13 cafés in 4 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
A café inside a former chapel next to the Santa Cruz monastery, where Portugal's first kings are buried, with records back to 1921. Coimbra fado is performed in the evenings.
Order: bica · crúzio pastry
💡 Book ahead for the evening fado shows.
Adriano Telles opened it in 1905 to sell Brazilian coffee in Chiado. Fernando Pessoa drank here, and a bronze statue of him sits at a table outside.
Order: bica · pastel de nata
💡 A bica at the bar inside costs less than a seat on the terrace.
Founded in 1787 by an Italian known as Nicola, it was the haunt of poet Bocage. The Art Deco front dates from 1935 and paintings of Bocage's life hang inside.
Order: bica · torrada
Opened on 2 January 1782, it is Lisbon's oldest surviving café. Fernando Pessoa kept a table here and took his last coffee here days before he died in 1935.
Order: bica · pastel de nata
Opened in 1933 on Avenida dos Aliados and known as the "musicians' café" for its live music.
Order: café · francesinha
A Belle Époque café on Porto's shopping street, opened in 1921. In the 1980s there were plans to turn it into a bank; it was saved and restored.
Order: café · rabanadas · francesinha
💡 Expect a queue at peak hours; mid-morning is quieter.
Balthazar Castanheiro opened it in 1829, and it supplied the royal household from 1873. It brought bolo-rei to Portugal in 1875.
Order: bica · pastel de nata · bolo-rei in season
Salvador Antunes opened it on 25 November 1922. Its mirrors and chandeliers are an Avenidas Novas classic for afternoon coffee and cake.
Order: galão · pastries
Since 1837 the custard tarts here have been made to a recipe from the nearby Jerónimos Monastery, known only to a few master pastry chefs.
Order: pastel de Belém with cinnamon · bica
💡 Skip the takeaway queue and walk to the large rooms at the back for a table.
One of the first specialty roasters in Lisbon, founded in 2015, with its original café near Restauradores.
Order: espresso · filter · flat white
A tiny café near São Bento with a wall of coffee magazines, now with three Lisbon shops.
Order: flat white · filter
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A Lisbon specialty café and brunch group with shops in Baixa, Alfama, Santos and Belém. It ranked 34th on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list.
Order: specialty espresso · brunch
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A roaster-café across the river from Porto. It ranked 13th on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list.
Order: filter · espresso · brunch