A Guide to Portuguese Food: 13 Essential Dishes to Try in Portugal

Portuguese cuisine is having a moment. After decades of looking toward the more famous cuisines of its European brethren (France, Italy) as the pinnacle of high gastronomy, high-end restaurants in this little Iberian Nation That Could have finally turned their attention inward in their pursuit of culinary validation.

Led by high-profile two Michelin–starred chefs José Avillez (from the restaurant Belcanto), Henrique Sá Pessoa (Alma), and Ricardo Costa (the Yeatman), the Portuguese food renaissance began in Lisbon and Porto and has quickly spread throughout this formerly under-the-radar seafaring nation.

Alongside Portugal’s fine dining scene, of course, are more casual eateries—some of which (like Antiga Confeitaria de Belém) have been around for generations—that shine just as bright for their traditional Portuguese dishes, their recipes perfected over time.

Whether it’s at a casual taverna or a Michelin-starred restaurant, you won’t want to miss these 13 traditional Portuguese foods on your next trip to this small European nation.

What is Portuguese cuisine?

Portuguese food is heavily influenced by the Age of Discovery—when explorers like Vasco de Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral set sail for the New World at the encouragement of 15th-century Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator—as well as by its own 1,115 miles of Atlantic coastline.

As a result, seafood rules Portuguese kitchens, but inland, pork holds its own. The hearty regional cuisine of the Alentejo, for example, is based around slow-cooked porco preto (Iberian black pig), lamb, and bread, all of which are served numerous ways. By land or sea, Portuguese food is backed by a long list of classic dishes with Mediterranean foundations but peppered with portions of African, Brazilian, and Spice Route pizzazz. Today, Europe’s newfound culinary darling has cultivated this globalized mélange into one of the continent’s most exacting and dynamic cuisines.

What is Portugal’s most famous dish?

You won’t find bacalhau (salted cod) in Portugal—bacalhau will find you. Harkening back to a prerefrigeration technique of preserving fish in salt, bacalhau carried on in Portugal despite modern advancements. Today, it mostly comes from Norway: Around 25,000 tons of bacalhau are imported annually. Depending on the preparation (some say there are at least 1,000 recipes), bacalhau can be very good or very fishy (the trick is in extensive soaking in water to remove the salt). Either way, you ain’t getting out of the country without eating it.

Bacalhau can be baked as a filet or in casseroles, grilled, found swimming in rice, or shredded with scrambled eggs, onions, and fried potatoes (bacalhau à Brás, the most ubiquitous prep and our favorite). Some other standouts include bacalhau à Gomes de Sá (baked in the oven with onion, garlic, olive oil, and potatoes), bacalhau com natas (au gratin with cream and cheese) and bacalhau à Lagareiro (loin baked with olive oil and potatoes). Truth be told, every Portuguese restaurant in the country does it and does it well, but Solar do Bacalhau in Coimbra is considered one of the best bacalhau specialty restaurants in Portugal.

Although Portuguese food has grown well beyond the bounds of bacalhau today, this longtime favorite still monopolizes Portuguese dinner tables.

1. Pastel de nata (custard tart)

• Where to try it: Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Lisbon

Even if you know next to nothing about the cuisine of Portugal, you’re likely familiar with the country’s most famous dessert, a tiny and decadent Portuguese egg tart that some might say is the most satisfying wallop of sweet, sweet wow you’ll ever get for €1.15. Known generically around the world as pastel de nata, it’s protected as pastel de Belém at Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, where it is said to have originated in the Lisbon suburbs in 1837. The original recipe is under lockdown, passed on by the monks at the UNESCO-listed Jerónimos Monastery nearby, but the secret is in the textural yin-and-yang between the creamy egg custard filling and the flaky pastry shell. Powdered sugar and/or cinnamon is sprinkled over the top according to taste.

2. Polvo à Lagareiro (octopus with olive oil and potatoes)

• Where to try it: Páteo, Lisbon

One of the most ubiquitous dishes across the country and one nearly guaranteed to be locally sourced, polvo à Lagareiro is said to have originated in the central Portuguese region known as the Beiras. Its beauty is in its simplicity: A meaty piece of octopus—tentacles and all—is roasted, heavily doused in key ingredients of Mediterranean cooking (olive oil and garlic), and served alongside slow-baked potatoes.

One of Portugal’s finest examples is the version at Páteo (Bairro do Avillez), one of the more casual kitchens belonging to the culinary empire of Michelin-starred chef José Avillez. The country’s most famous chef nearly single-handedly jump-started Portugal’s gastronomic revival with the success of his fine-dining jewel Belcanto, so it would be remiss not to try his take on this delicious homeland classic with the addition of a rapini and onion sauce.

