Tico Tico or Novo Rio (the restaurant uses both names) is an old Alvalade local favourite as long as I can remember. They probably serve the best meat croquettes in all of Lisbon: crispy and golden, stuffed with minced meat seasoned with cummin and other secrets they’re not sharing.

The menu is a long delicious walk through some of the most unknown Portuguese delicacies, including: all sorts of seafood, red snapper head (for real!? oh yeah!), octopus fillets, stuffed squid, monkfish pasta, fish eggs, the famous suckling pig, iscas (pork liver thin steaks), “cabidela” rice (rice cooked in chicken or rabbit blood!), the rich and seasonal lamprey, and last but not least, the Portuguese stew, the strongest of them all! Here you can find traditional anti-hipsterish Portuguese cosy food to warm your soul. I’m happy they haven’t changed a thing.

Actually, the old restaurant works like a “cervejaria” all day long, which is the kind of place you go just to eat a bifana (pork steak served in a bun), a prego (the same, but with cow meat instead) or just some beers with lupin beans or some seafood. You could go there anytime and maybe avoid the usual crowd. It’s a cool place to hang out with friends and watch a football match.

And back to the meat croquettes. Did you know they make from 500 to 800 croquettes a day? There’s only one big discussion going on: with or without mustard?!