The Best Hidden Gem Bars in Lisbon

A corner tasca in the oldest part of Mouraria that has been operating in various forms since the 1950s. The current owners have been running it for eighteen years. The wine is house red poured from ceramic jugs. The petiscos — small plates of salt cod, olives, and cured meats — are made from recipes that predate the current menu. The clientele is local, mixed age, and entirely unconcerned with how the bar is perceived from outside.

Order: A jug of the house red and a plate of bacalhau à brás — two euros the jug

A small cocktail bar occupying a former tailor's premises on the Largo do Intendente square. The address is the name. The cocktail programme uses Portuguese spirits almost exclusively — medronho, bagaço, and ginjinha form the base of most of the menu. The room seats twenty. The bar team is young and serious without being self-conscious about it. One of the most technically accomplished bars in the city at prices that reflect the neighbourhood.

Order: The medronho sour — arbutus brandy, lemon, egg white, Douro honey syrup

Ginjinha — Lisbon's sour cherry liqueur — is served from tiny stand-up bars throughout the old city. Most of the famous ones are now on the tourist trail. A Ginjinha do Ferreiro, named for the ironmonger's that preceded it, is not. Standing room for ten, a single wooden counter, and a proprietor who has been pouring ginjinha here since before the neighbourhood was considered interesting. A shot with the cherry costs one euro twenty. There is nothing else on the menu.

Order: A ginjinha com ela — with the cherry, not without

A wine bar whose interior is lined entirely with azulejo tiles salvaged from buildings demolished during Lisbon's expansion. No two wall sections match. The result is one of the most visually interesting bar interiors in the city without being designed to be photographed. The wine list focuses on the Alentejo and the Douro. Seating for sixteen. The cheese board is exceptional for a place this small.

Order: A glass of Alentejano branco and the cheese selection — the pairing works well together

Fado in Alfama is almost always for tourists. Tasca do Chico is the exception that Lisboners will actually tell you about. It seats thirty, operates on a first-come basis, and hosts musicians who play fado because they want to, not because they are employed to perform it for visitors. The food is secondary to the music. The wine is ordinary. The experience is not available for booking and worth however long you wait for a seat.

Order: A carafe of the house wine — you are here for the fado, not the drinks list

In the shadow of the Sé cathedral, accessed through an archway that most visitors walk past daily without investigating. A small rooftop terrace with views of the castle and the river that operates without the pricing premium of the famous viewpoint bars. The drinks are simple — wine, beer, and a handful of cocktails — but the setting is extraordinary and the crowd is mostly residents from the Alfama streets below. One of the best-value outdoor drinking spots in Lisbon.

Order: A cold Super Bock and whatever snack the kitchen has made that day

In the back section of LX Factory, past the weekend market stalls and the well-known restaurants. Ferro & Vidro — iron and glass — occupies a former metalworking shop with the original equipment still installed along one wall. The cocktail list is shorter than most Lisbon bars of similar quality, which is the point: eight drinks, all of them made carefully. The house negroni uses a Portuguese botanical gin that is worth trying on its own.

Order: The house negroni — Portuguese gin, Campari, Portuguese vermouth, one large ice cube

Príncipe Real prices have climbed significantly but Ribeiro Natural has kept its list reasonable by sourcing directly from producers and keeping the overhead low — twelve covers, no kitchen, bread and cheese only. The wine list is exclusively Portuguese natural producers and the selection rotates monthly. The sommelier is one of the most knowledgeable in Lisbon on the subject of small-production Portuguese wine. An education as much as an evening out.

Order: Ask for the sommelier's selection — a three-glass flight through different regions for a fixed price

Graça sits on the hill above Alfama and has attracted a young Lisbon crowd that likes decent wine at honest prices. O Corvo — the crow — has been at the centre of this for eight years. It is the kind of bar where a glass at 7pm becomes a bottle by 9pm and a second bottle by 11pm without anyone making a decision about it. The wine is good, the staff are easy company, and the terrace is one of the better outdoor drinking spaces in the upper city.

Order: A bottle of whatever skin-contact wine they have open — they always have one

Anjos is one of the last Lisbon neighbourhoods operating below the tourist radar and Vestigios is its best bar. A long room with a concrete bar and a sound system that is used with restraint — music is present but never dominant. The cocktail programme is compact and well-executed. Open until 3am most nights. The crowd shifts from industry workers at midnight to the kind of people who treat 2am as the beginning of the evening by 1am. The most alive bar in the city after hours.

Order: The house whisky sour with Portuguese single malt — a revelation if you didn't know Portugal made whisky