If you fancy a coffee and slice of chocolate cake in the sun, Linha D`Água should be your destination. The self-service snack bar, consisting mainly of outdoor seating, is situated in a grassy hollow in Jardim da Amália Rodrigues at the top off Parque Eduardo VII, right behind El Corte Ingles department store.

The wooden esplanada is on the edge of a pretty, shallow ornamental pond, complete with funky fountain in the middle of it and is a perfect sun trap. There is the usual array of sweet and savory Portuguese snacks to be sampled (I recommend the chocolate cake) as well as light main dishes (the quiche is pretty good too!). Linha D`Água has a license to sell alcohol, so is also a place to go if you would like to go for some quiet sundown drinks before heading to the cinema at ECI or off down the hill into town.

People flock to this snack bar at the weekend to have late lunches or simply to catch up with friends over a beer and the whole area is a hive of activity with people walking their dogs in the park and sitting enjoying the sunshine.  Summer is on its way and this cafe is becoming busier as people celebrate the end of the cold days!

On a bright, sunny day (of which there are many in Lisbon) I love to retreat to this little cafe to relax next to the water whilst Lisbon traffic continues to rush on around me.

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Linha D`Água | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Light meal & drink € 10
Rua Marquês de Fronteira, Jardim da Amália Rodrigues | Avenidas | +351213814327
10:00 – 20:00 daily

Brunch. On Saturday and Sunday. In Cais do Sodre. 

Cafe Tati, situated on the road directly behind Mercardo Ribeiro, opens at 11:00 at the weekend and, for €10 you can have a delicious, filling brunch, complete with freshly-squeezed orange juice and coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and a choice of fruit salad or cereal and yoghurt to start out with.

The main course is a beautifully arranged plate of local cold salamis, hams, salmon and cheeses which are accompanied by a portion of scrambled eggs and toradas (huge, fat slices of hot toast), jam and butter. Then, just when you think you can’t possibly eat more and are contemplating another shot of coffee, a little slice of carrot cake appears on your plate, just to finish things off.  

The atmosphere is casual and laid back and the cafe tends to start filling up after 12:30 when people have finally woken up to the world of the weekend.

This quirky little cafe is decorated with a random selection of chairs and tables and the crockery is all mismatched and some of it is delightfully old-fashioned.

It is also possible to have lunch or dinner throughout the week in this charming venue, and it is a good place to meet in the evening for a drink before heading on to one of the other bars in the area. 

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Cafe Tati | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants | Brunch € 10
Rua da Ribeira Nova, 36 | Riverside
11:00 – 01:00 daily

This is one of Lisbon’s oldest providers of bread, cakes and biscuits and all things yummy. Established in 1902 in Saldanha, this pastry shop has one of the widest selections of sweet treats that I have seen in Lisbon.

The huge glass-fronted display cases act as windows into a world of such a variety of traditional Portuguese pasteis de nata, cream cakes, apple tarts and petit fours that you can spend some time deliberating what to have with your coffee (which you will drink standing up at one of the tables around the room).

My favourite cake of all time in Lisbon is the pastel de nata, and the bakers at Sequeira have not let me down – these little pastries are always fresh and the pastry flakes perfectly. This pastelaria is very popular with the locals of the Saldanha area.

Sequeira also bakes these delights in perfect miniature form so you can buy a whole selection to take away with you and sample at your leisure (we often have a selection of these around the office!).

There is a restaurant attached to the bakery where you can have lunch, usually consisting of soup and a buffet selection of traditional Portuguese dishes such as duck rice, fish dishes (bacalhau) or stews. Sequeira is closed on Sundays.

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Pastelaria Sequeira | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Coffee & cake € 5
Avenida da República 11A | Avenidas | +351213140749
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 20:00, Sat 07:00 – 19:00

Lisbon has the most fabulous fresh fruit, vegetable and fish markets where it is possible to buy healthy, fresh food for extremely reasonable prices.

Even if you are here for a weekend, staying in a hotel in the Saldanha area and don’t need to cook for yourself, it is worth popping into Mercado 31 Janeiro for the experience. The ground floor of the market is a brightly-colored, lively area with a vast array of fresh fruit and vegetables laid out in the centre whilst the sides of the hall are flanked by butchers’ stalls selling fresh cuts of meat. The sellers call out as you walk past their stalls to try and tempt you into buying their wares.

The mezzanine floor consists of the fresh fish market and there is a restaurant up there too. The variety of fresh fish in Lisbon is superb and I love to go here to buy salmon steaks to cook. This is not for the faint-hearted if you don’t like the smell of fish or are disturbed by the sight of whole fish and squid reposing on beds of ice! At one end of the floor is the fresh flower stall which provides a burst of color to the cooler, slightly austere air of the fish market.

There is a small vegetarian cafe on the ground floor of the market which serves sumptuous soup and various vegetarian meals. This cafe is open at lunch time during the week and is closed during the month of August.

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Mercado 31 de Janeiro | Shopping, Snacks | Lunch € 10
Rua Engenheiro Vieira da Silva | Avenidas | +351213540988
Mon – Sat 07:00 – 14:00

Hidden away next to the picturesque Largo do Carmo, Vertigo is one of the more trendy places in Chiado. It’s a perfect spot to have lunch or a cup of coffee in the afternoon. Or have a drink here before going for dinner in Bairro Alto!

The menu is rather healthy and features lots of salads, sandwiches, fresh juices and more exotic offers. (Not that easy to find in Lisbon, trust me!). The interior is very cozy yet stylish.

The area around Vertigo is becoming more and more interesting, with lots of cafés, shops and restaurants opening. Check it out.

