Lisbon has experienced something of a tourism boom over the past couple of years. Right now, British, French and Spanish travellers alike are flowing through the streets of historic bairros like medieval Alfama and photogenic Baixa, lapping up the year-round sunshine. World-class new museums are pulling in huge numbers, the local food scene has swelled, and seasoned clubbers are lining up to sample Cais do Sodré’s thriving nightlife.
So, where should you start? It’d be relatively easy to stick to your typical guidebook itinerary and never venture out of earshot of another Brit. But you’ll be missing out if you don’t explore beyond the bustling central piazzas. After all, away from the pricey fado bars around the São Jorge castle and the yellow trams that make the 18th-century downtown so popular among visitors, there’s a handful of less trampled areas, like Alcântara and Príncipe Real, that brim with overlooked attractions.
To help guide you around these less familiar parts, we’ve put together a list of the 20 best little-known and slightly unorthodox things to do in the Portuguese capital. Click through to discover the locals’ favourite restaurants, bars, cafés, museums, shops and more.
If you like your seafood, then you’ll be overwhelmed by choice in the City of Seven Hills. Pairing a creative fusion menu with traditional marisqueria (seafood restaurant) vibes, Sea Me is one of the best places to start. Customers order directly from the counter here, with standout dishes including the tuna prego (steak sandwich, a Portuguese classic) and the nigiri sardine sushi, in which the lightly spiced fish are seared with a blowtorch, then slathered with fleur de sel.
Photo: Courtesy of Sea Me
A couple of streets from the Cais do Sodré metro stop, This and That is a dinky harbourside gift shop selling all manner of affordable gifts and decorations from Portuguese designers. We particularly like the lego-brick necklaces, vintage-style mackerel tins and the numerous dashing lamps and light fittings.
Photo: Via @thisandthatloja
Views over the river Tagus and the 25 de Abril suspension bridge aren’t in short supply in the city centre, but this lively bar atop a six-storey car park offers surely one of the most spectacular. Lounge on wooden garden chairs, surrounded by palm trees and attractive pre-club drinkers, and enjoy craft lager, burgers and thumping local house music.
Photo: Via @parklisboa
Carpe Diem Art and Research, Bairro Alto
Set in abandoned mansion the Palácio Pombal, this airy visual arts research centre invites local and international artists to transform the building’s crumbling 17th-century rooms via short residencies and exhibitions. The building is usually quite empty on a weekday, so make the most of the calm with a drink at the cheap in-house café/bar. Coffees and beers under €2.
Photo: Via @carpe_pt
Time Out Mercado da Ribeira, Cais do Sodré
Once a 19th-century food court in a rundown part of town and now one of Lisbon’s most talked-about new attractions, the Mercado da Ribeira is a monumental street food market and events hub, prime for evenings spent savouring local delicacies. Expect 35 or so hatches serving selected menus from assorted restaurants, delis, bars and cafés from around the capital. The best names operating right now include fried fish connoisseur Marlene Vieira, and Porto native Miguel Castro e Silva, who serves his renowned northern rice plates here, as well as reputable Italian gelateria Santini.
Photo: Via @conversademaria
For a classy night out on the Rua da Misericórdia, this concept bar on the ground floor of the upmarket 9 Hotel Mercy serves brilliant infusion-based tea cocktails. The well-dressed Chiado clientele go for things like the top-notch house ‘Double9’, which combines lemon-infused cold tea with vanilla syrup, gin, cream, mango and hazelnut mousse (€8). The black-and-gold interior is as stylish as it is snug.
Photo: Via @double9.lisbon
An enormous, billowing gem of a building, Amanda Levete’s ambitious new €20m wing of MAAT (the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology) is a fair distance from the city centre but well worth the short train journey out (it’s just 10 minutes or so from Cais do Sodré). Appended to the superbly refitted Central Tejo power station and its Electricity Museum, MAAT will soon become a big draw for fans of cutting-edge contemporary design.
Photo: Via @maatmuseum
Bakery and teashop Tease is where to head for a thoroughly indulgent afternoon tea near Príncipe Real. Done out in mismatched vintage furniture, this quaint backstreet hangout serves fragrant fruit teas and pleasingly gaudy cupcakes in an array of familiar but well-done flavours (Oreo, dulche de leche, red velvet). Take away and eat on the Praça das Flores, a charming green square 20 seconds up the road.
Photo: Via @tease_cafe
Copenhagen Coffee Lab, Príncipe Real
Just across from Tease, a slightly better option for coffee is this bright, understated Danish café, which serves the city’s best flat whites and excellently sticky cinnamon pastries. This so-called ‘coffee lab’ imports all its beans from its own Copenhagen roastery and offers good-value breakfast deals and healthy lunches, too.
Photo: Via @polishukk
The formerly down-at-heel Cais do Sodré neighbourhood has acquired a sparkling new image over the past few years, mainly thanks to a slew of trendy venues like this. Musicbox is a bar-cum-club located under the arches of the Rua do Alecrim which hosts live music and DJ nights throughout the year. Don’t miss the monthly Noite Príncipe, a night run by contemporary dance music label Príncipe, where the prodigious young producers currently coming out of the city’s suburbs – DJ Marfox, Nidia Minaj, DJ Firmeza – often put in appearances.
