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Food tours in Lisbon: what to eat and which tour to book
Lisbon eats simply and cheaply by Western European standards: a custard tart and a bica (espresso) standing at a pastelaria counter, a pork bifana at a tasca, grilled fish and a jug of house wine at lunch. The city's cooking leans on salt cod, seafood, pork and eggs-and-sugar pastries, and the best value is usually the weekday prato do dia (dish of the day) in a plain neighbourhood restaurant rather than anything on the main squares.
This page lists what to order, where locals eat it and what it roughly costs in 2026, plus food tours we checked on GetYourGuide in October 2026. Prices on tours change with season and demand, so treat the figures as a guide. Read the note about couvert (the bread and olives put on your table) before your first meal.
What to eat in Lisbon
| Dish | What it is | Where to eat it | Typical price* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custard tart pastel de nata | Flaky pastry cup with a baked egg custard, browned on top; eaten with cinnamon and a coffee. | Any pastelaria; the original Pastéis de Belém in Belém and specialist bakeries in Chiado and Baixa have queues but turn them out hot. | About €1.20–1.80 each |
| Pork sandwich bifana | Thin pork slices simmered in garlic, white wine and paprika sauce, in a soft roll; add mustard. | Counter cafés and tascas across Baixa, Cais do Sodré and neighbourhoods like Arroios; standing at the bar is normal. | About €3–5 |
| Salt cod fritters pastéis de bacalhau | Fried croquettes of salt cod, potato and parsley; a snack with a beer or a glass of vinho verde. | Pastelarias, tascas and petisco bars; avoid the cheese-filled tourist versions on Rua Augusta if you want the classic. | About €1.50–3 each |
| Grilled sardines sardinhas assadas | Whole sardines grilled over charcoal, served on bread or with boiled potatoes and salad. Best in season, roughly June to September; peak during the June Santos Populares festivals. | Small grills in Alfama, Mouraria and Graça, especially in June street parties. | About €10–16 for a plate in a casual restaurant |
| Bacalhau à Brás | Shredded salt cod scrambled with egg, onion and fine straw potatoes, topped with olives and parsley. | Tascas and family restaurants; often on the prato do dia board. | About €10–15 |
| Clams Bulhão Pato amêijoas à Bulhão Pato | Clams cooked in olive oil, garlic, coriander and lemon; mop up the juice with bread. | Cervejarias (beer and seafood halls) in Baixa, Anjos and along the river. | About €14–22 a portion, depending on size |
| Steak sandwich prego | Thin garlic-marinated beef steak in a roll; eaten as a late snack, including after a seafood meal in a cervejaria. | Cafés, cervejarias and market food halls. | About €5–10 |
| Sour cherry liqueur ginjinha | Sweet liqueur made from ginja cherries, served in a small glass, with or without a cherry. | Tiny bars around Rossio and Largo de São Domingos, and in Alfama. | About €1.50–3 a glass |
Where to eat: markets and neighbourhoods
Mercado da Ribeira / Time Out Market
The old riverside market in Cais do Sodré: one side is a curated food hall with counters from well-known chefs, the other still sells fresh produce and fish in the morning. Convenient and good quality, but busy and pricier than neighbourhood restaurants.
Mercado de Campo de Ourique
A neighbourhood market with produce stalls and a food court used mainly by locals; good for seafood, petiscos and wine at lower prices than the riverside hall.
Alfama and Mouraria
Old hillside quarters with small grills, tascas and fado houses; sardine grills and street parties fill the lanes in June.
Baixa and Cais do Sodré
Central downtown with classic pastelarias, ginjinha bars, bifana counters and cervejarias. Pick side streets; the main tourist axes (Rua Augusta, Rua das Portas de Santo Antão) are mostly touts and set menus.
Belém
Home of the pastel de Belém, baked to a recipe kept since the 1830s, beside the Jerónimos Monastery.
