Lisbon is a great city for foodies. Fresh fish from the river, lively local food markets and wine bars spilling out into the cobbled streets at night – I just love that scene! If you’re visiting for the first time and want an introduction to this food culture, taking a tour is a great way to do it. On our latest trip, Alex and I went on a Lisbon food and wine tour exploring old local businesses and culinary traditions. Not to mention 15 tastings included!! Here’s my review to help you decide if you’d like to try it too.
We tried this Lisbon food and wine tour personally, we paid for it ourselves and we have not been paid for this review. This page contains affiliate links, which means we may make a small commission from bookings at no extra cost to you. We always given honest, genuine travel recommendations.
This tour is for you if:
- You are visiting Lisbon for the first time and want to learn about its food traditions
- You love local food cultures and want to discover Lisbon through that lens
- You want to try lesser-known delicacies passed down through local families
- You want to try eating at places where the locals go in Lisbon
- You want to meet like-minded travellers with a passion for food and wine
About the Lisbon food and wine tour
There are lots of different guided food tours and wine experiences you can try in Lisbon. We wanted to find one with a focus on local traditions, and that combined elements of food and wine culture in the city.
We found the Lisbon food and wine tour on GetYourGuide, which is our go-to for finding and booking experiences on our travels.
This tour stood out for a few reasons. Firstly, I like that it’s a small group tour, which always makes for a more intimate and focused experience. Another bonus is that it starts in Rossio Square, a central spot right near where we were staying. Convenience, check!
Most importantly, with 15 tastings in the itinerary, the tour includes a really good variety of food experiences. Max indulgence, and we’d also be getting a pretty full picture of the kind of food and drink we’d expect to find around the city.
With three tours running daily, seven days a week, there’s a lot of flexibility for fitting it into your travel plans. We took the latest tour in the day at 16:30, but I think it would also be great as a morning-to-lunch tour on the 10:30 start.
Alex had already been to Lisbon before this trip but it was my first time in the city, so I was excited to dive right into the food scene! It’s definitely a good idea to take a tour like this on your first day in Lisbon, as it helps you find your footing with local customs, and it will also give you a ton of ideas for places to eat during your stay.
What you will try on this tour
The 15 tastings on the tour are a mixture of food and drink experiences. On our tour we tried:
- Bifana (pork sandwich) with hot sauce (optional) and a local beer
- Pastéis de Bacalhau (salted cod fritters) with a glass of sparkling wine
- Home-cooked fish stew with bread and a secret-recipe hot sauce (again, optional!)
- Ginjinha (sour cherry liqueur)
- A range of charcuterie – meats, cheeses, jams – paired with Portuguese wines
Our experience on the Lisbon food and wine tour
Praça Dom Pedro IV, more commonly known as Rossio Square, is the meeting point for the Lisbon food and wine tour. Located in the central Baixa district, it’s very easy to reach from anywhere in the city even if you’re not staying nearby.
As a side note, if you haven’t booked accommodation for your trip yet, Baixa is a great shout for a first experience of the city – check our guide to the best places to stay in Lisbon for our personal tips.
We spent a few minutes having a chat and getting to know the group, which was just 12 people. We had a very friendly group, including a family from Scotland who had travelled to Lisbon together with three generations!
Our guide, Filipa, was local to Lisbon and was very friendly too. That’s been our experience with people in Lisbon in general – it’s such a welcoming place. She told us fascinating stories about food culture, infused with plenty of jokes and laughs. A fun guide is a good guide!
Filipa talked to us about how some of the oldest food businesses in the area had been disappearing over time. A huge Zara outlet – the second largest in the world – had been built in Rossio Square the previous year, replacing traditional old food markets, to the dismay of locals.
But, just a few paces away from the square, many thriving old foodie spots are still going strong – and that’s where we headed for our first bite.
Local cafés and little restaurants
Just a few minutes later, we sat down around a long table outside an unassuming little café.
Filipa had reassured us at the beginning of the tour there wouldn’t be much walking involved, and she was right! The total walking distance of the entire tour was just a few hundred metres, with some of the stops being mere paces apart.
At this first stop, the café’s owner, an ageing gentleman, brought us some beers and a big plate of bifanas (pork sandwiches). We were given the choice of a whole or a half sandwich… Alex and I went for a whole one each. But, be aware there is a LOT of food to come, so you may prefer to leave some room!