Photo: Via @darksunn
Galeria de Arte Urbana, Bairro Alto
Owing to its lax vandalism laws and sheer wealth of talent, Lisbon’s street art scene has long been one of Europe’s best. The authorities have now started installing legal graffiti walls around the city, including this crumbling but impressive stretch along the steep Calçada da Glória, which is overseen by urban art association the Galeria de Arte Urbana. Visitors can hike or take the rickety funicular up to the top, where the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara looks over a good swath of the gorgeous city centre.
Photo: Galeria de Arte Urbana
Decent-quality Italian restaurants are surprisingly hard to find in inner-city Lisbon, but this Príncipe Real pizzeria and terrace has proved the winning exception with its generous portions, reasonable-ish prices and extensive range of toppings. We recommend the robust walnut and gorgonzola, perhaps with a spritz or two, and for dessert, the sensational salted caramel millefeuille with blueberries. Walk it off at a market in the nearby Jardim do Príncipe Real, or drop by the chilled-out university botanic gardens next door (see next slide).
Photo: Via @mexiquer
Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Lisboa, Príncipe Real
Unlike most of the large-scale green spaces in the city centre, the beautifully designed university botanic gardens in Príncipe Real are seldom overrun with tourists. Concealed by the surrounding townhouses, this institution is a sprawling 10-acre delight that takes in 18,000 species, including various types of arresting Australian tree with gargantuan, alien-like roots.
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons
French-sounding but very much Portuguese, this bakery turned café in the city’s swish shopping district is the place to brunch, Lisbon-style. €14 will get you a hot drink, pastry, bread basket (pictured), yoghurt with granola, a plate with jam, cheese, ham and butter, and a homemade juice. If you’re not so hungry, there’s a wide selection of breads and pastries available in the shop. Manteigaria, five minutes away on the Rua do Loreto, is where to head for fresh, creamy pasteis de nata (custard tarts).
Photo: Arlindo Camacho
The Independente hotel and hostel has become an increasingly common sight in Lisbon travel guides since it opened in 2011, with downstairs bar/restaurant The Decadente now especially popular among travellers and Bairro Alto natives alike. Though tourist territory, it’s still worth a trip. Punters perch at salvaged mahogany tables amid shelves of secondhand books, and enjoy simple, flavoursome mains like black linguine pasta with shrimps and cherry tomatoes and sous-vide cod loin with potatoes. The highlight from the bar is the ‘Insónia’, which mixes orange zest liqueur and honey and green tea syrup with lemon juice, fresh mint and bitters.
Photo: Via @theindependentecollective
Sofia Landeau’s eponymous café is renowned for one thing only: her delightfully moist, velvet-smooth chocolate cake, a perfect blend of bitter and sweet – and probably Lisbon’s best dessert. In fact, it’s the only item available on the menu here, bar tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Landeau now has two outlets, one at LX Factory in Alcântara, the other on the Rua das Flores in Chiado.
Photo: Via @pedrofcrodrigues
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Palhavã
North of the centre, this immense concrete complex is nestled in the grounds of a large park, filled with picturesque ponds, sculpture and shrubbery. The 1960s builds and natural features complement each other nicely and make for a superb day away from the Praça do Comércio’s swarms. We say explore the park first, then check out the epoch-spanning art museum that houses works belonging to late Armenian petrol magnate Gulbenkian.
Photo: Via @silva_joni
The massive styrofoam octopus hung from the ceiling sets an appropriate tone at this relaxed, trendy Peruvian restaurant five minutes from the botanical gardens. Headed up by TV chef Kiko Martins, A Cevicheria has carved out quite a name for itself over the past couple of years, thanks to its thoughtful design – plastered as it is with azulejos (traditional blue and white tiles) – and excellent interpretations of standard and lesser-known South American dishes. The white fish ‘ceviche puro’ is sharp, acidic heaven in a bowl. They don’t accept reservations, so you should get down pre-7pm – if there’s a queue, you can always grab a pisco and drink while you wait.
Photo: Via @a_cevicheria_chefkiko
While A Cevicheria offers a few decent options sans meat, vegetarians should certainly stay away from Cordon Bleu alumnus Martins’ other address, up near Palhavã. Everyone else: you’ll love it. At once butcher and restaurant, O Talho exalts meat in all its most comforting gastronomic forms. The most popular option is pictured: a heady spin on steak tartare, accompanied with horseradish mousse, seaweed, fries, and a vodka shot. Alternatively, round off your stay on a decadent note with the seven-course tasting menu – a steal at €45.
Photo: Via @o_talho_chefkiko
The grandiose 25 de Abril bridge is a major attraction in itself, but beneath it lies something just as startling: LX Factory, a cluster of battered, graffitied warehouses converted into a mini village of modish shops, restaurants and art workshops. Pura Cal is especially great for homeware, MAGkiosk for reads, 1300 Taberna for a quick top-up on pulpo arroz (octopus rice). You should also stop at Ler Devagar (right), widely considered one of the world’s best-designed bookshops, as well as the original Landeau chocolate cake café, both on the main street.
Photo: Pedro Ribeiro SimõesLike what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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