40 Best Restaurants in Portugal

Run by a father-and-daughter team, this snack bar near the top of one of the city's main shopping streets has just two things on the menu: the simple prego (a steak sandwich) and the belly-busting francesinha (a sandwich featuring cheese, cured ham, sausage, and steak, all drenched in a spicy beer-based sauce). Many locals swear they are the best in town.

A café by day and bar by night, Barreirinha is popular with the locals no matter what time of day you visit. This is partly thanks to its menu of easy-to-eat items like burgers, sandwiches, burritos, and salads, and partly due to its location on a hillside with small outside tables on the terrace overlooking the ocean. Huge white parasols shade you from the Madeiran sun while local musicians keep the atmosphere lively.

Dating from 1905, Lisbon’s most famous café maintains its dazzling Art Deco interior, though you'll probably prefer to take a quick peek and then settle in at one of the tables outside to watch the lively street scenes unfold. The coffee no longer comes exclusively from the former colony that gave the place its name, but it's some of the best in town (it even features in the sauce on the house steak) alongside tasty cakes, pastries, and artfully presented seafood dishes. A few doors down, Pastelaria Bénard is an even longer-established example of Chiado's old-world cafés.

Serving pastéis de nata and other sweetly delicious treats since 1829, Confeitaira Nacional is the oldest pastelaria in Lisbon. The handsome antique decor competes for attention with the glass cabinets packed with mouthwatering cakes, pastries, and chocolates.

A fragrant, flower-filled terrace and a colorful multi-room interior complete with board games, roaring fire, and resident cat make this a lovely spot for a drink and a light meal whatever the weather. Home-baked cakes and pastries vary daily, while cheese and charcuterie boards are among the enduringly popular sharing plates.

A classic spot to sit back and relax, this quaint tea shop specializes in various herbal and fruit teas, as well as coffees, cakes, and light lunches, that you can enjoy at outdoor tables facing a pretty square. You can pick up teas to take home, too.

This bakery specializes in pastéis de nata: delicious warm custard tarts sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Although these sweet treats are ubiquitous in Portugal, the version here is celebrated as the original, made here since 1837 using a secret recipe from the nearby Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. They're so good that lines snake out of the door of this traditional blue-and-white-tiled establishment. Luckily the lines move quickly, especially if you are just getting take-out.

More of a local option than some cafés in the area, Aloma is known for its prize-winning pastéis de nata, whose fame has helped it build up a small chain and even go into the export business. This outlet also offers a range of other pastries, plus sandwiches and quiches.

Coffee addicts and chocolate lovers stop at this small store across from the Jardim do Príncipe Real, drawn by the scent of the beans that arrive straight from a family plantation in the former Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa.

Mismatched chairs, old plates used as wall art, and a simple menu of quality coffees and small meals are the order of the day at this neighborhood café. The menu includes healthy and vegan options.

The food at the café at the Teatro Taborda is nothing unusual—standard sandwiches, salads, and the like—but they have lovely views of the city. It sometimes hosts jazz concerts, poetry sessions, and recitals.

Founded in 1933, this "musicians' café" exudes an old-world charm. The afternoon tea is famous, and if you're lucky you might happen upon a poetry reading or a live concert (often fado music).

The tables outside this long-established haven 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 snack or meal (the two-course set lunches are a good value at €15). Less touristy than some other cafés nearby, it still attracts artists from the neighboring theaters who stop for a drink.

Situated on one of Mouraria's prettiest squares, Café O Corvo is a great place to recharge after a day of wandering the area's hilly streets. There are outdoor tables under shady trees, friendly staff, and a menu that includes brunch, burgers, sandwiches, and snacks.

Amarante is famous (or notorious) for the phallic cakes produced locally---a custom that may hark back to ancient fertility rituals predating the arrival of Christianity---but this, the town's oldest pastry shop, stocks a dazzling array of other sweet treats in more conventional shapes. They're all made according to traditional recipes and are delicious; the terrace, which overlooks the river and bridge from which the confeitaria takes its name, is the ideal place to sample them.

Portugal’s oldest bakery has taken over an old pier next to the Torre de Belém. Here dozens of tables are perched over the Tagus River, with one side facing the famous tower and the other toward the city. While it lacks the opulent interiors of the original, it's location is the perfect pit stop for coffee, sweets, or a freshly squeezed orange juice.

Sit beneath fragrant orange blossoms enjoying a healthy lunch at this café with a mission. Hidden behind the Belém library, this glass-walled social enterprise café supports a project protecting and empowering vulnerable women and girls. Come for the delicious house-made cake and stay for the side helping of social justice.

This bright red kiosk directly in front of the ferry terminal is hard to miss, and there are few better spots for a quick coffee, beer, or ginjinha (sour cherry liqueur) while waiting for a boat. Although the food offer is limited, toasted sandwiches, nuts, and potato chips will keep hunger pangs at bay while you soak up the sun.

Hidden just a few feet from the Elevador do Lavra, this was one of the first places in the city to offer specialty coffee, roasted and ground on the premises. Sandwiches and pastries are also available.

This pastelaria has been serving delicious cakes, pastries, and other goodies since 1934, and is more popular now than ever. It serves full meals at lunch, but the real pleasure comes in taking your pick from the glass display cases of custard tarts and other confections before sitting down to devour them alongside an espresso, fresh juice, or a glass of Portuguese wine.

Just across from the tourist office in the heart of Funchal, this restaurant-café has been open for business off and on since 1814; sit in the airy interior, capture one of the tables that flank the sidewalk, or—even better—bag a seat on the balcony. You can pop in for coffee, light local specialties, or British-style afternoon tea, or settle in for a feast of (somewhat pricey) Portuguese dishes.

A couple minutes' stroll from the Casa da Música, LEA's large leafy garden is a popular place for brunch, coffee, or cocktails. The inviting space warmly welcomes both children and pets, so expect a lively, laid-back atmosphere as you tuck into your perfectly fluffy pancakes.

A simple front entrance hides a spacious, flower-filled terrace out back at this detail-driven café in trendy Cedofeita. The owners pride themselves on preparing nutritious meals that don't compromise on taste or presentation, so expect your brunch to feature, for example, perfectly poached free range eggs on homemade sourdough bread. There's a huge range of teas and coffees, along with sparkling wines and cocktails for those wanting to indulge.

This charming all-day café-restaurant-cocktail bar dates from 1904, when it sold products imported from Paris; today its glass cases are piled high with Azorean creations from tea sets to hats to jewelry, most available for purchase. Stop by for a healthy breakfast, small plates of local cuisine with a contemporary twist for lunch or dinner, or just to take a break with some local tea or an inventive cocktail or two—and don’t bother trying to resist the house-made desserts calling your name from the countertop.

Full of Art Nouveau grandeur—think leaded-glass doorways, elaborately carved woodwork, and ornate chandeliers—the Majestic Café has been the preferred hangout of Portugal's intellectual and social elite since the 1920s. After years of neglect, it was restored to its former glory and is once again an elegant place for coffee, cakes, and evening piano music.

The custard tarts at this tiny shop rival those of the famous shop in Belém for the title of the best pastéis de nata in town. A bell is rung every time a batch emerges warm from the oven. Eat at the counter and watch the tarts being made, or take away a box of half a dozen to enjoy later.

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 live jazz or jam sessions. The bright primary colors and painted ceiling give it the look of a cozy kids' corner, but the coffees and cocktails are strictly for grown-ups.