Bifanas, which are simple pork sandwiches on freshly baked bread, are a very popular lunch bite in Lisbon, or late at night as a drinking snack or when heading home from a night out. Filipa passed us some hot sauce to add to our sandwiches. It was pretty spicy, and gave a fantastic tangy kick to the flavour.
Seafood is Lisbon’s bread and butter
Naturally, seafood plays a big role in Lisbon’s food culture, with the city perched on the banks of the Tagus as it opens out to the Atlantic. Our next couple of stops on the tour introduced us to some of the city’s standout seafood-based delicacies.
Pastéis de Bacalhau are a snack you will see all over Lisbon. These are fritters made with dried salted cod, like little fishcakes, and they have a sharp and satisfying flavour. We tucked into some at a favourite spot among locals, served with a glass of local sparkling wine. It was a surprisingly amazing pairing!
Next, just a couple of doors down on the same little street, we sat down outside a cosy little restaurant for something more substantial. The restaurant’s owner – another friendly man in his elder years, who was clearly a very popular personality among the local customers – brought out a huge pot of fish stew, brimming with rice, big prawns and chunks of white fish.
The stew was served with hunks of freshly baked bread, and a little jar of orange-brown hot sauce, an old family recipe.
While 15 tastings sounds like a lot, I really appreciated the steady pacing of the tour. Across the three hours we had a good amount of time at each stop to soak up the atmosphere, have a chat with the owners, and exchange stories with our new friends in the group.
Time for some ginjinha!
After our seafood fix, Filipa led us back down towards Rossio Square. If you’ve walked through the area you might have already noticed A Ginjinha, a little walk-up bar around a corner of the square with a vintage look to it.
“A Ginjinha” is believed to be the oldest ginjinha bar in Lisbon, first established in 1840. Ginjinha is a cherry liqueur that is made by infusing ginja berries in alcohol, giving a sour cherry flavour. It’s popular all over Portugal, and especially here.
The bar is run by the Espinheira family, now in its fifth generation. The currently Espinheira patriarch, another friendly old man, lined up a big row of shot glasses and poured us all a ginjinha to try. While it’s served in shot glasses, Filipa explained that it’s best to be sipped slowly to savour the flavour.
This was the perfect little interlude and palate-cleanser before we headed for the last couple of stops on the tour. Time for some charcuterie!
Lisbon meats, cheeses and wines
Charcuterie and wine combinations are kryptonite for me and Alex. We just can’t resist, and we’re always on the look-out to try different pairings on our travels. So, the last section of this tour was the perfect treat for us, as we hit a couple of Baixa wine bars.
The first wine bar had a classy and prestigious atmosphere while still feeling warm and approachable. We sat around two long tables as the staff brought out big cheese boards, embellished with olives, pots of fruit preserve and a creamy, cheesy butter. To accompany this, we were each poured a glass of a big, bold, red Portuguese wine.
Next came the show piece – a chouriço à bombeiro! This is a type of Portuguese sausage bathed in alcohol and cooked over an open flame, served while ablaze. It’s very cool to see, and delicious once the flames have subsided. (Perfect with that big bold red, too.)
We finished the tour a short distance away at another wine bar, this time with a more understated and minimalistic vibe. Here we tried a local aged hard cheese with an intense, punchy flavour, served with quince jam on an artisan cracker. And another glass of red, of course.
Finishing on the doorstep of Alfama
The tour finished on the threshold of where Baixa crosses over into Alfama, Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhood, which survived the devastation of the 1755 earthquake.
This works out super conveniently for heading straight onwards to do some sightseeing if you’re on the earlier tour, or an evening drink if you’re on a later one. Filipa explained to the group how you can take an elevator up to São Jorge from close nearby.
As we had been on the late afternoon tour, we decided to walk the few minutes up to Sé Cathedral as darkness set in, and then found an excellent craft beer bar called Crafty Corner for a couple of drinks to end the day.
More Lisbon food experiences
Another great way to explore the city’s foodie scene it to visit a few of Lisbon’s food markets. Time out market is the most famous, but there are so many other great food halls around the suburbs that are more popular with locals, like Mercado de Campo de Ourique (our favourite!).
You can get a feel for Lisbon’s great food markets by taking a local market, food and culture walking tour.
Looking for more activity ideas for your trip? Check out our guide to things to do in Lisbon.
For accommodation for your trip, see our complete guide to Lisbon’s neighbourhoods.
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