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Vertigo | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Sandwich & juice € 8.00
Travessa do Carmo 4 | Chiado & Baixa | +351213433112
10:00 – 00:00 daily

Royal Café is a nice, almost hidden, place to have breakfast, lunch or an afternoon snack. The setting is modern and clean, without being distant. In the back you can find a (rather tiny) terrace.

The main specialties are natural- and biological products. They have a good assortment of salads, sandwiches, fresh juices, various teas and infusions.

It is not cheap, compared to your average Portuguese pastelaria or snackbar, but nothing scandalous, especially if you’re used to Northern European prices.

I like to come here to have lunch or a snack when spending time in Chiado. It is just 100 meters away from the main street in Chiado, but a lot more quiet and less touristic. And it is open on Sunday!!

If it is full try Vertigo.

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Royal Café | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Sandwich & juice € 9.00
Largo Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro 29 | Chiado & Baixa | +351213469125
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 00:00, Sun 10:00 – 20:00

This spot/location is called “Portas do Sol” (Sun’s doors) for a good reason. Here one can have all the sunshiny views that Lisbon has to offer. Close by the bar, there’s the Saint George’s castle, Alfama, Sé (the cathedral) and down there, the river Tejo.

A bar with such an astonishing view is reason enough to pay it a visit. But this bar offers much more. It’s modern, well designed, with very “cool” staff and with a broad offer of food and drinks. And exceptional for an open door bar like this: surprisingly clean!

From lunch to snacks, juices to wines, and a reasonable selection of tea, you can sit on their relaxing black sofas and have whatever you want with the best view Lisbon has to offer, as a bonus!

The bad news about this bar is that once you are there, it is really very hard to leave. The good news is that, when you do, you can get the famous Tram 28 that passes just by.

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Portas do Sol Drinks & Food | Bars, Relaxing, Snacks | Drink € 3.50
Largo das Portas do Sol | Castelo | +351218851299
Sun – Thu 10:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 02:00

This is one of my weekends favourite bakeries. I like this one specially for its “sonhos” (dreams), which are normally a Christmas season specialty, but they have it, fortunately, all winter long. “Sonhos” are fried cakes, much like donuts, but lighter and fluffier. There are the normal and the pumpkin ones, the last being my pick. Also their “rabanadas” (well, I don’t know how to translate that!) are just perfectly done. It’s like a sweet french toast, but much better. And for last, if they are not the only place in Lisbon that sells bagels, they surely are the only one that make authentic ones.

Another great thing is their storefront. It’s always decorated accordingly to the season, or happening or celebration.

And the best of all is that this bakery is in the middle of the best stores and tourist places in Chiado. And it’s there that I normally buy my bread for the whole week. Did I mention their bread is spectacular?

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Panificação do Chiado | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Breakfast € 5
Calçada do Sacramento, 26-32 | Chiado & Baixa | +351213424044
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 18:00, Sat 08:00 – 19:00, Sun 11:00 – 19:00

This is the place I have always hoped would open in Lisbon, and it did last year, by the end of November. The only Tintin store I have visited till now has always been in Brussels, and although the Lisbon store is not as big as the Brussels one, you can find in here almost everything the trademark Tintin sells, such as postales, pins, agendas, notebooks and PVC figures. They also sell clothing for all seasons, books, watches and miniatures of the famous car from Hergé stories… There is even a room filled with Tintin’s book covers, which belong to the owner and Tintin fan, Paulo Ferreira de Almeida.

At the same place, you have a very nice and cozy Cafe-Lounge with also recalls Hergé Character’s heroism, as it has some very nice original lithographs of Tintin books as wall decoration. What attracted me most, besides being a cafe with Tintin’s allusion, is the way the tables are organized, making each space of the cafe very different and private. The menu holds no surprises, except for the Belgian beers, of course. I suggest their muffin – unbelievably good!

The only problem the cafe still faces is a lack of organization. Sometimes the delay in the service is just unacceptable, but I like the place so much that I really never cared about that.

They also serve lunch, as a “meal of the day” basis and salads and are opened till really late. And, best of all, on Mondays.

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Espaço Tintin | Bars, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks
Av. de Roma, 39 A | Avenidas | +351217935582
Mon – Thu 08:30 – 23:00, Fri – Sat 08:30 – 01:00, Mon 14:00 – 19:00

This garden is one of the most romantic in Lisbon. It’s not a big one, but it is so cozy and so resplendent you really don’t care about its size. It’s wonderfully designed, being a perfect square with its tall trees and a graceful fountain in the middle. iI was inaugurated by order of Marques de Pombal in 1771, the same guy who helped to rebuild Lisbon after the great earthquake.

I personally love visiting this garden at night, when it is very quiet and kind of gothic, owing to the old and impressive Águas Lisbon Aqueduct and to the small church underneath it, “Ermida Nossa Senhora de Montserrat”.

As every decent garden does, Amoreiras Garden also houses an adorable renovated Bistro. Coincidentally, every time I go there, I meet a lot of French people, what makes me wonder if the french guys are always attracted by the best cafes… Probably the reason is the Portuguese pastries they sell there, for they are delicious and not exaggeratedly big, which I love.

And also in front of Amoreiras garden there is a interesting museum to be visited, the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Museum, located where it used to be an old Silk factory.

More reasons I love this garden? It’s close to the Mãe D’Água Amoreiras Reservoir, the Procópio Bar, Rato’s metro station, Amoreiras Shopping and it’s surrounded by a lovely neighbourhood. And best of all, it’s very close to where I live.

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Amoreiras Garden | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | Free
Praça das Amoreiras | Estrela
24 hours daily