For authentic, delicious, inexpensive fun in the Bairro Alto, come to the locals' favorite. Simple grilled fish with garlic and lemon or rabbit with clams are the kind of food to expect, all served superfast and without fuss—as you'll be pleased to note while standing in line for a table.

Closed Sundays.

If you're visiting Belém's Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, it is compulsory to stop at this picturesque café tiled with 17th-century scenes for its pasteis de Belém—the best pastéis de nata (custard tarts) in the city, and probably in the world. The recipe is famously the biggest secret in Europe, guarded closely for two centuries and known only to three bakers at any one time. At less than a dollar apiece, you may wish to stock up with a half dozen packed into the café's specially made paper tube.

Yes, it's true. John Malkovich, the actor, is one of the owners of this expensive, megatrendy dockside sushi bar, restaurant, and bistro. Now we've got that out of the way: Is it any good? Well, it's certainly fun. One of Malkovich's partners is local entrepreneur Manuel Reis, who also helped revitalize the docks around Santiago Calatrava's Gare do Oriente. Reis has installed Knoll and Saarinen originals in front of walls painted wild pinks and purples in this former warehouse. Mozambique-born chef Fausto Airoldi's cooking is occasionally gimmicky (reindeer and buffalo are on the menu; bacalhau comes with chickpea ice cream), but also robust and even, some say, great, especially when it comes to Portuguese comfort food staples such as roast saddle of rabbit stuffed with sausage and apples. But it's true: You're not here to eat.

Eleven gets its name from the 11 friends who, determined to install a world-class restaurant in their beloved city, enticed Joachim Koerper, famed, much-garlanded chef of Alicante's Girasol, to do the culinary honors. They installed him in a suitably incredible location, above the Parque Eduardo VII, with spectacular panoramas spread out at diners' feet. Cutting no corners, they built this modern two-story building with plate-glass windows and outfitted it with costly linens and upholstered slipper chairs and installed the work of two important contemporary Lisboeta artists, Joana Vasconcelos and Gorge Crud. Koerper produces emphatically seasonal food using all local produce; here basing his dishes on the Portuguese canon—yes including bacalhau and with appearances by vinho do Porto and peixes do dia (fish of the day). Whether Lisbon's most ambitious restaurant turns out to be hubris or genius, time will tell, but it's hard to see how the sum of these parts can fail.

Another dockside converted industrial space, Kais's dramatic interior was designed by Maria Jose Salavisa. He kept the 19th-century tram warehouse's high ceilings with their ironwork, pulleys, and chains and the original exposed brick, and installed a wood floor, olive trees, a waterfall (echoing the quays the restaurant's named after) and Frank Lloyd Wright–esque furniture. Standing across from (and with the same owners as) the notorious pair of clubs Kremlin and Kapital, Kais is a see-and-be-seen place that turns into a supper club after 10 p.m. The trendy food (Mozambique prawn curry) has a good reputation, but be warned: Every conference in town seems to bring its delegates here to experience the hip side of Lisbon, which interferes somewhat with the edgy vibe.

Closed Sundays. This restaurant is closed for the first 15 days in August.

Yet another co-owner of Bico do Sapato (there are four) is Fernando Fernandes. A restaurateur with his finger firmly on Lisbon's pulse, he also owns this place, opened in 1981 and full ever since. Unlike its fabulous half-sister, Pap'Açorda offers a modest check, and it reverses the ratio of great food vs. show-off quotient. This is all about real. If you want to try (almost) unreconstructed Portuguese dishes, here's your place—and it's handily located in this month's up-and-coming-back neighborhood, beautiful Bairro Alto. Since the restaurant is named after Açorda Real, a lobster and shrimp dish, it stands to reason that this is a good thing to order.

Restaurant is closed Sundays and Mondays. (It is also typically closed for one week in June, but exact dates vary from year to year.)

Beautiful views over flower-filled terraces to Eduardo VII park from this restaurant in the Four Seasons make the lavish lunch buffet here extra-delightful. At night, the à la carte dinner is worth the splurge, especially since chef de cuisine Stéphane Hestin joined straight from the three-Michelin-star La Côte d'Or in Saulieu, France. Hestin's classical training adds layers that Portuguese tradition never imagined to local dishes like a seafood rice casserole, but mostly he produces exquisite Mediterranean dishes with a French influence that are all his own: wild mushroom tempura; sautéed crayfish with chestnuts, celery, and truffle oil; sea bass, calamari, and clams with spider crab emulsion and asparagus; milk-fed veal with citrus and pistachio pesto.