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Lisbon's dining scene has evolved dramatically in recent years to include any number of high-end dining opportunities, but amid the international fare, Michelin-starred restaurants, and molecular gastronomy, the city's simplest and most traditional restaurants still do a roaring trade. Meals generally include three courses, a drink, and coffee. Many restaurants have an ementa turistica (tourist menu), a set-price meal, most often served at lunchtime. Note that you'll be charged a couple of euros if you eat any of the couvert items—typically appetizers such as bread and butter, olives, and the like—that are brought to your table without being ordered.
Lisbon's restaurants usually serve lunch from noon or 12:30 until 3 and dinner from 7:30 until 11; many establishments are closed Sunday or Monday. Inexpensive restaurants typically don't accept reservations. In the traditional cervejarias (beer-hall restaurants), which frequently have huge dining rooms, you'll probably have to wait for a table, but usually not more than 10 minutes. In the Bairro Alto, many of the reasonably priced tascas (taverns) are on the small side: if you can't grab a table, you're probably better off moving on to the next place. Throughout Lisbon, dress for meals is usually casual, but exceptions are noted below.
Once a staff canteen serving hearty Portuguese dishes to factory workers, Cantina LX has incorporated elements of its original 1870s incarnation into today’s industrial-chic space. Adventurous eaters enjoy the grilled rabbit, lamb, and octopus dishes, but there are always vegetarian options too.
Bringing along the famously glitzy chandelier from its much-missed location in Bairro Alto, this cutting-edge restaurant is now located within the cool confines of the Time Out Market in Cais do Sodré. The menu still lists cutting-edge versions of Portuguese classics—tuna with allspice, and a famous açorda, that bread-based stew rich in seafood (the luxury version contains lobster) and flavored with garlic and cilantro.
Occupying a bright and breezy downstairs room at the LX Boutique Hotel (there's now a branch in Cascais, too), this sophisticated spot is widely regarded as one of the best places in town to eat sushi. There are vegan and vegetarian options alongside the usual seafood and sashimi.
Offering a little respite from the rowdy nightlife of "Pink Street," this cute café-bar doubles as a bookstore, and it's not unusual to see local poets reading from their work. The bright primary colors and painted ceiling give it the look of a cozy kids' corner, but the coffees and mixed drinks are strictly for grown-ups.
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