Bar Details
Plan Your Visit
Pavilhao Chines does not take reservations. The bar has five rooms including one with a billiard table. Arrive early on weekends if you want a seat in the more intimate back rooms. The front bar is open later and stays lively.
See All Hidden Gems in Lisbon Submit a BarOur Take on Pavilhao Chines
The Pavilhao Chines has been a Lisbon institution on the Rua Dom Pedro V since 1986. The owner spent decades accumulating what amounts to a private collection of extraordinary breadth: tin soldiers by the thousand, ceramic figurines, model cars, hunting trophies, vintage advertisements, and objects of indeterminate origin that crowd every available surface from floor to ceiling across five interconnected rooms. It is, by any reasonable measure, excessive. It is also one of the most genuinely individual bars in Europe.
The bar programme is not the point here and it does not try to be. The drinks are competent and affordable. The gin and tonics are made properly. The wine list is short and honest. One of the back rooms has a full-size billiard table. There is a room with hunting trophies that has the quality of a Victorian naturalist's study, and another that resembles the inside of a collector's dream or nightmare, depending on your taste. The bar has been featured in more design and travel publications than most of the bars on this site, and it has not allowed that attention to change it in any meaningful way.
For visitors interested in Lisbon's broader hidden gem scene, the Pensao Amor in Cais do Sodre offers a similarly theatrical sensibility in a different part of the city, and the Quiosque de Principe Real is less than 200 metres away for outdoor drinks before or after. The Lisbon bar guide covers both this neighbourhood and the waterfront in full.
What to Order
Best Time to Visit
Any evening works, but midweek is best for exploring the rooms without a crowd. On weekends the bar fills and the experience becomes more social than contemplative. If you want to sit in the billiard room, come early. If you want the full energy of the front bar on a Saturday night in Lisbon, come late.
Who It Is For
Anyone with a curiosity for places that exist outside the normal frame of reference for bars. Design and architecture enthusiasts. People who want to drink in a place that took 40 years to assemble and cannot be recreated. Not for people who want a minimalist cocktail bar experience or somewhere that looks good in a single photograph. The full hidden gems guide covers the other essential stops in this neighbourhood.
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