3. Porco preto (Iberian black pork)

• Where to try it: Taberna Típica Quarta Feira, Évora

Iberian-native black pigs (porco preto) are descendants of pigs originally brought to the peninsula by the Phoenicians, who interbred their swine with wild boars to produce the unique breed that exists today in Portugal and Spain. Their meat is enjoyed numerous ways by the Portuguese, running from charcuterie (presunto ibérico) to grilled secretos (a fattier, pork belly–like cut) to enchidos (pork sausages), but nothing touches the absolutely astonishing, slow-cooked version at Évora’s Taberna Típica Quarta Feira in the interior region of Alentejo—the heart of pork country. This succulent, acorn-fed pork is cooked for hours in its own juices (think carnitas, if you are familiar with the Mexican delicacy) and served all-you-can-eat style in this simple, family-run tavern (clear your schedule—you’re done for the day!).

4. Arroz de pato (duck rice)

• Where to try it: Cozinha da Terra, Louredo

Pork aside, duck rice is one of Portugal’s finest meat moments, a perfect marriage of succulent duck, boiled and shredded, then added to a bed of Carolino rice (made with duck stock, onions, and garlic), baked a bit, then garnished with spicy chouriço sausage and served alongside orange slices. As with so many of Portugal’s heartier dishes, it hails from Alentejo but was quickly adopted across the country. About 25 miles east of Porto in the small town of Louredo, you can dig into this delicacy inside the 17th-century farmhouse of Teresa Ruão, the chef behind the award-winning Cozinha da Terra. It’s like eating at your grandma’s house.

5. Sardinhas assadas (grilled sardines)

• Where to try it: O Pitéu, Lisbon

The Portuguese summer may bring sun and blue skies, but good weather is never a guarantee. You can, however, count on the irresistible scent of grilling sardines, which fills the air among traditional neighborhoods throughout Lisbon (and elsewhere) during the summer festive season. Kicking off with the June celebrations of one of Portugal’s most beloved saints, Santo António, a snack of freshly grilled sardines are readily available from June to October, when they are at their plumpest and tastiest (outside of that period, they are likely to have been frozen).

As usual with the best foods, the preparation is simple: Coarsely salted sardines slapped on grills over hot coals, then eaten with a piece of broa (corn bread) or, in restaurants, served alongside traditional sides of bell pepper salad and boiled potatoes (though they’re always best eaten in the street beside a neighborhood grill). In Lisbon, head to O Pitéu in Graça, a gastronomic reference point for traditional Portuguese cuisine for over 30 years.

6. Francesinha (“Little Frenchie”)

• Where to try it: Lado B, Porto

On the ridiculousness scale, Portugal’s “Little Frenchie” ranks entirely too high for something that is meant to be consumed by humans: A heart-stopping stack of wet cured ham, linguiça sausage, steak or roast beef, and melted cheese (sometimes a fried egg as well) on thick bread drowned in a hot tomato and beer sauce (and served with french fries, of course). It is the pride of Porto, at once both a hangover cure and a ticket to the emergency room, a one-and-done culinary caravan of everything that is terrible and phenomenal about a regional food specialty. Obviously, it’s fantastic.

Its name hints at its history: Portuguese emigrants to France, not to be outdone by that nation’s iconic croque monsieur, evidently boasted, “Segura a minha cerveja!” (“Hold my beer!”) to their French friends and concocted Francesinha. Competition and opinion among Porto residents is expectedly fierce, but Lado B is often touted as the best version for novices. The trendy café is always packed, so prepare to hurry up and wait for your plated coronary.

7. Arroz de marisco (seafood rice)

• Where to try it: Mar à Vista, Ericeira

Portuguese rice preparations are some of the best ways to indulge in the country’s fish and seafood bounty—think a slightly soupier version of risotto, loaded with varied ocean goodness such as tamboril (monkfish), bacalhau, and any number of crustaceans plucked fresh from the Atlantic.

At Marisquera Mar à Vista (no website; R. de Santo António 16) in the lovely beach town of Ericeira about 30 miles northwest of Lisbon, life-changing lavagante (European lobster) is sold by weight and then immediately added to seafood rices or massadas (pasta instead of rice) on the spot, according to your palate’s desire. Enjoy the dish after you dig into an appetizer of santola or sapateira crabs fresh from the shell. Seafood lovers unite!

8. Açorda (bread soaked in broth)

• Where to try it: Solar dos Presuntos, Lisbon

Making a delicious dish out of stale bread isn’t unique to Portugal, but Portuguese cuisine takes this simple idea and elevates it into a gourmet experience. Açorda is nothing more than rock-hard bread, rehydrated via one of several methods (such as a simple Alentejan style with hot water, garlic, olive oil, and cilantro, or something richer with various broths and stocks), and then pumped up with seafood.

