We didn’t succeed in finding the best food at first, but as the trip continued, we found some places we really liked.
Lisboa
June 7
- A Padaria Portuguesa, morning pastries.
- Fabrica da Nata, Restauradores. 2nd morning pastries: Pastel Bacalhau and the best pasteis da nata (pasteis is the plural of pastel, pronounced pash-tel, which means pastry. Nata is cream, but the pastry is actually an egg yolk custard in a flakey cup-shaped crust). (We didn’t get to the Belem bakery that made that pastry famous.)
June 8
- Time Out Market, a huge upscale food court-type place. Ice cream at Gelato Davvero.
- Troppo Squisito, Italian restaurant in Praça do Comercio.
Porto
June 9
- Confeitaria Sical, Praça Lencastre. Burgers – regular and soya.
- Deslumbraltura, café in Ribeira. Light dinner: tuna, vegan hamburger.
June 10
- Pastelaria Nova Gaia, apple and almond tarts.
- Casa Adão, traditional lunch. Salada mista, salada de pimento, caldo verde, bolinho de bacalhau.
- O Balcão, Praça Lencastre. Tasty food here: roasted vegetables, don’t remember the rest, but we liked it.
June 11
- Praia do Titan, café on the Matosinhos beach. Sumo da laranja and pasteis.
- CaipiCompany – Molhe, at the south end of the beach, near Castelo de Queijo. Pizza for lunch.
- Ro Ramen e Outros, Japanese-Portugese fusion across the street from our apartment. Okonomiyaki, veggies and chicken with a white sauce binding it into a sort-of pancake.
June 12
- CaipiCompany – Molhe, pizza. or was this restaurant somewhere else?
- Hotel Mercure restaurant. Veggie burger & sopa do dia.
June 13
- Canela Moscada, breakfast snacks.
- Cubo, hamburgers “gourmet” the receipt says.
- Honu Poke Bowls, around the corner from Livraria Lello. Choose your own salad bowl. Very good.
June 14
- Café Apolo, snacks.
- Casa do Conto. Snacks while we waited in their courtyard for the expats meeting.
Braga
June 15
- AS TIBIAS DE JOAO, bakery right outside the Arco da Ponta Nova. Breakfast pastries
- A Brasileira, large café next to the Praça da Republica. Lunch of salada bacalhau, sande atum.
- Dow Gelado, ice cream shop with a window on the street.
- Felix Taberna, on the ground floor below our apartment. Beautifully cooked steak (we don’t always eat vegetarian)
June 16
- AS TIBIAS DE JOAO, breakfast pastries
- Hoteis do Bom Jesus, snack bar at one of the hotels next to Bom Jesus
June 17
- Lunch with David C. in Praça Municipio. Menu do dia for all of us.
- Anjo Verde, vegetarian restaurant right next to our apartment building in Praça Velha. (No receipt, paid cash.)
June 18
- AS TIBIAS DE JOAO, breakfast pastries
- Desperta Canela, café for lunch. Barely remember it. Salad with sardines, bifana, pastel Nata.
- Hibiscus, vegan/vegetarian buffet for dinner.
June 19
- AS TIBIAS DE JOAO, breakfast pastries, again!
Coimbra
June 19
- KEBAB MIR BABA, Turkish fast food. They advertised lamejun, spelled in a Portuguese way, but when they used it as a sandwich wrap, you couldn’t tell if it was as good as lamejun from Watertown, MA.
- Ragu, handmade pasta and delicious herby lemonade
June 20
- Servicios de Accao Social, Univ of Coimbra, lunch in a university cafeteria of the quality you’d expect, with very courteous servers
- Nova Gama Gourmet, bakery among the Santa Clara stores at the bottom of our hill
- Cordel Maneirista, high-end traditional Portuguese. Our meal included a bread sausage. We thought this was the fancy hamburgaria, but that was downstairs and always closed.
Lisbon
June 21
- Organi Chiado (Estimular Sentidos), vegan restaurant in Chiado, one of the best vegan restaurants I’ve ever been to. Marinated tofu with several salads, pureed sweet potato, basmati rice, veggie burger, limonada.
- A Arte da Comida, traditional Portuguese restaurant. A whole fish, rather bony; grilled chicken.
June 22
- Eat Bacalhoeiros, vegetarian restaurant in Chiado. Avocado toast, mixed mushrooms toast, watermelon-ginger drink.
- CAFE MARTINHO DA ARCADA, café in Praça de Comércio. Pastel de Nata and Café. Final café before leaving for the airport.
- Hediard, pastry shop in the Lisboa airport, trying to be upscale.