85 Best Restaurants in Portugal

With a cavernous interior, lovely blue and yellow azulejo tiles, and formal staff, this upscale tasca has been a local favorite since 1939. It serves vast portions of typical Portuguese dishes such as cabrito assado (roast kid) and bacalhau d'ouro (salted cod with turnips, potato, and cornbread). Most main dishes easily serve two, but leave room for something from the ever-changing but dependably good dessert menu.

This pastry shop opened in 1957 in the city of Alcobaça, and six decades later it expanded to the capital. You can now try the tarts together with “monastic pastries” that follow age-old recipes by Cistercian monks, all in this small shop on Chiado’s busiest street. Its rise to fame in Lisbon happened in 2014, when it took the top prize for best custard tart in an annual contest. 

The Michelin-recommended restaurant atop the Bairro Alto Hotel draws a well-dressed crowd for pre-dinner cocktails on its rooftop terrace—arrive early, as it's first come, first served and highly sought after at sunset. Inside, the elegant dining room centers around an open kitchen where you can watch chefs artfully plate seasonal dishes, with fresh seafood often playing a starring role. The sommelier provides excellent pairing advice, frequently highlighting selections from small, independent Portuguese producers. 

Expect the unexpected at this Michelin-starred spot that puts a playful spin on fine dining. Award-winning chef Vítor Matos and rising talent Rita Magro (named Young Chef of the Year in 2024 before earning a star, with Matos) have created tasting menus of 10 or 12 courses (wine pairing menu extra but highly recommended if the budget will stretch) inspired by the novel Blindness, by Nobel-winning Portuguese author José Saramago. Expect stunning presentation and dishes that constantly surprise, playing with your sense of taste and even your memory skills. And yes, you’ll be blindfolded for at least one of them.

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.

This bakery in Sintra’s old town has been dishing out regional pastries to visitors since 1862. It is known for its travesseiros, a pillow-shaped puff pastry filled with almond and egg custard and dusted with sugar. It’s become so popular that they opened another place around the corner called Piriquita II.

Although the name suggests it’s only open to the press, this restaurant welcomes everyone. The menu features innovative dishes like eggplant drizzled with miso caramel or white fish ceviche topped with spicy popcorn. It has a cozy dining room lined with azulejo tiles, but in the summer everyone heads straight to the pleasant garden and plops down at one of the umbrella-shaded tables.

From fixed-price lunches to delicious cakes and vegan pastries, everything is prepared with love and served with a smile at this welcoming little cafe in the heart of Coimbra's historic center. There are plenty of tables in the cozy interior, but the tables and chairs set out on the flagstones outside are the best bet in the summer months. Prices are extremely reasonable given the prime location. 

This excellent coffee shop has a few branches across Funchal, including one in the Mercado dos Lavradores. After browsing the market's fruit, vegetable, fish, and flower stalls, take a seat at one of the cafe's small wooden tables and enjoy a bica (espresso) and a pastel de nata (custard tart). Step inside and you'll see row upon row of neatly presented cakes and tarts laid out in the chilled counters like gems in a jewelry box.

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.

The name of the Michelin-starred restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz comes from the Portuguese word curadoria (curatorship), a nod to the thoughtful, detail-driven approach of head chef Rodolfo Lavrador. The restaurant offers two versions of its signature tasting menu, Origens—choose from 5 or 10 “moments,” each a beautifully composed dish built around seasonal ingredients. Vegetarian versions are also available, with optional wine or soft pairings.

Creativity and chemistry combine at this Italian-style gelato shop on Sesimbra’s waterfront. Choose from 18 traditional and fun flavors, including many that make use of fresh fruits. Two brothers—a pharmacist and a pastry chef—returned from a Bologna gelato course to create ECHO.

The cuisine of northern Portugal is notoriously meat-heavy, but local produce is so flavorful that it can easily stand alone. Essência understands this well, and its celebrated vegetarian menu showcases sophisticated meat-free dishes that run the gamut from mushroom carpaccios and colorful garden salads to risottos. Vegan and gluten-free dishes are available, and there are even a handful of seafood and meat options.

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.

From the road, this restaurant doesn't look like much—a fading yellow building with a few signs outside to attract the tourists—but step inside and you'll be blown away by the views of the valley from the balcony in the rear. There's a huge wood oven where they grill whole chickens, serving the tender meat with generous bowls of bolo do caco (flatbread).

