Where to eat in Sintra

Restaurants, cafés and street food in Sintra, Portugal that locals actually go to — plus the local names for the chains you already know.

• Café Saudade — Café, Estefânia (1). Order the All-day breakfast and pastries. A station-side café where breakfast simply runs all day.
• Cantinho de São Pedro — Portuguese & French, São Pedro de Penaferrim (2). Order the Châteaubriand com molho béarnaise. A village-square kitchen that cooks French classics properly and buys Portuguese.
• Taverna dos Trovadores — Traditional Portuguese, São Pedro de Penaferrim (2). Order the Polvo à Taverna. Live Portuguese music every Friday and Saturday, with the kitchen open until two.
• Tacho Real — Traditional Portuguese, Centro Histórico (2). Order the Traditional Portuguese menu. A long-standing old-town address on the lane below the National Palace.
• COMO Restaurante — Contemporary Portuguese, Centro Histórico (3). Order the Bacalhau Palácio da Vila. Open midday to eleven every day — genuinely useful in a town that shuts early.
• Restaurante da Adraga — Seafood, Colares & Praia Grande (3). Order the Amêijoa à Suzete. A beach-bottom shellfish house that closes on a fishing calendar, not a tourist one.
• Lawrence's Hotel restaurant — Fine dining, Centro Histórico (4). Order the Portuguese tasting menu. The dining room of the oldest hotel on the Iberian Peninsula, opened in 1764.
• Casa Piriquita — Pastelaria, Centro Histórico (1). Order the Travesseiro. Sixth-generation family house, trading since 1862; the travesseiro recipe was revived here during the war.
• Romaria de Baco — Petiscos & wine, Centro Histórico (2). Order the Petiscos with Colares wine. Open until midnight seven days — the rare central place still serving after the day-trippers leave.
• Metamorphosis — Portuguese, Estefânia (2). Order the Portuguese daily menu. On the Rua João de Deus restaurant run, away from the palace crush.
• Incomum by Luís Santos — Contemporary Portuguese, Estefânia (3). Order the Ceviche de bacalhau com maracujá. Chef-led, chef-curated wine list, and the kitchen runs straight through the afternoon.
• Restaurante Azenhas do Mar — Seafood, Praia das Maçãs & Azenhas do Mar (3). Order the Fish and shellfish off the day's catch. A cliff terrace over the Atlantic, open daily, and one of the best fish houses on this coast.

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