March 25, 2024

Portuguese food: the best food experiences in Portugal

Portugal offers plenty of temptations for food travelers. Thousands of different dishes, desserts, or traditional snacks will make your stay super unique. Renowned for seafood, sausages, fresh fish, pastries, and many regional specialties, Portuguese food, and its celebrated chefs have also brought attention to incredible and unpretentious restaurants, many of them awarded with Michelin stars.Portuguese food is made with simple ingredients, the flavors are fresh, and it is impeccably prepared. But, what are those dishes you can not miss while in Portugal?

The codfish – bacalhau, and its hundred ways to be cooked

When thinking about Portuguese food you’ll always find an immediate relation with cod, bacalhau is all over our cuisine. It is also a typical dish on Christian celebrations, such as Christmas. It is typically dried and salted, not fresh and it can be boiled, fried, roasted, and served with potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice… you name it.

There are though, some favorite dishes cooked with codfish:

Bacalhau à brás
Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá
Bacalhau à Lagareiro
Bacalhau com Natas

Seafood and fresh fish

This includes a wide variety of dishes, from seafood rice to roasted octopus. Highlights go to the traditionals:

Grilled sardines
Fresh seafood platter (including sapateira, clams, oysters, mussels, shrimp, crab legs…)
Roasted octopus

Meat dishes

Usually, heavy dishes, full of protein and with unique portuguese flavors.

- Arroz de Pato (duck rice)
- Cozido à portuguesa (slow-cooked mix of meats with cabbage, rice and potatoes)
- Francesinha (traditional meat and sausages sandwich)
- Carne de porco à Alentejana (porc meat with, fries and clams)

Pastries and desserts

These are almost mandatory

Pastéis de nata (aka patéis de Belém – custard tarts)
Pudim de ovos (eggs pudin)
Bola de berlim (fluffy egg cream-filled sugar-coated dough balls)
Arroz doce (sweet rice)

Also, discover Michelin Stars restaurants in Portugal

Updated for the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Portugal: 53 starred restaurants, nine with two stars and 44 with one star. None has three. See our full guide to Michelin star restaurants in Portugal.

Michelin 2 star restaurants