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The Best Places To Eat in Portugal

Richard Mayson, author of the recently published second edition of The Wines of Portugal, has been visiting the country and enjoying its cuisine for over 50 years. Here, he introduces some typical Portuguese dishes and his favourite wines to pair with them, and recommends the best places for an authentic Portuguese dining experience.

Portugese fish stand with various sea food, mosculles, and fish

A Portuguese fish and seafood stand

The cervejaria is a peculiarly Portuguese concept. Open into the early hours, it is a place where you can drop in at almost any time for a plate of shellfish accompanied by a glass of beer (called an imperial if you are in Lisbon or a fino if you go to Porto). Surprising as it seems, this combination really works: a pile of delicate pink Atlantic prawns with a cold, pale and deceptively alcoholic lager (Sagres in Lisbon, Super Bock in Porto) is a perfect pairing.

You may wonder why I am writing about beer when I have just written a new book on wine. Well, the cervejaria (literally ‘beer house’) is an important Portuguese popular cultural reference as well as a good place to try out different wines. I often start with a plate of camarão de Espinho (tiny Atlantic shrimps that you eat with the shell on) accompanied by an imperial, then move on to wine. 

Vibrant fresh shrimp surrounding a glass of salt, on a bright turquoise plate.

Vinho Verde from the north-west corner of Portugal is a wine that is absolutely made for seafood. Relatively low in alcohol and naturally high in acidity it has the verve and cut to go with everything from simple salty shrimps to a dish loaded with garlic, coriander and olive oil like amêijoas à Bulhão Pato (a clam dish named after the nineteenth-century Portuguese poet Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato). Portuguese bread is second to none and thick slices are served alongside to soak up the sauce. These are classic petiscos; appetizers that serve as the Portuguese equivalent of tapas. Vinho Verde can be a simple, spritzy blend or if you move slightly more upmarket to a marisqueira (seafood bar) you are likely to find varietal wines. Loureiro produces sleek, steely wines and Alvarinho, now planted all over the Vinho Verde region, produces a fuller, more aromatic style of wine. For Loureiro I love the wines of Quinta do Ameal from the Lima valley and for Alvarinho, Soalheiro produces an extraordinary range of terroir-focused wines that make the most of this wonderful grape variety. They also produce a wine named Allo, a blend of both grapes.

After the shellfish it is time to move on either to a prego no pão (a thin slice of steak sandwiched in more of that wonderful fresh bread) or pica pau, bite-sized pieces of marinated beef or pork cooked in a dense garlicky sauce. With this you can either move back to cold beer or go for a good, gluggable red. Look out for the NatCool wines inspired by Niepoort or go for rasping red Vinho Verde (the biodynamic Aphros is my favourite).

For a Portuguese dish with more substance there is bacalhau (salt cod). There are supposedly at least 365 different ways of cooking bacalhau but my preferred styles are bacalhau à brás (with finely cut potatoes and eggs), bacalhau com natas (like a fish pie with a cream sauce), bacalhau à Gomes de Sá (softened in milk and baked with potatoes and onion) and bacalhau à Zé do Pipo (another deliciously creamy bacalhau dish, popular in Porto). I always used to look forward to lunch with one of the well-known Port shippers who served bacalhau to their directors and guests every Friday, accompanied by a bottle of Meursault. But, to my mind, bacalhau needs a red, something vibrant, fruit-driven with a bit of tannic grip. Duas Quintas from the Port producers Ramos Pinto is my go-to house red but look out for other well-made Douro reds from Quinta de La Rosa, Quinta do Crasto, Meandro (from Quinta Vale do Vale Meão) and Vinha Grande from Sogrape. The latter two bat above their price point!

There are cervejarias all over Portugal (Portugalia is a national brand) but my favourites are Ramiro, Trindade and RibaDouro in Lisbon, the latter in the heart of the city among the fashionable boutiques of the Avenida de Liberdade. Marisco na Praça in the fish market at Cascais is an excellent, atmospheric marisqueira where you can drink beer and wine, or for some of the very best shellfish in Portugal try Marisqueira Nunes in Belém. 

A selection of fresh fish and seafood at a market stand in Porto

A seafood market in Porto (Photo by Andy Kennedy on Unsplash)

For fresh fish, there is nowhere better than Matosinhos, a coastal suburb of Portugal’s second city, Porto. On a couple of streets parallel to the coast, you will find some of the best and freshest fish in the world, cooked either over charcoal out on the street or in gleaming kitchens in the more sophisticated establishments. I love O Gaveto, a restaurant located in a small praça, just two streets back from the fishing port. Don’t worry too much about the menu; just ask for the best fish of the day. But do request the wine list, which is extensive and includes an increasing number of really good white wines from the Douro, grown at high altitude. Planalto and Altano are good everyday choices but if you are looking for something more special, try the white wines from Port producer Quinta do Noval or Rita Marques’s Conceito. There’s something delightfully chablisienne about the white Vadio, a wine produced from the Bical grape grown in Bairrada, south of Porto. 

Above all, I love eating fish overlooking the sea. Mar do Inferno on the cliff top by the Boca do Inferno (‘Hell’s Mouth’) outside Cascais has the fish on display as you walk in through the door and has an excellent wine list. Try the cataplana de peixe e marisco (fish and shellfish cooked in a cataplana which acts like a pressure cooker) with wines made from the local Arinto grape – Prova Regia from Bucelas or Adega Mãe close to the coast north of Lisbon. But perhaps the ultimate Portuguese wine and food combination is to be found at Praia da Adraga, close to Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point in mainland Europe. Here you can eat fresh fish at the beachside restaurant accompanied by the white Colares produced by the Beata family of Viúva Gomes. This is true Atlantic wine: fresh, with a streak of salinity, made from the elusive Malvasia de Colares grape, planted on uniquely sandy soils within sight, sound and smell of the ocean. 

Richard Mayson entered the UK wine trade in 1984 and spent five years working for the Wine Society. His first book, the award-winning Portugal’s Wines and Wine-Makers, Port and the Douro, published in 1999, was shortlisted for the André Simon Award and the second edition, published in 2004, won the Symington Award of Excellence. In 2003 The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal won the André Simon Award for Drinks Book of the Year. In 2014 Richard was Louis Roederer International Wine Feature Writer of the Year and in 2015 Madeira: The Islands and Their Wines was shortlisted for the André Simon Award. Richard chairs the Port and Madeira panel for the Decanter World Wine Awards and lectures to students at Leith’s School of Food and Wine in London. In 1999 he became a Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto.

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