Best of 2009, Lisbon

With 2009 comming to an end, it’s time to make a balance. And to point out the best that happened… Here’s a list of my favourite experiences in 2009 along with some other places that cannot be left out for obvious reasons.

Best gourmet restaurant: This year I tried some of the best restaurants in town. One of the best surprises this year was also my favourite gourmet restaurant, Olivier Café, for their excellent food, good ambience and amazing crew.

Best restaurant experience: There’s no doubt that dining in a golden palacial room with crystal chandeliers, at the one Michelin star Tavares was the top experience. Food is not only excellent, it also makes you think about life… Unfortunately the prices meet the quality, but it’s definitely a place to go to if you can afford to pay around 100€ per person.

Best place for a romantic dinner: Overlooking Lisbon and Tagus river, Restô has a few tables with outstanding views that make one of my top choices for a romantic dinner. Still, it can get crowded sometimes and noise comes along, so make sure this does not affect your romantic evening.

Best place for a cheap dinner: If you happen to be around Belém, Farol da Torre is one of my favourite restaurants in town. The food is outstanding, the service is good and attentive and prices are low. Add to this an authentic atmosphere in an old building… Watch out for their vicious fried potatoes.

Best place for cool, stylish dinning: The former 90′s top disco’s cafe and restaurant, Alcântara Café, with its baroque industrial look – tall ceilings, sculptures and marble pillars - grant it a unique fashionable and poetic look that has been calling attention since day one.

Best Fado Restaurant: Mesa de Frades is considered one of the top Fado Houses in Lisbon by some of the best Fado singers, located on Alfama neighbourhood, the birth of Fado. They serve quite good traditional Portuguese food and the musicians start their show at around 11h30 pm and goes on through the night.

Best vegetarian restaurant: For me there are quite a few excellent vegetarian restaurants in Lisbon. It’s hard for to pick the best, but my favourites (and I don’t eat any meat) are Terra and PSI at Alameda Santo António dos Capuchos (map).

Best winehouse: Chafariz do Vinho is a unique wine bar serving small portions of traditional starters as well as dishes to try with their excellent wine list, in an old 18th-century stone aqueduct, at the end of the underground water canal.

Best new cultural place: LX Factory is the new kid in town. It’s an old area of warehouses that are (still) being transformed into a cultural area with design shops, trendy nightlife, expositions, performances and much more. A great part of our urban culture is being developed there, at Rua Rodrigues de Faria, 103, Calvário (map).

Best terrace in Lisbon: Esplanada da Graça is still one of my favourites, although in this department I have to say the choice is huge giving the amount of hills Lisbon has… This is a historic one, near the Castle, at Graça neighbourhood (map), with some obvious outstanding views.

Best Ice-Cream: Santini has been the best ice-cream in Lisbon for decades. Probably since the first shop was opened, nearly 60 year ago. So if you happen to be in Cascais or S. João do Estoril (the only two shops of Santini ice-cream there is) around the summer, make sure you stop by to tast one of the freshest you may have ever eaten.

Best cakes to eat in Lisbon: Pasteis de Belém is quite an obvious choice, but it just what it is. We do have plenty of other great sweets, but an original Pastel de Nata give you that extra felling no other does as well…

Best cafe discovery of the year: Café Fabulas is set in the winery of an old building at Bairro Alto district (map). The atmosphere is awsome and the food they serve in cosy litle corners is excellent.

Best street market: Principe Real (map) handicraft and organic goods is for me the best at the moment. Saturdays are just great for a stroll, buying some vegetables and discouvering what the artists are doing new

Best tour: nº28 tram ride through Lisbon hills - A non-touristic tour (but still quite touristy) is still and will probably be for a long time the best tour Lisbon has to offer.

Best place with kids: Oceanarium stands for me as the best place to go to with children. Over 16.000 animals representing more than 450 different species, featuring the one of the world’s largest aquariums that recreates the habitat of the high seas, housing amazing animals such as sharks, rays, barracudas, sardines, among other species.

Best monument to visit: Mosteiros dos Jerónimos is a 16th-century monastery’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the few surviving examples of medieval Manueline architecture. Look for the hand-sculptured walls that are covered with tropical plants, wild animals and unusual tribes. Also make a stop at Vasco da Gama resting place and at Museu da Marinha.

Best nightclub: Hot Club is a Lisbon icon when it comes to clubbing, an underground room dedicated to jazz music. The small and cosy atmosphere makes it the ideal place for a jazz session.

Best museum: For the variety and extended quantity and quality, Centro Cultural de Belém’s Museu Berardo got to the top of my list.

Best new museum: MUDE, the new Lisbon Design Museum

Best new places for a café: The refurbished kioks at the parks you can now find around Bairro Alto, namely at Largo do Camões, Principe Real and Praça das Flores are serving some great stuff like capilé, mazagran (coffee cold drink), orchata (almond cold drink), lemonade (top seller), iced tea, flavoured milk, ginginha and Porto wine among many other things.

Best day trip: Sintra. It couldn’t be anything else for me. This is my favourite spot in the whole area of Lisbon. The best break a city can offer… In the summer it’s always less two or three degress and it’s great for a walk in the woods, visit some of it’s palaces and castle or just to sit at the Villa and sip a nice cup of tea with some excellent cakes.

Best place for shopping: Chiado and Bairro Alto area is a great place for street shopping. It has been changing our habits of shopping at big shopping centres and it was really great to see the streets full of people this Christmas.

Best Hotel: Bairro Alto Hotel with its chick-trendy atmosphere, featuring one of the best restaurants in town (Flores) and a terrace bar on the 6th floor with outstanding views, right at the heart of Bairro Alto .

Best Hostel: Lisbon Lounge Hostel for its location at Baixa district, its decoration, its attentive crew and its tiddy and clean bathrooms.

Best (un)traditional Portuguese shop for souvenir: A Vida Portuguesa Store for their collection of genuine and typical Portuguese products like sweets, pencils, kitchen tools, handicrafts, hand-made soaps, books, olive oil, bath supplies, pomades and others that evoke nostalgia for the Portuguese. This shop sells retro-hip objects keeping its original, beautiful and poetic image.

Again, these are my personal choices. Please do let me know of your choices too… In the end, there is no doubt that Lisbon is becoming a better place than ever to visit and for visitors. That’s why it was given three World Travel Awards in 2009, including Europe’s leading destination…