Where I Eat in Lisbon When I Am Not Trying to Impress Anyone

Two years in Lisbon and I have eaten in enough places to know that the expensive restaurants near the Tagus are not where Lisbon’s food actually lives. This is not a discovery — every local knows it. But arriving from Vienna, where a Gasthaus is as respectable as a Michelin-starred restaurant, it took me longer than I’d like to admit to stop treating the pastelaria on my corner as a place to eat between meals rather than a place to eat.

The pastel de nata at the Pasteis de Belém (pasteisdebelem.pt — Rua de Belém 84-92, Belém) is the famous one, and it is famous for a reason. The recipe is over two hundred years old and the queue is usually long. I go once or twice a year and consider it worth it. For everyday: my corner pastelaria, whose name I will not write here because I do not want it to become a destination.

Time Out Market Lisboa (timeoutmarket.com/lisboa — Avenida 24 de Julho 49, Cais do Sodré) is the food hall in the old Mercado da Ribeira. It is very good, very crowded, and very expensive compared to eating in a regular restaurant. I go when I have visitors and want to show them the range without committing to one cuisine. Not for regular use.

For regular use: Tasca do Chico (tascadochico.pt — Rua do Diário de Notícias 39, Bairro Alto) for petiscos and Fado. Zé da Mouraria (Rua dos Lagares 16, Mouraria) for a proper lunch that costs less than a coffee in Vienna. Taberna da Rua das Flores (Rua das Flores 103, Chiado) when I can get a table, which requires booking two weeks ahead. These are places where the food is the point, not the experience of eating.