Lisbon: how to recognize cheap good Portuguese restaurants & José Maria & Laurinda

The Portuguese appreciate eating and drinking well. The influence of Portugal’s former colonial possessions is clear, especially in the wide variety of spices used, like piri piri (small, fiery chilli peppers), as well as cinnamon, vanilla and saffron.

Lisbon cheap restaurant Jose Mouraria

Pataniscas de Bacalhau & rice 7.50 euro (fried cod): delicious!

Tiny place, good traditional Portuguese food! Historical area in Mouraria, Lisbon.

Restaurant/cafe ‘A Vaidosa Terreirinho Ginginha’, Rua do Terreirinho 58: José Maria & his wife Laurinda.

Restaurant/cafe ‘A Vaidosa Terreirinho Ginginha’, Rua do Terreirinho 58 Lisbon

Owners Laurinda, Jose Marie & sr. Julio (l), April 2015

The Portuguese cuisine is rich, filling and full-flavoured. There’s also Arab and Moorish influences, especially in the south.

Restaurant José Maria in Mouraria Lisbon January 2017

Lunch with Paula: delicious bacalhau à brás (salt cod): 6 euro pp

Portuguese breakfast

Traditionally just coffee and bread, often enjoyed in a cafe (pastelaria). Recommended: toast (tosta mista) with ham & cheese (queijo e presunto), or delicious sweet pastries like pastéis de nata, real calorie bombs! Coffee: strong (bica) with milk (galão – garoto), tea (chá) with or without sugar (açúcar). The pastalerias are often a part of the social life in the neighbourhood.

Historical area Mouraria Lisbon Restaurant José Maria & his wife Laurinda

Lunch with Dutch friends, February 4, 2015: Denise, Jolanda, Margriet and Feikje

September 2016: Erna and Tonny Deegens & friends Marijn and Anneke

Good quality & local prices

In this tiny restaurant in Mouraria you can enjoy a 3 course meal (starter, like cheese/ham, soup, main course, dessert, water, coffee and wine) for only about 9-10 euros pp. Not open on Sundays.

For me, Laurinda’s bitoque is the best of Lisbon

If you don’t feel like experimenting, try a ‘bitoque’. It’s steak and fries, with a fried egg, garlic and rice (ca. 7 euro).

Caldeirada (fish stew) : 6.50 euro. Recipe

Looking for a nice 3-bedroom apartment (and a lovely patio) in this old neighborhood? (6 persons can sleep comfortably)

My apartment in Mouraria (100 m2), 3 bedrooms & lovely patio (30 m2). Picture: Margaret Schöttelndreier.

More about the area

Short time rental: 3 bedroom holiday apartment with sunny patio in this street

Laurinda & delicious fresh fish

How to recognize cheap and really Portuguese restaurants?
A little bit disorderly, but very clean; a big TV screen, people like watching TV while eating (a lot of football, futebol), TL-tubes on the ceiling and paper table-covers. Prices (in Lisbon) between 8 and 15 euro (three courses and wine).

Eating & drinking Portugal displays and football

Football

There’s a lot of seafood restaurants, many with very beautiful displays of lobsters, shrimp, oysters, and crabs, but a big TV-screen, football (futebol!) is also really important….!!

Lisbon be prepared free strarters

Starters, typical Portuguese (not free in more expensive restaurants)

Be prepared: in the more expensive restaurants you have to pay for starters like bread, cheese and often olives or shrimps (camarao) (from 3 – 10 euro).

Unrequested starter dishes

You won’t pay for starters if you don’t eat them, the waiter will take them away (não, obrigado), ‘no thank you’. The waiter will probably bring you some unrequested starter dishes: as those are not free, feel free not to touch them and they will not be charged on your bill (but check it, especially in restaurants with lots of tourists!).

Or, they ‘offer’ you a glass of portwine (and charge 4-7 euro on the bill). Tips are not usual in Portugal, but a few euro is ok.

Espetada: a typical Portuguese dish: 6.90 €

The espetada is a typical Portuguese dish made usually of large chunks of beeff rubbed in garlic and salt, skewered onto a bay leaf stick cooked over hot coals or wood chips.

Carne de porco à Alentejana

Carne de porco à Alentejana (pork stew with clams, potatoes, coriander and garlic. Meia dose, ( half portion, 6.00 euro).This is a traditional Portuguese dish, particularly near the Atlantic coast.

Lunch (almoçar): between 12:00 and 15:00. Dinner from 19:00

Like in all mediterranean countries lunch (almoçar), is a big affair for Portuguese, served between noon and 3 o’clock, often in a restaurant (and often paid by the employer).

Menu list with 2 price columns

When dining in Lisbon, you will notice that some restaurants have a menu list with 2 price columns. The cheaper list is for half-portions (meia dose), the higher priced list is for full-portions (dose)

Usually three courses, including soup (sopa) like f.i. caldo verde (a soup of cabbage and potatoes).

Eating drinking Lisbon Caldo Verde soup

Caldo Verde, a popular soup of Portuguese and Brazilian cuisine.

Fish, like codfish (bacalhau) or charcoal-grilled sardines (sardinhas assadas) or meat (rabbit and pork are very popular), Coelho a caçador (rabbitstew, in red wine), accompanied with a small bottle of red or white wine (uma garaffa de vinho branco ou tinto) or Vinho Verde (a young sparkling ‘green’ wine, low-alcohol).

Restaurant Casa da india Frango chicken piri piri

Chicken (frango) piri-piri (the African devil..), is also a very popular dish. Restaurant Casa da Índia, in Bairro Alto

Desserts (sobremesas): crême brulée (pudim flan), chocolate mousse and a big variety of almond cakes (amêndoa). Toucinho do céu (bacon from heaven) or barriga de freiras, (nun’s bellies), recipes originally created by nuns in the 17th and 18th Century. Often cheese (queijo), from sheep or goat’s milk. Very popular is ‘queijo da Serra” from the region of Serra da Estrela.

Lisbon cheap restaurants bill paper cover

Mouraria Lisbon, tiny restaurant Marie-Jose and Laurinda

Bill: no credit cards

In the smaller restaurants the bill is usually written on the paper table cloth…you can pay cash only. Our bill for 2 persons? 20 euro, incl. a glass of home made Aguardente bagaceira……(litt. firewater)