Lisbon: Restaurants (Very Foodie Trip) And Seeing Old Friends

 

I’ve been to Lisbon a couple of times before so this blog isn’t about historical sites in the city. It was a trip to see friends I’d travelled to the city with approximately 40 years, a reunion to celebrate our enduring friendships. We still have a lot in common, ongoing activities and interests in the world of finance and investing, travel and most importantly, a very keen interest (obsessive is probably the better word) in food, the flavours, and how each dish is made.

So here we are, 40 years later together again. 

I had completely forgotten how hilly Lisbon is, those centuries old uneven cobblestones can be lethal, specially in the wet, but the ups and downs we were grateful for since we “earned” each meal by doing a few thousand more challenging steps in between meals. 

So slippery but pretty special 

We stayed at Brown’s hotel.  The best location (very central in Baxia) and  it’s perfectly fine and good value.  It’s easy to access the different parts of Lisbon, so from its flattish vantage, you just go up the various cobblestoned paths uphill to explore.

The first restaurant we tried was recommended by a friend

We had the Iberian pork (served medium rare above) the beef tartare in brioche, the Algren shrimp tartare (good), seaweed and mushroom rice, and the chocolate and salted caramel. The menu was interesting, the food was ok, the atmosphere young and trendy.

We also did the obvious thing to do in the city and went sardine shopping. You can’t run away from sardines in Portugal but honestly, they’re quite good and unlike a lot of the supermarket tins you buy.

These Comur shops are everywhere. I’m know they’re on the pricey side (designer sardines) but the packaging was good, the samples were delicious, and we love sardines so we bought some. However, days later we found Lola das Conservas which has a better selection at a lower price point. 

Pasteis de nata

And there’s snacking…a bit of pasteis de nata, the famous local custard tarts, and more Iberico ham. Iberico ham is simply nirvana. It’s just so delicious!

I love the tiled buildings in Lisbon. Fortunately many of the buildings remain unscathed by the war due to Lisbon’s neutral stance. 

On our little walkabouts we discovered a little cafe called Cafe O Corvo which has great cocktails, good homemade food and an outdoor terrace in the Alfama district. This is a photo of their bacalhau, the Portuguese salt cod specialty.

We had wine and snacks afterwards at the Novo Wine Bar located in the Baixa-Chiado area. It has a good selection of small producer wines and tapas (sardines with peppers and surprise, more Iberico ham!).

There is this chain of high end restaurants called JNčquoi which I thought was very average and overpriced but I included it here because the actual set up was quite bizarre. We went to the Asian one  where they had bathtubs and black loo paper in the toilets plus a faux dinosaur skeleton as part of the central decor. 😂

We went for a day trip to Cascais to see our friend and had very good clams at Grelhas next to the water. I also saw these strange trees there! The tree is a white silk floss tree known as Ceiba insignia and the locals call it a drunken stick (palo borracho).

The design museum in Lisbon, Mude (Museo do Design e da Moda) is worth a visit in the Baxia Pombalina district.  I like how they curated some art in the original subterranean bank vaults since it was the former Banco Nacional Ultramarino building. It has a collection of over 17,000 pieces showcasing product design from the mid 19th century to the present.

We had a fabulous meal at a Peruvian/Japanese fusion place. Highly recommended. It was excellent. We had prawn on fried tapioca (surprisingly good), salmon, tuna and a dessert of vanilla ice cream with coconut and crunch. Loved it! It’s called Cevicheria in the vibrant (and fun) Principe Real neighbourhood.

Finally, I had one of the best ramen I’ve ever had in the city! There are a lot of supposedly excellent Japanese restaurants in Lisbon which take advantage of the fresh fish. I’ll leave them for next time but the ramen was very good, Koppu Ramen Izakaya Chiado. 

So, it’s goodbye Lisbon for now. I can’t believe how much food and wine I consumed over 5 days but it was worth it, made special sharing the meals with old friends. 

This is the Santa Justa lift in the historic centre, in case you’re too lazy to do the steps uphill. A scenic ride.

Tchau!!