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.

The terrace at the chic Memmo Alfama Hotel has some of the neighborhood's best views. The menu centers around tapas-style small plates—the selection of Portuguese cheeses and meats, served with a basket of fresh-baked bread, is a good place to start.

Set in a modern riverside with floor-to-ceiling windows, O Açude pairs contemporary Portuguese cuisine with serene views of the Mondego River. The kitchen takes a refined approach to local ingredients, serving creative dishes that balance tradition and innovation—think suckling pig with caramelized apple, octopus with smoked paprika, or a comforting açorda de gambas (rich shrimp and bread stew). The menu often features fresh fish, depending on the daily catch. Tables on the covered terrace are perfect for lingering over petiscos and wine—you'll find one of the most extensive selections in the city here.

The 18th-century Quintela Palace—once taken over by one of Napoléon's generals—now welcomes diners to a gastronomic experience in a space like no other in the city. Climb the grand staircase to dine in one of four airy elegant rooms, where you can enjoy Portuguese and international cuisine (and where there are well-priced lunch menus). Or stop for drinks and snacks from 6 pm onwards at the buzzy downstairs bar, where a DJ gets the crowd dancing as the night wears on.

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.

This family-run pastry shop is said to be the birthplace of the tortas de Azeitão, sweet sponge cake rolls filled with an egg-and-cinnamon custard, but there are many more to sample, including the moscatel-based doce de moscatel.

Chef Luís Gaspar has created a menu of traditional comfort food dishes that aim to meet the exacting standards of Portuguese grandmothers, all served in a contemporary, light-filled space that encourages lingering over a meal and cocktails or wine. Be sure to try sharing dishes like the creamy bacalhau à Brás and the restaurant's namesake pica-pau (woodpecker)—a tasca dish of sautéed beef strips in a garlicky sauce.

Although it’s quite spacious and comfortable inside, most people choose to sit at one of this restaurant's many tables outside facing Praça dos Restauradores. Waiters rush from table to table, mostly serving super fresh seafood and grilled fish and meats.

Inspired by the works of famed Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz (it's set inside the elegant MS Collection Hotel, in a building that was once the writer's family home), Prosa serves tasting menus and a-la-carte dishes designed to tell a story with every dish. The menu is signed by Michelin-lauded chef Rui Paula and makes excellent use of locally sourced ingredients to create contemporary versions of classic Portuguese dishes like caldeirada (fish stew) and cured black pork. The buckwheat, chocolate, and black garlic tart is a stand-out on the short-but-sweet dessert menu.

In the heart of old-town Cascais, Santini Cascais has what many people consider to be the country's best Italian-style gelato.

The plant-based dishes at vegetarian restaurant Seiva are as elegant as they are delicious and sustainably sourced. Chef David Jesus has worked at some of Portugal's best restaurants, and is known for creating impeccable, meat-free dishes inspired from destinations around the world. A focus on seasonal ingredients means dishes change frequently, but expect everything from Indian pani puri (spicy filed chickpea patties) to a seafood-free Spanish paella. The desserts, which make good use of Portugal's abundant fresh fruit, are another strong suit.

Open since 1922, this is one of Lisbon’s surviving grand cafés and arguably its most beautiful. It’s still mostly a place for locals, who often meet here and stay chatting for hours over coffee.

In the charmingly old-fashioned dining room at one of Lisbon's oldest restaurants, bottles are displayed like works of art, and courteous staffers serve up Portuguese classics paired with one of the wine list's 600 choices.

Offering a vegan alternative to Sesimbra's many fish and seafood restaurants, Aloha Café serves delicious plant-based breakfasts, brunches, and light meals. Expect an abundance of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables alongside vegan versions of classic desserts like cheesecake and pudim (a sweet flan usually made with egg). More substantial dishes include a different set meal every day, and a delicious vegan burger made with portobello mushrooms and smoked tofu. The cozy interior is pure rustic-chic, but on sunny days you'll want to take a seat on the terrace to enjoy the unobstructed ocean views.

This was just another neighborhood pastry shop until it started receiving accolades for its excellent custard tarts and ended up supplying those mouthwatering sweets to shops throughout the city (and even to Paris’s Galleries Lafayette!). This tart stands out for being creamier than most and for always being served cold.