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The Markets of Lisbon: What to Taste and When to Arrive

Lisbon, PortugalMarch 25, 20262 min read
By MASA Editors
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Bacalhau baked with potatoes, egg and black olives, served in a white dish01
Bacalhau baked with potatoes, egg and black olives, served in a white dishPhoto: David Magalhães / Unsplash

Salt cod stacked like planks, a sheep cheese you eat with a spoon, and a food hall that is heaving by half past twelve. Timing your way through Lisbon markets.

Lisbon markets split neatly into two kinds: the working produce halls that do their business before lunch, and the modern food halls that do theirs after it. Get the order right and you can eat through both in a day.

  • Produce halls: mornings, and effectively over by early afternoon
  • Time Out Market, Cais do Sodré: all day, painfully busy around 12:30 to 14:00 and 19:30 to 21:30
  • Feira da Ladra, Alfama: Tuesdays and Saturdays, best early
  • Sundays: thin pickings almost everywhere

Bacalhau, and how to look at it

Every proper Lisbon market has a stall of salt cod stacked like timber, stiff and pale and smelling of the Atlantic. It is the backbone of Portuguese cooking and it is not a souvenir: it needs a day or two of soaking before it becomes food. What you can do is eat it prepared, and the two versions to know are bacalhau à Brás, shredded with straw potatoes and egg, and pastéis de bacalhau, the fried cod cakes sold everywhere.

Stalls and blankets of second-hand goods spread across the sunlit ground at the Feira da Ladra flea market in Lisbon, red and white awnings above racks of clothes, browsing shoppers, and the flat blue Tagus estuary behind
Stalls and blankets of second-hand goods spread across the sunlit ground at the Feira da Ladra flea market in Lisbon, red and white awnings above racks of clothes, browsing shoppers, and the flat blue Tagus estuary behindPhoto: Ummano Dias / Unsplash

Queijo Serra da Estrela, in winter and spring

The great Portuguese cheese is a soft sheep milk cheese from the mountains, made in a season that runs roughly through the colder months. When it is right, you slice the top off the rind and spoon the inside onto bread. Ask a market cheesemonger for one that is ready today, not one that will be ready next week.

Sardines, and the month that matters

Grilled sardines are a summer dish and specifically a June one, when they are at their fattest and the Santo António festivities on the night of 12 June turn Alfama and Graça into one long charcoal grill. Outside high summer, order something else and be glad you did.

Trays of pasteis de nata, Portuguese custard tarts, stacked in a bakery window in Lisbon
Trays of pasteis de nata, Portuguese custard tarts, stacked in a bakery window in LisbonPhoto: Junior Ramos / Unsplash

The Time Out Market, and how to survive it

The old Mercado da Ribeira at Cais do Sodré now runs on two clocks. Its western half is still a working fruit, fish and flower market in the morning. Its eastern half, converted in 2014, is a hall of stalls run by well-known Lisbon chefs and producers. It is excellent and it is mobbed. Arrive at 11:30 or after 15:00, claim a seat at the communal tables first, then send someone to queue.

Neighbourhood halls, for the version locals use

Mercado de Campo de Ourique is the small, civilised cousin: a genuine neighbourhood market with tasca-style counters around the edge and no crush. Mercado de Arroios reflects the city newer communities and is the place to find food that is not Portuguese at all.

Pastéis de Belém, Lisbon
Pastéis de Belém, LisbonPhoto: Stefany Sá / Unsplash

Feira da Ladra, for everything but food

The flea market spreads across Campo de Santa Clara beside São Vicente de Fora on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Azulejo tiles, old silver, junk and treasure in unequal measure. Come at opening, then walk downhill into Alfama for lunch.

And the custard tart

You will not find the best one in a market. The Belém version, made to a closely guarded recipe at the same address since 1837, is worth the tram ride; anywhere else, ask for it warm and dusted with cinnamon at the counter.

Tip: Portuguese markets sell by the kilo and will happily cut you a hundred grams. You do not need to commit to a whole cheese to taste one.

In pictures
Pastéis de Belém, LisbonPhoto: Agnieszka Stankiewicz / Unsplash
Pastéis de Belém, LisbonPhoto: Nadya Filatova / Unsplash
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