Food and Grocery Shopping

One thing I immediately noticed upon moving to Lisbon is there’s still a culture of small business in terms of fruitarias (fruit & veg shops), talhos (butchers) and padarias/pastelarias (bakeries).

I love this as they’ve all but died out in Australia as we ignored them for the convenience of buying everything at one place in the big chain supermarkets. These places make an important part of the fabric of our neighbourhoods and I encourage the bestie community to spend your money like it matters - cause it does! Also, it just feels nicer to exchange pleasantries (even with a language barrier) with the owners and other neighbours, rather than being an anonymous person at the checkout where the staff don’t even look you in the eye.

I obviously can’t list them all here, but I promise these shops are just a street or two away from you to discover. In the meantime here’s some other places you might find useful.

Organic and Bio Groceries

Principe Real has a biological growers market on Saturday mornings. Vibes are good, it’s a great way to while a away your first few hours of the weekend.

Consi.go is a teeny shop for those in the Estrela area and I regularly come here for quality seasonal produce. The owners are also genuinely lovely people (and speak english & 3 or so other languages between them).

Celeiro is a chain of organic stores all around the city that also has things like vegan cheese and not-really-meat products.

Mercado Do Campo do Ourique has all the fresh produce, including dairy, meat and seafood, though I find it a bit pricey. The touristy Time Out market has a real fruit and veg market attached.

When I’m up Alvalade way, I like to stop into the market by the Lidl.

Gourmet Groceries

There is a level of gourmet food products in El Corte Ingles including some international products like quality English tea and higher-end Italian pasta, on the 7th floor (not to be confused with the Continente on the lower ground floor).

Mercearia dos Açores stocks all things from the Azores, and if you haven’t heard yet, their happy cows make the best dairy in the country (dare I say Europe) so it’s a must for cheese lovers (I only buy Azorean butter now). The Gorreana green tea is also highly regarded and I recommend trying their famous passionfruit drink Kima. Fresh bolo levedo is something like an english muffin but wayyy better.

Standard Grocery Stores

We have three main large ones: Pingo doce (Portuguese), Continente (Portuguese) and Auchan (French). Almost every neighbourhood will have one or more of these.

There’s also Mini Preco (a Portuguese branch of the Auchan group), that I don’t recommend. The products they stock seem random, anything fresh is abysmal and they present like a discount store, though they most certainly are not.

We also have Aldi (German) and Lidl (German) but they’re fewer and further between.

International Stores

Flavers, between Estrela and Rato, stock items from Britain, Brazil, the U.S and other countries that you won’t find elsewhere, like mint jelly. Especially great at Easter and Christmas for traditional things like mince pies. I have been many times and the owners are always in a sour mood, but as it’s the only place I can buy vegemite in the city I am obligated to return.

Normal has a few locations around the city and although the focus is more on toiletries, they usually have a small selection of various American treats but stock of various items fluctuate.

Liberty American Store is near El Corte Ingles. I can’t give a review as I’ve no need to shop there but it may be helpful to some of you.

For Asian ingredients, Supermercado Oriental Amanhecer, Supermercado Chinês Hua Ta Li and Supermercado Chen are all in Martim Moniz. (This is where you can get Lao Gan Ma Crispy Chilli Oil. IYKYK.) Near Rato there’s the small but decent Woori Korean Supermarket for only Korean products.

Mercado Brasileiro Raizes Do Brasil has Brazilian groceries (duh) and I am sure there are plenty more around that I’m unaware of. Thankfully, you can pretty much get pao de queijo from any standard grocery shop in Lisboa.

Online Groceries for Home Delivery

Continente also does online groceries, and I use them quite often for heavy things like oat milk, wine and washington detergent. I tried fresh food once or twice but I don’t really recommend it, nor for eggs and other fragile items. A word of warning, the plastic bag usage is horrendous, with sometimes one item per bag (not joking), but you can recycle them.

Obviously I tend to do my food shopping in my surrounding neighbourhoods. If there’s somewhere you think should be added to this list, don’t hesitate to let me know here and I’ll check it out.