Breakfast Wine, Gazpacho and Unforgettable Dinner in Lisbon

Lisbon is a place where you can enjoy wine at breakfast and eat potato skins while listening to a symphony orchestra playing, sometimes awful busking too.
The capital city of Portugal is a deservedly popular holiday destination, with its fascinating old neighbourhoods and seemingly endless hills.
Food and drinks are excellent and reasonably priced. Our most unforgettable dinner in Lisbon is served at home, though.

Let’s take a look at what Lisbon has to offer. Join us to collect some fun foodie travel experiences in Portugal!

Early in the afternoon, I settle onto the terrace of an inviting little bar near our accommodation in Bairro Alto.
Tanja, meanwhile, has gone off to work.

I browse the drinks menu and spot vinho verde, the lightly sparkling, pale green Portuguese white wine.
No surprise there. It’s practically Portugal’s national wine. I order a glass.
I even try placing my order in Portuguese, a language I don’t actually speak yet.

The friendly grey-haired owner switches effortlessly to English and politely informs me that having a glass isn’t possible.
– Our smallest serving is half a bottle, 37.5 centilitres.
He’s not joking, nor is he trying to fool a tourist.

Breakfast at Legendary Café A Brasileira

It’s early July 2014, and we’re spending ten days in Portugal combining work and holiday.
More accurately, Tanja is here on business with her colleague Terhi, while I’ve tagged along during my summer vacation.
After the work is done, the rest of the trip will be a pure holiday for the two of us.

The three of us have rented a two-bedroom Airbnb apartment in the heart of Bairro Alto, just a short walk from Baixa-Chiado metro station.
Right beside the station stands Café A Brasileira, the favourite haunt of Portugal’s national poet, Fernando Pessoa. Pessoa still faithfully occupies his regular table on the terrace, although nowadays he’s made of bronze.

Our apartment belongs to a French owner named Hugo and serves as his second home, situated in the middle of an ordinary Portuguese neighbourhood.
Back then, the short-term rental business hadn’t yet spiralled out of control.

Most mornings we make breakfast in the apartment, but today Tanja and I decided to have ours at A Brasileira.
The prices are surprisingly affordable for such a famous tourist attraction: two ham sandwiches and double espressos for €10.60.
The same breakfast would have cost only about half as much inside the magnificent café, but having just escaped the Finnish summer, we naturally wanted to sit outside in the warmth, just like almost everyone else.

…and Some Awful Busking

Our peaceful breakfast is slightly interrupted by two young musicians who are quite obviously not Portuguese and decide to busk right in front of the terrace.
We have nothing against street performers, but the cacophony produced by this duo sounds as though two talentless members kicked out of a beginner grunge band had decided to reinvent themselves as progressive rock musicians.
We don’t give them any money.
If anything, we’re tempted to ask them for compensation for emotional distress and damaged eardrums.

After breakfast, Tanja and Terhi head to the Finnish Embassy to gather information for their work.
With nothing planned, I decide that my first full day in Lisbon deserves both a cigar and a glass of wine.

Tanja has visited Lisbon countless times on business trips.
I’d only been here once before, thirteen years earlier for a company seminar, and it feels like the perfect opportunity to rediscover the city.
So I settle comfortably onto the terrace of a pleasant little bar.

Breakfast Wine Is a Real Thing in Portugal

The owner’s announcement is admittedly a little surprising.
What do you mean you can’t order wine by the glass?
At this point, I know very little about Portuguese drinking culture, so he explains.

Portugal ranks among the world’s biggest wine-consuming nations.
The vinho verde I’d found on the menu is often nicknamed “breakfast wine” because it’s so light and easy to drink and because many people actually do drink it with breakfast, or simply for breakfast.

And why would we sell wine by the glass, when everyone drinks more than one glass anyway?
Fair enough.
I order the half bottle, which costs just €6.50.

Comparing Life in Portugal to Nordic Lifestyle

There are hardly any other customers around, so the owner stays to chat with the foreign visitor.
When I mention that I’m from Finland, he becomes genuinely enthusiastic.

Many of his regular customers, he says, have considered escaping Portugal’s struggling economy and high unemployment by moving to Northern Europe.
Germany and Sweden are the favourite destinations, but our home country Finland also attracts interest.
-They know the salaries are higher, but they don’t always realise that the cost of living is higher too.

I ask them whether they understand that you can’t go to the beach all year round, even a tiny apartment costs several hundred euros a month to rent, and even cheap wine costs around ten euros a bottle. Life isn’t necessarily better there, despite everything.

After that, they’re suddenly much less certain about moving, the owner laughs, displaying remarkably detailed knowledge about Finland.
This time, however, I’m able to surprise him. I add that, apart from beer, you can’t buy any alcohol in Finnish supermarkets on Sundays, not even wine.
– What? That’s impossible! Why not? he exclaims in disbelief. I’ll definitely have to tell that to the people planning to move there!
(In July 2026 this changed, however, and now you can buy alcohol on Sundays in some of the state-owned alcohol shops, named Alko.)

The Former Colony Isn’t Especially Popular

We return to the bar with Tanja a couple of times more, both for drinks and dinner.
One evening, the three of us — Tanja, Terhi, and I — end up dining in a depressingly touristy restaurant whose main attraction is the football World Cup semi-final between Brazil and Germany showing on television.
For dessert, we retreat to our elderly friend’s bar.
During the short walk over, Germany has already scored a couple more goals on its way to an unforgettable 7–1 victory.

I’d imagined the Portuguese might be devastated by the humiliation suffered by their former colony.
They couldn’t have cared less.
During our trip, we’ll learn that many Portuguese aren’t especially fond of Brazilians, whom they often describe as loud and aggressive. The Portuguese themselves are surprisingly reserved and quiet.

