Food in Portugal

There’s not much of a culture of eating non-Portuguese food in Portugal. I don’t know if that’s a holdover from the dictatorship, or some kind of cultural chauvinism, or what. We do list a lot of great places that we’ve curated at Visiting Lisbon , including some non-Portuguese ones. But I’ve found a lot less diverse food options than, certainly, New York, but even – from San Diego. Of course, Mexican food is not going to be quite as much as a go-to option, but the few times you find it, it tends to be pretty underwhelming. (Minus Carnal of course, as mentioned in that post).

But the best food to eat in Portugal is Portuguese food. That’s going to be the most consistent, and it’s predictable, and really quite tasty.

I was on a boat tour (https://www.nossotejo.pt, which we tend to like) and I heard a Brit make a joke about Portuguese food – something about Portugal being “where chefs go to die” or something. (Weird that a Brit is making jokes about food, but, hey, whatever). And a friend of mine (who is French) finally said at the end of his visit to Lisbon that “I guess I just don’t like Portuguese food”). I get that, but I think those points of view are a little off.

Portuguese food tends to be simple. It’s about letting the ingredients shine through. It is not heavily-spiced (which is weird considering that Portugal literally invented the spice trade, but maybe their logic is/was “spices are for bad food”?). It tends to be garlic, lots of olive oil, wine, some vinegars, onions, olives – those are the main ingredients most of the time.

Favorite Dishes

Piri-piri sauce – I think this comes from Africa, and is VERY spicy, but also really really tasty. Put a little bit on the side of your plate, and dip a finger or something else in it. It can be really, really, really hot though, so be careful. Also, lots of times, the bottle of piri-piri needs a couple of shakes to distribute everything around. It’s weird that this stuff is so spicy, and so popular, but regular dishes just aren’t that spicy?

Pastel de Nata (plural: Pasteis de Nata) – famous Portuguese custard tart that’s always delicious, and not too sweet. The “Pastel de Belém” is the version you can get in the Belém area of Lisbon, and it may be even better.

Portuguese Coffee – espresso. Drink this and rejoice, then be sad when you realize that the rest of Europe doesn’t do espresso quite as well. (Our Portuguese friend Sandra says “Only Italy and Portugal do it right”). I wrote an entire article about this in: Portuguese Coffee.

Algarve salad – simple and delicious. Cucumber and tomatoes and onions and a liiiiiittle bit of dressing and oregano. @snipe makes her own version that’s a little heavier-handed on the dressing and oregano, but either version is yummy, especially when tomatoes are in-season. Do not order this during the winter, when they are distinctly out-of-season.

Chamuças – these are basically “Samosas” – probably imported from Goa (Portuguese former colony in India). Often spicy, but not as spicy as Americans or Brits or Mexicans would be used to.

Ameijõas a Bulhão Pato – (“Clams à Bulhao Pato”) honestly, I think that this dish is the absolute best that Portugal has to offer. It took me a few years before I finally tried it, and I feel so terribly ashamed as to how amazing it is and how long it took me to order it. Definitely get bread (pão) and dip it into the sauce. Usually served as an appetizer, but it’s friggin’ amazing.

Pregos. Sandwich. Solid. Always yummy. Yummy steak sandwich! Garlicky.

Bifana. There are a million billion trillion different versions of this sandwich and and every single one is great in its own way. I’m partial to the ones from “Bifanas do Afonso” (with cheese, “com queijo”), but @snipe likes York Bar’s (also “com queijo” though she says it “doesn’t really need it.”)

Pica-Pau – delicious steak served in/with some pickled vegetables and sauce, but not so much that it’s overwhelming. Really great dish, also order with bread (“pão”) for dipping into the lovely sauce.

Sande misto. This is the dumbest-sounding sandwich ever. It is two pieces of bread, a piece of ham, and a piece of cheese. That’s, literally, it. But Portuguese bread is so good that these sandwiches really work. At one of the coffee shops near us I have a personal rule, that if the time is after noon, I get it with butter (com manteigo) but before noon I get it sem (without). Because the bread is so fresh and will actually go stale over the course of the day. That’s why it’s so good; because it’s real.

tosta mista – another one that’s pretty simple – bread, ham, cheese, toasty-taosty. And they’re delicious. For some (weird) reason, they’re almost always much bigger than a sande misto.

Bacalhão a Bras – when made right, and I’ve had it wrong more times than I’ve had it right, this dish is just amazing. I kept ordering this (because ordering bacalhão is a rite of passage for people living in Portugal), and keep not liking it, until I got the one at this small little hole-in-the-wall Fado place. And, there, it was amazing, and I knew what it was “supposed” to be like. Well, what it’s supposed to be like for me.