Food tours in Lisbon compared
Every tour below is a real listing on GetYourGuide or Viator, checked on 2 Oct 2026. Prices move with season and group size, so treat them as a guide and confirm on the booking page.
| Tour | Length | Price* | Group | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon: Food and Wine Small Group Walking Tour | 3 hours | About €70 per adult | — | First-timers who want a broad overview with wine; very high review count (5,000+) | Check dates |
| Lisbon: Tastes and Traditions Guided Food Tour | 3 hours | About €63 per adult | — | Daytime eaters; vegetarians and pescatarians with advance notice (not suitable for vegans or gluten-free) | Check dates |
| Lisbon: Evening Local Food Crawl with Drink Pairings | 3 hours | About €85 per adult | minimum 4 | Night owls who want to see Graça, a quieter hilltop neighbourhood; not adapted for vegan or gluten-free | Check dates |
| Treasures of Lisboa : Alfama Food Tour with 18 Tastings | 4 hours | About €105 per adult | max 12 | Big appetites with time to spare; fewer reviews on GYG than the larger operators | Check dates |
| Lisbon: Vegan Food and Culture Walking Tour with Tastings | 3.5 hours | About €95 per adult | — | Vegans and vegetarians | Check dates |
| Lisbon: Pastel de Nata Baking Class | 2 hours | About €55 per adult | — | Families, rainy days, anyone who wants to bake the tart at home | Check dates |
Lisbon: Food and Wine Small Group Walking Tour
On GetYourGuide · run by Inside Lisbon tours
- Length
- 3 hours
- Price
- About €70 per adult
- Included
- 15 tastings at 6 stops: codfish cake with vinho verde, Port with cheese, bifana with beer, ginjinha, charcuterie with red wine, a rice dish with wine
- Suits
- First-timers who want a broad overview with wine; very high review count (5,000+)
- Starts
- Praça Dom Pedro IV (Rossio)
Lisbon: Tastes and Traditions Guided Food Tour
On GetYourGuide · run by Devour Tours
- Length
- 3 hours
- Price
- About €63 per adult
- Included
- 8 tastes and 3 drinks across 7 stops in Baixa, Chiado and Cais do Sodré: pastries, cured ham, bifana, home-style dishes, canned seafood, pastel de nata
- Suits
- Daytime eaters; vegetarians and pescatarians with advance notice (not suitable for vegans or gluten-free)
- Starts
- Praça da Figueira, by the statue of King John I
Lisbon: Evening Local Food Crawl with Drink Pairings
On GetYourGuide · run by Food Lover Tour
- Length
- 3 hours
- Price
- About €85 per adult
- Group size
- minimum 4
- Included
- Petiscos (small plates) with 4 local drinks
- Suits
- Night owls who want to see Graça, a quieter hilltop neighbourhood; not adapted for vegan or gluten-free
- Starts
- Largo da Graça 98
Treasures of Lisboa : Alfama Food Tour with 18 Tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by Treasures of Lisboa
- Length
- 4 hours
- Price
- About €105 per adult
- Group size
- max 12
- Included
- 18 tastings of regional food, Portuguese wines and liqueur, walk through Alfama and its viewpoints
- Suits
- Big appetites with time to spare; fewer reviews on GYG than the larger operators
- Starts
- Largo das Portas do Sol, behind the São Vicente statue
Lisbon: Vegan Food and Culture Walking Tour with Tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by Portugal, Me & You
- Length
- 3.5 hours
- Price
- About €95 per adult
- Included
- Vegan pastel de nata, plant-based tastings, vegan bacalhau com natas or francesinha, ginjinha
- Suits
- Vegans and vegetarians
- Starts
- Praça Luís de Camões (Chiado)
Lisbon: Pastel de Nata Baking Class
On GetYourGuide · run by Homecooking Lisbon
- Length
- 2 hours
- Price
- About €55 per adult
- Included
- Hands-on class making pastéis de nata from scratch, ingredients, drinks (juice, coffee, Port, ginjinha tasting)
- Suits
- Families, rainy days, anyone who wants to bake the tart at home
- Starts
- Rua Aliança Operária 54 (Alcântara/Belém side)
Some links on this page are partner links. If you book through them TonyPlan earns a small commission — the price you pay is exactly the same.
Street food, sit-down or a cooking class?
Street food
Lisbon has little true street food outside festivals; the equivalent is the counter of a pastelaria or tasca, where you eat a nata, bifana or croquette standing up. Roasted chestnut carts appear in autumn and winter, and June's Santos Populares turn Alfama and Mouraria into outdoor sardine grills.
Sit-down meals
For lunch, look for a handwritten prato do dia board — a main, sometimes with soup and a drink, for roughly €10–15. Cervejarias serve seafood by weight, so ask the price per kilo before ordering crab or prawns. Dinner starts late by northern European standards, around 20:00.
