Tag: Restaurants

Posted on

Breathtaking views Lisbon: restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, 10-min ferry trip & boat taxi

Nowadays Lisbon is suffering from the high number of tourists. Residents are protesting more and more…20 years ago this place was a ‘hidden gem’….. Very lovely place, stunning sunset! 

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio & friends from Japan/ Amsterdam August 2025

A 10-minutes ferry trip from Lisbon’s city center (Cais Do Sodré) to the other side of the Tagus river is really worth it! 

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio is one of my favorites, a small paradise & fresh & tasty fish! 🙂

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio : delicious (fish) lunch with Margarethe de Vrieze and Marjolein Petersen (& dog Nelson) May 2022

Right next to the elevator to the Cristo Rei Statue, restaurant Atira-te ao Rio (litt. ‘throw yourself into the river‘) is a space blessed by fabulous views over old town Lisbon.

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon & friend Josephine Lucassen (official tourist guide), March 12, 2020

The menu is typically Portuguese: dishes with good presentation and tasty. We ordered one of my favorite dishes, salada com polvo  (octopus salad), and shrimps.

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon & view 25 April bridge

These pictures are made in September on a beautiful sunny day, but in wintertime there’s also the possibility to enjoy the views of old town Lisbon inside the restaurant.

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon, September 2017

Wintertime

In wintertime the large windows allow the view to be equally (almost as) good as outside. The staff is really nice!  You can see the chefs at work in the open kitchen 🙂

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon, December 2025

YOUTUBE Marieke van Gessel & open kitchen . Too cold to eat outside, December 2025.

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon & Marieke, December 2025

We enjoyed: salmon (salmão Teriyaki com Puré de Batata Doce e Pakchoi · 22,00€) and Camarão à Guilho  (Garlic shrimps) · 16€ . 🙂 🙂 Bottle of wine Oxalá Granítico 23€

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon, December 2025. Picture: Marieke van Gessel

The restaurant features an indoor room with a burning stove. Outside terrace with heaters and blankets.

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon, August 2025

From the ferry in Cacilhas, ca. 10 minutes walk: after passing some abandoned and ruinous very old warehouses (lots of lovely graffiti ), there’s restaurant Atira-te ao Rio.

NOW REMOVED: Very old abandoned warehouses with a long history (picture: 2018)

UPDATE 2025: the old warehouses are gone…..redevelopment plan restoring around 90,000 square meters, including a housing complex with around 300 homes, stores and services, a hotel with 160 rooms, social facilities and 500 parking spaces. (source: Lisboa Secreta).

 Cais do Ginjal Lisbon & Marieke van Gessel , December 2025

There’s an exhibition dedicated to the history of this emblematic and very beautiful place in Almada, in a kind of celebration between this city on the south bank and the Tagus river,

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio, Cais do Ginjal Lisbon, April 2023

How to get there? 

Take a (cheap) ferry trip from the Cais do Sodré ferry terminal to Cacilhas,  (timetable vice verca) and after a 10 minutes walk along abadonded warehouses near the river Tagus there’s restaurant Atira-te ao Rio.

Cais do Sodré ferry terminal to Cacilhas,  (timetable vice verca)

Restaurant Atira-te ao Rio
Cais do Ginjal, 69/70, Almada Centro, Lisbon
Facebook
OPEN: every day from 12:30 – 23:00
.
.
.

Taxi boat service  -:) . Picture: restaurant Atira-te Ao Rio

Taxi boat service, from any deck in Lisbon.
.
Nearby: restaurant Ponto Final.  More…..
–
Posted on

Traditional Fado Vadio Lisbon: taverna ‘Tasca do Jaime’ & black shawl of mourning

UPDATE 2015

Enjoy the real fado while munching on freshly-fried cod pastries in the late afternoon in Tasca do Jaime, one of the most intriguing of Lisbon’s ‘tavernas’. Traditionally, the Fado houses are popular and a meeting spot for families and friends. Close to Lisbon’s legendary flea market ‘Feira da Ladra’

tasca do jaime 2

‘Tasca do Jaime’ taverna Lisbon: real fado music

You won’t always find the best fadistas, but don’t let that scare you off. This is real traditional fado, out of the tourist circle, where the fado singers can enter spontaneously and improvise.

