WINING
& DINING
Lisbon is still Europe’s bargain city for
eating out and difficult to beat for price, quality
and levels of service.
There are several restaurants to be found at the
bottom of Praça dos Restauradores in downtown
Lisbon, although it is easy to find value-for-money
eating places anywhere in the capital.
Being a large port, it’s not surprising to
find that fish predominates the restaurant menus,
although the high quality of the many meat dishes
available should never be underestimated.
Portugal is famous for its regional cuisine, so
visitors to Lisbon can enjoy a rich culinary experience
in the many places offering typical dishes from
every part of the country.
There’s also a great variety of international
cuisine to choose from, including Italian, Indian,
Brazilian, Spanish, Russian, Mexican, Chinese and
African, not forgetting the ubiquitous Burger King,
KFC and Pizza Hut franchises to be found all over
town.
Visitors should be advised not to leave it too late
before going out to dinner in Lisbon. Most restaurants
open around 7 pm, which is much earlier than in
neighbouring Spain.
For a quick snack, ask for a prego (beef) or bifana
(pork), both tasty steak sandwiches prepared in
a few minutes, while all cafés and bars serve
a delicious toasted cheese and ham sandwich known
as a tosta mista.
WINE. For wine drinkers around
the world, Portugal is a real find. The breadth
and diversity of the country’s landscape
is reflected by an extensive range of fine regional
wines, considered on a par with the best winemaking
nations around the world.
The landscape around Lisbon produces some of Portugal’s
most distinguished wines, most notably the small
village of Bucelas famous for its rich, mellow
white wine. On the west coast at Colares, the
vines sprouting from the sand dunes produce two
full-flavoured reds and a refreshing white.
40 km south of Lisbon, the port town of Setúbal
in the picturesque Costa Azul region lends its
name to a sweet, fortified wine made predominantly
from the Moscatel grape. Visitors to this region
should sample the local wines made in the shadow
of the Arrábida mountains with a plate
of fresh seafood served up in the many fishing
villages dotted along the coastline.
Lisbon’s restaurants stock wine from all
over the country, including the lush, green Minho
region in the extreme north-western corner of
the country. This area is most notable for the
crisp, refreshing young variety of wine called
vinho verde.
Other table wines to look out for include those
from the Douro Valley, home to the famous Port
wine, and the spicy reds of the Dão region
produced further south.
The best place in the capital to sample high-quality
Port wine is the Solar do Vinho do Porto located
in the city’s ancient Bairro Alto district
(Rua São Pedro Alcântara 45).
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