The Must Do Food Tour In Lisbon – A Day With Culinary Backstreets

One thing I knew I had to do while in Portugal was a walking food tour in Lisbon. I had read other bloggers talk about how amazing the food was in Portugal and I wanted to try as much as possible! The catch though was that I was traveling alone and I didn’t have a big budget to buy a lot of different meals… hmmm what to do, what to do? After a little Googling, I jumped on the chance to do a walking food tour with Culinary Backstreets Lisbon and it turned out to be such a fun and interesting day snacking through the streets of Lisbon. Let’s take a closer look – I have to warn you in advance though, this post might make you hungry for a trip to Lisbon!

Why A Food Tour In Lisbon Is A Must Do – A Day With Culinary Backstreets

Housekeeping

Before we get into it, I also just want to mention that a lot of my photos are quick snaps from my iPhone instead of proper setup shots for 2 reasons. Firstly, it was raining for most of the day so I had my good camera hidden in my backpack to keep it dry. And secondly, it’s a group tour and I wasn’t going to delay everyone eating so I could get the perfect shot – blogging is my passion and I love getting taking amazing photos but my photos can never come at the expense of others enjoying their travel moments. I snapped as much as I could mostly with my phone to show you as much as possible. I hope it gives you a glimpse into the day, but the best way to find out for yourself is to book a tour!

The food

Let’s just say you need to go hungry and wear loose pants because you get to try a little of everything on this tour as you snack your way around Lisbon. I took the Lisbon Awakens: A Culinary Crossroads, Reborn full day tour, though there are different tours offered.

To give you a rundown, we started off with some coffee and sweet treats, moved on to cherry liquor tasting, visited a local market to see the fresh fish and sample some fruit, nuts, sardines and beer, tried a selection of dishes with wine at a local restaurant, sat down for an African rotisserie style chicken and fries, had some Indian food, went cheese tasting accompanied by wine, finished off with a coffee, cake and of course, a famous Pastel de Nata. I’m surprised we were able to fit all that into one day because it just felt like a lot to type out – but we got through it all.

There was only one thing during the whole tour that I didn’t like which was one of the egg-based sweets (I’m not a huge egg fan). Other than that, it was all really delicious and a good range of food so I had a happy belly at the end!

Travel tip: I stayed at the Heritage Avenida Liberdade Hotel which was in a great location to get to the meeting point for the tour. I chose to walk so that I could explore the neighborhoods and it took about 30 minutes to get there.

Relatable: Where To Stay In Lisbon – The Historic Heritage Avenida Liberdade Hotel

Trying new things

One thing I really loved about the tour was that we got to try a lot of new and different foods during the day. I appreciated it because I never would’ve been able to try this much without the tour. First of all, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to order it all separately and, secondly, I wouldn’t have known all the insights as to what was worth trying. At the end of the day, I was grateful to have been able to try such a wide variety in just one day.

Local knowledge

Perhaps the best part of the tour is the fact that each place we visited was deliberately selected to support local businesses and take you off the beaten path. We walked through many villages and most of the places we visited did not look like anything special from the outside. Honestly, I probably would’ve just walked straight past them if I was on my own without even thinking about going inside. I guess that’s more fool me for judging a book by its cover because these hole in the wall gems were home to some amazing food and friendly people!

Speaking of friendly people, I have to share my favorite stop on the tour which was the cherry liquor tasting. We stepped into a corner store and were greeted by Senior Antonio. This sweet man was excited to see us and, as we sipped our cherry liquor, we got to learn about him as our guide translated his stories. He is 88 years old and has been working in this store since 1945! It was so nice to meet him, hear his stories and this was the highlight of the tour for me.

I also loved that history was intertwined with the tour. Each step of the way we were taught about the history of the recipes, the history of importing the ingredients and it was all intertwined with the history of Lisbon. I LOVED this so much because I love to learn about the places I am visiting when I travel.

Group setting

Even though I travel alone most of the time, I try to do one group tour in each place. During this tour, I got to share the experience with two lovely women and a family, all from America. The family had actually done a different tour with Célia earlier in their trip and came back for this one because the first was so good! Sharing the tour with the group made it a lot more fun because well, I love to meet people. But it was also interesting to try all these new foods and talk to each other about what we thought of them and what our favorites were. It was a really fun experience to share with these new travel friends.

Our guide for the day was Célia who was so knowledgeable about all of the foods, history and local area. She shared so much with us, answered all our questions and walked us around rain and shine to all of the hidden gems of Lisbon. I couldn’t have asked for a better guide.

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This post was written in partnership with Culinary Backstreets Lisbon. I never promote anything I don’t love – see my disclaimer for more information.