On another evening, we meet Maria Emilia for drinks.
The embassy had introduced this cultured woman, whose English is impeccable, to Tanja and Terhi during an earlier visit as an interpreter.
Maria Emilia spent her career at the Ministry of Education and, even in retirement, still serves on the programme advisory board of Portugal’s public broadcaster.
– It mostly shows educational and children’s programmes, so hardly anyone watches them, she smiles.

We agree to meet again when Tanja and I return to Lisbon after completing our tour around Portugal.

An Unforgettable Gazpacho Dinner in Lisbon

Once we’re back in Lisbon, we get in touch with Maria Emilia.
Instead of meeting for drinks, she invites us to her home.
– I’ll serve cold tomato soup, gazpacho, she messages.
Sounds perfect.

We imagine we’ll enjoy the soup, have a pleasant chat, and perhaps later stop somewhere for a drink, or grab a bite to eat if we’re still hungry.
Maria Emilia welcomes us into her house near Bairro Alto and leads us to a small inner courtyard, or rather, a spacious light well.

She tells us that the neighbourhood was still working-class when she and her husband bought the property in the 1970s.
The building had previously housed a hardware store and warehouse, which they transformed into a three-storey home.
Now she lives there alone. She was recently widowed.

365 x Cod

Our hostess pours us wine and brings out the promised gazpacho.
Then comes the starter.
Then the main course.
Then, naturally, dessert.
Every dish is absolutely delicious.
It gradually dawns on us that there will be no need for a late-night stop at a grill on the way back.

The main course is bacalhau.
This dried salted cod is one of Portugal’s favourite foods.
– They say Portugal has 365 cod recipes, Maria Emilia explains, though in reality every cook probably has one of their own.

Wait, in Whose House Are We Dining?

Inside the house, we’re intrigued by enormous piles of books and binders stacked across the living room table.
Maria Emilia notices our curiosity.
– Two journalists are writing a biography of my late husband. Those are the source materials, she explains.
A biography?
– Yes. My husband was Portugal’s first foreign minister after the Carnation Revolution. Haven’t you visited us before? she asks, genuinely surprised.

No.
We never had the chance to meet José Medeiros Ferreira.
In fact, we hadn’t even realised Maria Emilia was his widow.
This modest woman has never made a fuss about her background.

Besides serving as foreign minister, Medeiros Ferreira was also one of the founding members of Portugal’s Socialist Party (Partido Socialista).
The party itself was founded in West Germany in 1973 while the Ferreira family was living in exile in Switzerland.

The evening passes remarkably quickly over wonderful food, good wine, and relaxed conversation.
By the time we leave for our hotel, it’s already late.
Neither food nor drink even crosses our minds anymore. The gazpacho dinner has been more than generous.
Without question, it ranks among our finest dining experiences in Lisbon.

After Tanja and Terhi finish their work in Portugal, Terhi flies back to Finland while Tanja and I switch fully into holiday mode.
We’ve already visited what is said to be the best flea market in the Alfama neighborhood.
Now we spend our days lingering at pavement cafés, strolling along surprisingly quiet boulevards, and wandering up one steep street only to descend another. But before saying goodbye to Tanja’s work partner, three of us have one more dinner in Lisbon.

Restaurant Dinner in Lisbon: Enjoying Potato Skins and Symphony Orchestra

There’s still time for one final dinner and one more memorable food experience, but where to eat in Lisbon on those nights you are not invited to someone’s home?
We chose Café No Chiado, located just beside Baixa-Chiado metro station.

One of its greatest advantages is its location opposite the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra.
By sheer luck, the orchestra happens to be giving an outdoor concert that very evening, providing us with the perfect soundtrack to dinner.

The prices are reasonable: three courses, an aperitif, a glass of Madeira after the meal, and a bottle of wine shared between the three of us come to €48 per person.
Special mention goes to the roasted potato skins served with garlic mayonnaise, which were something of a culinary trend at the time.

Late into the night, the streets erupt in celebration after Argentina defeats the Netherlands.
As supporters of the Oranje, we don’t join the festivities.
Instead, we retreat to our apartment.

Lisbon is a city that never truly sleeps.
At most, it dozes off for a short while before dawn.

We, on the other hand, try to get a proper night’s sleep because our journey continues the next morning.
It’s time to say goodbye to Lisbon for now and head north towards Porto, famous for its port wine and its francesinhas.
Francesinhas?
We’ll find out soon enough.

Lisbon Rose from the Ashes and the Flood

When you visit Lisbon, you’re visiting one of the world’s oldest cities. It has served as Portugal’s capital since 1255, when the seat of government was moved from Coimbra.

Much of what is now considered the historic city centre, however, dates from after 1755.
On 1 November that year, a massive earthquake struck Lisbon, almost completely destroying the city. As fate would have it, it was All Saints’ Day, and countless candles were burning in homes and churches. Many were knocked over by the quake, igniting devastating fires that swept through the ruins.

The destruction was completed by two tsunamis that surged inland from the Atlantic, racing up the Tagus (Tejo) River in waves reaching as high as 30 metres (100 feet). The district of Alfama escaped the worst of the devastation and still offers visitors a glimpse of medieval Lisbon.

The earthquake claimed thousands of lives as far away as Spain and Morocco, while the resulting tsunamis caused fatalities in Cornwall and even the Caribbean. In Lisbon alone, the death toll is estimated at between 60,000 and 100,000 people.
Yet from the devastation came renewal.

The energetic Marquis of Pombal oversaw the rebuilding of the city centre, laying it out much as it still appears today. Remarkably for the eighteenth century, the new buildings were specifically designed to withstand future earthquakes.