Lisbon, the incomparable, has many beautiful districts courting the favour of visitors and locals. For one, there’s the very traditional, but spruced up Campolide with its broad avenidas and magnificent art nouveau façades and its younger sister, the modernly styled Olivais with its extravagant Expo architecture. The funky, freaky Bairro Alto has two faces, one for the day and one for the night. Chiado and Baixa entice with fancy shopping centres, whereas Alfama expresses itself as mysterious and secretive. Just after you think you know a district, it hides itself behind a veil of melancholy or enters a stage in glaring spotlights, which it previously avoided like the devil does holy water. Some awake too early, pass off as bustling and modern, others only start to live when the streetlights and neon signs shine like a thousand suns.

No matter how different Lisbon’s districts are, they are real – whether loud and newly built or quietly mature for centuries. As real as the people who live in them, whether newcomers or locals. It’s a peculiar mix of serenity, melancholy and south European temperament, traditionalism, cosmopolitanism and almost obsessive modernity that characterises Lisbon today and makes it so alive. This is also reflected in art, design, architecture, but mostly in food and drink: Bars change their looks and character on a monthly basis, while time seems to have passed by simple tapas bars for decades. Some restaurants haven’t changed their menus for 20 years, yet hip in eateries come up with something new every day. These changes alone make a visit to the beauty on the Atlantic and Tejo worthwhile.

Eating and drinking seem to be the favourite activities of Lisboetas. Early in the morning innumerable cafés and pastry shops entice with fragrant bolos (pastries) and pastéis (pasties) with bica (espresso) and galão (café au lait). The fish dishes of the port city are countless, from pickled sardines, tuna and mussels to the ubiquitous bacalhau (dried cod), for which there are over one thousand recipes in all of Portugal. Fiel amigo (faithful friend) is fried, boiled, baked, steamed, minced or prepared whole.

Before going to a restaurant in the evening (very late in the evening for most Europeans), people normally go first to a small bar to drink a glass of port or a ginginha (cherry liqueur) – and eat a few tapas of course. The choice of tapas is nearly inexhaustible and ranges from basic Serrano ham, marinated vegetables and dates wrapped in bacon up to game stew, grilled sardines or chicken drumsticks.

Fortified, you then dedicate yourself to the actual dinner: hellishly spicy sopa Alentejana (garlic soup), peixe fritado (grilled fish), cozido a portuguesa (boiled beef), frango na pucara (chicken in a clay pot with peas, potatoes, onions, smoked ham, mushrooms, raisins, red wine and – like almost all dishes – garlic) or leitão assado (roast suckling pig) for example. After the extensive meal and far past midnight you go for a nightcap (rum or port) in a dimly lit tasca (pub), where the locals sing melancholy Fado in candle or neon light. This is how to live splendidly…

Food & Drink in Lisbon

Origens Bio – Café & Restaurante Biológico, Alameda dos Oceanos, Lote 1.02.1. 2A, Loja 1 (in Parque des Naçôes, to the left of the casino), tel. 218 94 61 66, closed on Sundays. Well-lit, modernly designed eatery on the former Expo grounds that uses only inspected organic products for its new Portuguese cuisine; speciality: beef.

Bica do Sapato – Restaurante – Esplanada – Cafetaria – Sushi Bar, Av. Infante D. Henrique, Armazém B, Cais da Pedra, Santa Apolónia, tel. 218 81 03 20. Situated halfway between the city centre and the Expo grounds, trendy restaurant, offers up the best “Nouvelle Cuisine” in the city. Hollywood star John Malkovich is a co-owner of the restaurant and of the adjacent “Lux” nightclub.

Restaurante Eleven, Rua Marquês de Fronteira / Jardim Amália Rodrigues, tel. 213 86 22 11, http://www.restauranteleven.com/. Situated in the centre of Amália Rodrigues Park, very modern restaurant run by Joachim Koerper, who was the first in Lisbon to receive a Michelin star. Offering “light Mediterranean cuisine with a high degree of sophistication” and a fantastic view over Lisbon. Make sure to book in advance.

Panificação Reunida San Roque – Padarias e pastelarias, Rua Dom Pedro V 57, Bairro Alto, tel. 213 22 43 56, Monday–Saturday 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Traditional bakery and café with marble Art Nouveau counter surrounded by pillars and very tasty baked goods.

Café a Brasileira, Rua Garrett 120, tel. 4 46 95 41, open daily 8 a.m. –2 a.m.
Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa’s favourite café is a tourist attraction, in which even Lisboetas drink their café at the bar, which incidentally cost only 1.60 euros.

Antiga Confeitaria Pastéis de Belém, Rua do Belém 84–92, tel. 213 63 74 23, http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt/, open daily Nov.–Apr.: Monday–Saturday 8 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.; May–Oct.: daily 8 a.m. – midnight. Since 1837 Pastéis de Belém have been baked in the world-famous confectionery. These are small puff pastries filled with cream and vanilla pudding. Make sure to drink the home-made limonada along with them. The salesroom is tiled up to the ceiling with azulejos. The further back into the labyrinthine back room you go, the cooler it gets when the outside temperature is 35° C.

Conserveira de Lisboa, Rua dos Bacalhoeiros 34, tel. 218 87 10 58, Monday–Friday 9 a.m. –7 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. –1 p.m. Commercial shop in the oldest fish processing factory in Portugal: sardines and tuna in olive oil or lemon juice along with spices.

Garrafeira Nacional – Wine & Spirits Shop, Rua de Santa Justa 18–24, tel. 218 87 90 04, http://www.garrafeiranacional.com/, Monday–Friday 9:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m. –1 p.m. The shop with a huge selection of port wine (the oldest from 1817 for 1,450 euros) has been around since 1820.

Chafariz do Vinho – Enoteca – Vinhacopo, Chafariz da Mãe d’Agua à Praça da Alegria, Rua da Mãe d’Agua, tel. 213 42 20 79, http://www.chafarizdovinho.com/, closed Mondays. Sensational tapas bar with wide selection of open Portuguese wines in a former water tapping point of Lisbon’s aqueduct.

Restô – Restaurante – Tapas Bar – Esplanada, Rua Costa do Casrelo 7, tel. 218 86 73 34, tapas bar + esplanada: 7:30 p.m. – 2 a.m., restaurant: noon – 3 p.m., 7:30 p.m. – midnight. Courtyard grill restaurant in Bairro Alto. The balcony seats provide a wonderful view over Lisbon.