It’s a mushy mess not for everyone, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t love the extraordinary lobster version at gourmet seafood restaurant Solar dos Presuntos in Lisbon. It’s a sort of shellfish porridge. Drizzle your serving with the restaurant’s house-made hot sauce (piri piri) to complete this next-level day-old bread experience.

9. Queijo (cheese)

• Where to try it: Casinha Velha, Leiria

Portuguese cheeses aren’t as widely known as other European cheeses and Portugal is all the better for it: This little dairy nirvana offers endless varieties to discover. Be sure to try buttery Serra de Estrela, a sheep’s milk cheese produced in (and named after) Portugal’s highest mountain range; creamy Azeitão, an unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from the foothills of the Arrábida Mountains south of Lisbon; and São Jorge from the Azores, a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese (similar to ricotta) served with a slightly spicy sauce.

For a true connoisseur’s introduction to artisanal Portuguese cheese, you won’t want to miss the pay-by-weight cheese cart that begins your meal at Casinha Velha in Leiria (93 miles due north from Lisbon): This cow, sheep, and goat cheese caravan will leave you in a queijo coma before you even think about ordering a main course.

10. Prego (steak sandwich)

• Where to try it: Cervejaria Ramiro, Lisbon

Leave it to the Portuguese to gorge on some of the freshest, most succulent shellfish and seafood paired with copious wine, and then finish it all off . . . with a steak sandwich! But that’s how it goes at Lisbon’s most heralded seafooder, Cervejaria Ramiro, and others places like it, where one of the country’s simplest culinary icons—a thin strip of garlic-marinated beef served on a papa seco bread roll, often with crappy industrialized mustard—is traditionally eaten at the end of the meal. Despite making little gastronomic sense to anyone, it somehow works. (Prego means “nail” in Portuguese, named for the way garlic pieces are pounded into the steak before cooking.)

11. Leitão assado (suckling pig)

• Where to try it: Alma in Lisbon

There are few Portuguese events that rival a traditional spit-roasted, whole hog affair cooked to perfection (tender and juicy on the inside, crunchy on the outside) in Mealhada. The town, 14 miles north of Coimbra in central Portugal, is the country’s undisputed suckling pig capital. Here in the Bairrada region, the swine is divine, though as un-vegetarian-friendly as it gets.
At four to six weeks old, the piglets are butchered, rubbed down with garlic, pig fat, coarse salt, and pepper, and then roasted for hours in eucalyptus wood–burning ovens. Mealhada’s suckling pig specialty restaurants—Pedro dos Leitões, Nelson dos Leitões, Rei dos Leitões, O Castiço, Meta dos Leitões, Pic Nic dos Leitões (you get the idea)—nearly outnumber its population (4,500). If you cannot make it to Mealhada, Michelin-starred chef Henrique Sá Pessoa’s gourmet version at Alma in Lisbon, served as a confit with turnip top puree, pickled onions, and black pepper jus, is also perfect.

12. Cataplana de marisco (seafood stew)

• Where to try it: Noélia & Jerónimo, Cabanas de Tavira

Another of Portugal’s seafood revelations, this stew is named after the vessel in which it’s cooked and served. A cataplana is a clam-shaped copper cooking pot that predates the modern pressure cooker (it’s a distant relative of the Moroccan tagine) and allows for slow steam-cooking ingredients in their own juices. It can be loaded with anything—fish, shrimp, and other crustaceans—but is usually a mix of all, cooked with white wine, spices and herbs (chopped cilantro), and a few veggies (tomatoes, onions, bell peppers). Originally hailing from the Algarve, this coastal region is where you should try it. Head to Noélia & Jerónimo (Av. Ria Formosa 2) in Cabanas de Tavira, 25 miles northeast of Faro. Forget about turning up without a reservation—this destination seafood spot is the culinary reference for nearly any seafood dish in Portugal’s arsenal.

13. Lapas (limpets)

• Where to try it: São Miguel

Lapas, known as limpets in English, are a type of small, edible, aquatic snail found in both the Azores and Madeira—Portugal’s two, far-flung island outposts in the Atlantic Ocean—that taste almost like a chewier clam.

Try them Azorean-style—grilled with garlic and butter and served with a few slices of lemon—alongside a glass of wine at Bar Caloura, an ocean-side, open-air seafood restaurant on the archipelago’s main island, São Miguel. If it’s a nice day, bring a bathing suit and a towel; the restaurant overlooks a popular swimming area.

This article was first published in September 2019, and was most recently updated in November 2022 with new information. Jessie Beck contributed to the reporting of this story.