Any steak with an egg on it – Portuguese folks love throwing an egg on top of a steak, and it *is* quite yummy. Portuguese steaks are a little rarer than American temperatures, I typically order medium here and am never disappointed – and when servers say things like “honestly you want medium-rare on this one” I always take that advice. The sauce they can put on these will sometimes be a beer-based one and they tend to be quite good.

Picanha – this is a Brazilian cut of beef, and I don’t know what other cut it might translate into, but it’s a go-to for me. Always delicious. Typically very thin with a cap of fat on one edge.

Croquetes de carne – meat croquettes. Yummy. The meat goo tends to be a bit of a slurry, rather than “steak-ey” but is still quite yummy.

Empadas de galinha – chicken empanadas. Nice, clean, yummy, cheap. Best warm (quente) IMHO

Pasteis de bacalhãu – famous Portuguese little codfish-and-potato fritters. Sometimes served cold, which can be disconcerting. Honestly my favorite ones we’ve had were when we were waiting at the little café across the street from an Immigration office, waiting for our appointment – and we just absent-mindedly bought a few to snack for a handful of euro. I still remember those – they were that good. And also good elsewhere but a lot of the time, the simpler is the better. The Beer Museum (which has shocking good food for a literal beer museum) has pasteis de bacalhãu com queijo (stuffed with cheese). Those don’t work for me nor @snipe, but one of our Portuguese friends likes them.

Francesinha – this is a dish from Porto but you can get it here. It’s a really overwrought kind of sandwich with like 5 types of meat on it, but it can be deliciously yummy. And ridiculously filling.

Melão e presunto – Melon & Prosciutto. In melon season, this dish is amazing. Especially when melons are in season. Presunto (to me) isn’t quite as yummy as Italian Prosciutto, but it can come close – especially in this particular dish.

Pão de queijo (strictly speaking, this is Brazilian, but you can get it here and it *is* quite nice).

Anything Octopus. It’s always completely effortlessly delicious. I have never had an octopus dish here that was bad; I’m not sure it’s possible to do.

Feijoãda de Choco – (“Choco” means cuttlefish – which sounds scary, but is really just like squid). Lovely dish of cuttlefish and a bean stew usually served with rice, and the feijoãdas in general are always something to seek out if you are a bean person (@snipe is not such a person, sadly).

Anything with smoked salmon – the smoked salmon you can get here is very competitive with NY lox, I would say. And that’s a pretty huge compliment from a former NY-er.

Salmon, tuna, and pretty much most seafood here is typically going to be very, very good. Most of the places we eat at do prepare the tuna a little rare, so be prepared for that.

Dishes I would say that you can probably miss?

Empadas de Camarão – Shrimp, like, empanadas I guess? No one who has come to visit here has been happy with this dish. I ordered it once myself, figuring that I can eat anything. And, dear readers, I could not. I mean, I could – it was possible. I just did not want to. These are often served cold (which is already weird). But then, in your head there’s, like, shrimp in it, right? No, it’s pureéd mush. Shrimp goo. No one has ever said “oh, I tried this dish and it was great!” Everyone that has tried it has mentioned that they found it weird, unappetizing, and kind-of left it alone.

Açorda (pronounced “Uh-SORD-ah”). Weird bready soup stuff sometimes with a raw egg yolk in it. Nobody has ever liked this; I feel like it’s some kind of a cultural gaslighting that the Portuguese have perpetuated upon themselves.

Prawns vs. Shrimp (Gambas e Camarão)

Like, there’s a dictionary definition of the difference – Camerão vs. gambas. But in reality, my Portuguese friends aren’t exactly sure what the difference is. But, what I think are “prawns” are the straight-backed, not shrimpy-shrimps. And they suck. Go for regular shrimp, but don’t expect the menus to be correct. Because, as I mentioned, nobody knows which is which. Even literal chefs that I know aren’t sure.

There is one MASSIVE exception about Prawns, and that’s “Tiger Prawns”. They’re like mini-lobsters. Just delicious. Get these whenever you see them on offer. Baixamar has a spectular “surf and surf and turf” dish (that’s what I call it, not what they do) which has tiger prawn, steak, and lobster. It’s amazing. And expensive. But worth it, IMHO.

One thing to note about Shrimp in Portugal is that they can oftentimes be a little…”fishy.” They’re cooked usually with the heads still on, and, depending on the dish, sometimes even served that way. That makes for a stronger flavor, but if you’re an American like me, that flavor will come off as ‘fishy’ which is going to strike you as weird. Portuguese folks are not as “weird” as we are about fishy smells in general – if you walk past the seafood aisle in a grocery store the smell is very strong (and, in fact, @snipe has a hard time tolerating it).

As I continue to explore Portuguese food, both @snipe and I will continue to update this page with any new discoveries – hopefully most of them going into the “Favorite Dishes” section 🙂