), your taste, the type of vibe you're seeking, your willingness to explore other neighborhoods. The Michelin guide now has a separate Portugal edition.
https://guide.michelin.com/en/pt/lis...?sort=distance

shopping---depends on what items you're seeking, shoes, gloves, linens, ceramics, chocolates, tiles. handicrafts, gourmet food, tinned seafood, port or DOC wines....
My very favorite shop for handicrafts and some food items is A Vida Portuguesa, a truly delightful shop, where I've spent too many euros, with shops in Chiado and the larger one in Intendente and a very small boutique in the Time Out Market. Truly lovely handicrafts from all regions of Portugal. It's a treasure.
https://www.avidaportuguesa.com

B&Bs in the Rua de Angola / Rua Almirante Reis / Anjos Metro stop area----can't help with that. If you were happy with your lodgings in the past in Baixa, I would again stay there

Don't miss recommendations---if you are an art lover, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is an absolute must! One of Europe's finest (former) private art collections! Just exquisite.

The Tile Museum for me is a must, as well as the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora.
Plus all the sights in Belém (but I imagine you've visited them all, including the Naval Museum, Coach Museum, MAC/CCB),
A real jewel of a private decorative arts collection and relatively unknown, is the Museu Medeiros e Almeida, off the Avenida da Liberdade at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira
I love the National Museum of Ancient Art, which is Portugal's National Gallery.
And there's the Museu do Oriente, which traces Portugal's presence in Asia.
Lisbon has a spectacular collection of museums.







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Thanks so much for your prompt response, Maribel! This looks terrifically helpful. :)

Below are two of our favorite restaurants. In addition we really loved the piri piri chicken at Bonjardim. Some like it hot!

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/tab...sbon-portugal/
https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/as-...sbon-portugal/

We just got back from a trip to Porto and Lisbon. We were lucky to arrive just as the rain stopped and had beautiful weather almost the entire time, so we spent our time walking around, exploring and eating.

We had a great meal at Ramiro (get the spider crab!), and saw many large groups dining. The Intendente location of A Vida Portuguesa is just minutes away, so it makes a nice eating/shopping pairing.

In addition to AVP, I was pleased to a handful of shops where the goods are made in Portugal and are not large chains.
Conserveira de Lisboa - tinned fish
Sapataria do Carmo - shoes
Cutipol - cutlery
Companhia Portugueza do Cha - tea
Icon Shop - ceramics/art

As Maribel mentioned, depends on what you're looking for in terms of shopping. We did spend a full day just walking from shop to shop finding all sorts of goodies!

:)

I always recommend Gaido App for booking tours and getting recommendations from locals (they offer better rates than other guide marketplaces and work with licensed/reputable guides unlike some platforms). We went on a walking tour with Adriano and left so impressed. We did a Fado show with him as well that was great (very non-touristy).

A Taberna da Rua das Flores & A Tasquinha do Lagarto were our favorite authentic restaurant. We also loved Cervejaria Ramiro even though its a bit touristy.

One last thing I loved that isn't touristy is Mercado de Campo de Ourique. Way better than TimeOut Market.

The Repsol Guide (restaurant guide, first for Spain and now for Portugal) had its gala award ceremony this past Monday in Santarém and the winners of 3, 2 and 1 Repsol sóis (suns) are listed here:
https://www.theportugalnews.com/news...nguished/96772

As was expected Lisbon chef Jose Avillez received the coveted 3 Repsol sóis award for his Belcanto and the Yeatman, 3 sóis in Vila. Nova de Gaia and the Ocean in Porches, Algarve.
The Repsol Guide, exclusively for Portugal is digital only and in Portuguese here. The web page also includes recommended restaurants as well as the "sóis" winners.
https://tinyurl.com/4e6hfkwj

It's been nine years but this report that I wrote after our trip has some food chatter; we had a good dinner at BELCANTO but it was a bit too much non the formal side for me. If I returned I would order a la carte rather than take the tasting menu.


https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...1154939/page3/

eskcrunchy,
It came as no surprise that Jose Avillez's Balcanto was awarded 3 sóis; most expected that. Luckily, one can still opt for the a la carte menu there, while at other restaurants having received 3 suns or Michelin stars, that option is no longer available (for example, I just found out that Casa Marcial in Asturias, after receiving its 3 stars, now only offers one long tasting menu for €250 with optional wine pairing for 120 or elevated pairing for 350).

We over the years have dined at several in Portugal that have now been awarded a sol or even two sóis, but...
what interested me more now about the new Portugal Guía Repsol guide are the 124 much more affordable, more informal recommended restaurants, like Taberna Das Flores and O Frade in Lisbon (and dozens more) or Tua Madre in Evora and Merceria Gadanha in Estremoz, just like the recommended ones in the Spain guide.

I also use the Boa Cama Boa Mesa guide for research.

By the way, do you remember the Portuguese restaurant Alfama in lower Manhattan (before 9-11)? That's why we first met Chef Marlene Vieira, where she got her start.
We chatted with her a bit about her NYC stint at SS Gastronomika, and she is now the first Portuguese female chef to win a Michelin star and 2 Repsol suns for her eponymous Lisbon restaurant.


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I loved Alfama! It was the first place I tasted Portuguese food and I still remember some of the meals I savored there. It's nice to know the chef has achieved the acclaim she so richly deserves.

Wow! kja, you remember Alfama? We were sooooo sad when it closed. I loved the blue and white tiles and the intimate atmosphere! Marlena has come a long way and her awards are much deserved!

I do remember Alfama. But (and I could be wrong) they re-located to an address in the east 50s for a while. Near my house. But I think that is also long gone.
And there was that good restaurant opened by the chef at the long-running, excellent Portuguese restaurant near Union Square/23rd Street....name begins with an "A". That chef opened a place further north and west, where I first tried carabineros, which were $19 each. Both are now gone. Senior moment, I cannot recall either of those names but the one with the "A" was the best Portuguese/Iberian in the city for a while and it lasted a long time.

Cervo's downtown is very good but it's Spanish/Portuguese...Iberian, I guess. But it's kind of trendy and not so comfortable.

https://www.cervosnyc.com/menu

Yes, Alfama is long gone, a victim, I believe, of 9/11, although I think they did relocate for a while. to 52nd street, where we didn't dine. I have very fond memories of that place in its original location and their wonderful wine list of ports.

Yes, that's the place: ALFAMA. It was a few blocks west of where I live.

And the Portuguese restaurant that we liked very much is, or was, ALDEA. Chef was George Mendes and it was a favorite of ours during the first few years.

https://www.eater.com/2020/2/24/2115...-aldea-closing

Chef Mendes is now at a restaurant in the Raffles in Boston. But I still cannot recall the name of that restaurant of his where we ate the carabineros for the first time.

I wonder if US kitchens are importing carabineros more these days--I've been traveling so much that I do not eat in NYC as much as in years previous.

Check out my trip report and ask any questions.
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tugal-1713270/