tasca do jaime 1

‘Tasca do Jaime’ taverna Lisbon, Saturday afternoon

As soon as somebody gets up to sing the audience stops talking and all the attention is on the singer. The Portuguese have a lot of respect for the performers and it is of utmost importance that the singers can concentrate and express their emotions in their singing. When the song is about to finish the audience starts applauding and cheering.

tasca do jaime 3

‘Tasca do Jaime’ taverna Lisbon

Fado Vadio on Saturdays, Sundays and public Holidays from 16:00 to 20:00, Rua da Graça 91, Lisbon.

tasca do jaime 4

‘Tasca do Jaime’ taverna Lisbon

Fadistas, as fado singers are known, often wear a black shawl of mourning, as one of Maria Severa did after her heartbreak. Her story epitomizes fado’s connection with saudade, “a feeling of longing or nostalgia”.

Posted on

Restaurant Portugalia Lisbon: ‘beerhouse’ (Cervejaria), history & delicious seafood

A Cervejaria is a ‘beerhouse’, where beer is produced (or used to be produced) and where you can eat as well. There are many cervejaria’s around Lisbon and the quality of the food is normally very good.

Portugalia cervejaria Lisbon Avenida Almirante Reis

‘Portugalia’ restaurant on Avenida Almirante Reis (near Praça do Chile).

Most Cervejaria’s have restaurant and a bar where you can stand and drink beer and eat snacks like a ‘prego’ which is a steak sandwich. The steak is grilled on the plate and comes with garlic in a white roll. The Portugese eat the prego’s (literally: nails, referring to the full stomach after eating one) with mustard or piri-piri.

A popular snack as well is a small plate of cooked shrimps (camarão) served with sea salt and a part of lemon. You can ask for camarão grande (big ones), camarão medio (medium) or camarão pequeno (baby shrimps).

Portugalia cervejaria Lisbon Avenida Almirante Reis 3

Portugese love there seafood with beer (or with ice cold vinho verde). So on the restaurant menu in a Cervejaria, you will find a lot of seafood (marisco). You can have big shrimps (gambas or camarão tigre), scampi (lagostim) and crab (sapateira). Cooked fresh seafood tastes fantastic with mayonaise, grilled seafood goes very well with ‘molho de limão’. This is a sauce of butter, lemon and a bit of piri-piri. If they don’t bring it, ask for it. Like in all Portugese restaurants, it’s not strange to be specific about how your food is prepared or accompanied.

The crab, sapateira, is cooked and the body is open and filled with a mixture of (among others) crab meat, vinagre, onion, pickles, tomates, eggs, parsley and port wine.

Then there’s the steaks. The steaks can be grilled or fried in a pan with butter. Ask for a steak in ‘molho de cerveja’, ‘beersauce’. It comes with a fried egg on top.

Famous cervejaria’s are restaurants Portugalia and Trindade. Trindade, situated on Rua de Trindade (near Bairro Alto), is a massive restaurant which has a beautiful garden where you can sit during summertime. Prices are a bit above average, but the decoration makes it worthwhile.

Trindade website

Cervejaria Portugalia has become a brand over the years (There are even Portugalia restaurants in shopping centers and outside of Lisbon). You will find many families with children and it’s a bit touristy. The original 80 year old Portugalia restaurant on Avenida Almirante Reis (near Praça do Chile) is certainly the best one you can choose. This is the most traditional Portugalia you can find. Before entering the restaurant you will pass the messy bar where many men hang out, eat pregos and drink beer.

Don’t get us wrong, Portugalia is certainly worth a visit. The shrimps in garlic and olive oil (below) are a treat. Fans can order merchandising on the Portugalia website.

Portugalia cervejaria Lisbon Avenida Almirante Reis Shrimps Garlic