Cooking classes
Classes are mostly pastel de nata baking (2 hours) or fuller Portuguese menus with wine (3 hours). Both are popular year-round; book a few days ahead in summer.
How much to budget for food
| Style | Per person, per day* |
|---|---|
| Budget (street food, markets) | €25–35 |
| Mid-range (one sit-down meal a day) | €50–75 |
| Splurge (tasting menus, wine) | €130+ |
Vegetarian, halal and gluten-free
Vegetarian & vegan: Traditional menus are heavy on fish and pork, and vegetable soups (caldo verde, sopa de legumes) are sometimes made with meat stock or include chouriço. Lisbon has many dedicated vegetarian and vegan restaurants, especially in Intendente, Anjos and Príncipe Real, and vegan natas are now common.
Halal: Halal food is available mainly around Martim Moniz and Mouraria, where South Asian and North African restaurants are concentrated. Pork and wine are common in Portuguese cooking, including in some soups and stews, so ask.
Gluten-free: Grilled fish and meat with potatoes or rice are naturally gluten-free, but bread is served with almost everything, croquettes are breaded, and pastries are wheat-based. Awareness of coeliac disease (doença celíaca) is reasonable in central restaurants; say 'sem glúten'.
Food scams and tourist traps to avoid
- Couvert: bread, butter, olives, cheese or pâté placed on the table before you order are charged per item, sometimes €5–15 for a table if you eat them. This is legal and normal, not a scam, but you can refuse. If you do not want them, say 'não, obrigado' and ask for them to be taken away; anything you do not touch should not be charged.
- Restaurant touts on Rua das Portas de Santo Antão and around Rua Augusta and Rossio, selling seafood platters and set menus with photos at inflated prices. Walk two or three streets away from the main axes; places that need a man on the street to fill seats are rarely good value.
- Seafood priced per kilo (crab, lobster, large prawns) arriving as a much bigger bill than expected. Ask for the weight or price before it is cooked, or order fixed-price portions.
- Strangers on Rua Augusta and in Bairro Alto offering 'hashish' or 'cocaine' — usually bay leaves or crushed aspirin, and a set-up for an argument. Ignore and keep walking; it has nothing to do with food but it is the most-reported street hassle downtown.
Top tours & activities in Lisbon
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Staying near the markets saves time and taxi money — most food tours start in the old centre.
Common questions
Do I have to pay for the bread and olives on the table?
Only if you eat them. In Portugal this is the couvert, and each item is priced on the menu, usually €1–4 per item but more in tourist areas. You can say 'no, thank you' and ask the waiter to remove it. If it stays on the table untouched, it should not appear on the bill; check before paying.
How much should I tip in Lisbon?
Tipping is modest. Locals often round up or leave small change in cafés and tascas; in sit-down restaurants 5–10% is generous and appreciated but not expected. Service is not usually added to the bill. Food tour guides are commonly tipped about €5–10 per person if you enjoyed the tour.
Where is the best pastel de nata?
The best-known is Pastéis de Belém in Belém, which sells a slightly different tart under its own name; expect a queue, though the takeaway line moves quickly. Many Lisboetas also rate specialist bakeries in Chiado and Baixa that bake throughout the day. The key is to eat one warm; a nata that has sat in a window for hours is a different thing.
Which food tour suits a first visit?
A daytime walk through Baixa, Chiado and Cais do Sodré gives the widest overview: pastries, bifana, canned fish, cheese, ginjinha and a nata. Take it early in your stay so you know what to order afterwards. If you will be in Lisbon in the evening only, a petiscos crawl in Graça or Alfama is the alternative.
How much should I budget for food per day?
Eating at cafés, tascas and taking the prato do dia at lunch, about €25–35 per person a day is realistic in 2026. With a sit-down dinner and wine, plan €50–75. Seafood at a cervejaria or a tasting menu can push spending over €130. Coffee and pastries remain cheap: an espresso at the counter is usually around €1.
When are restaurants and markets closed?
Many traditional tascas close on Sundays, some also on Monday, and some shut for a holiday in August. Fresh-produce markets work mornings, Monday to Saturday. The Time Out Market food hall is open daily from about 10:00 until midnight, later at weekends. Lunch is usually served from 12:00 to 15:00 and dinner from about 19:30.
* Prices are approximate, gathered on 2 Oct 2026 from menus, markets and the booking pages linked above. They change with season and exchange rates.