Portuguese food: 15 traditional treats to try in Portugal

From spicy peri peri chicken to sweet pasteis de nata (custard tarts), we’ve peeped into the farmhouse kitchens, petiscos (tapas) bars, and rural restaurants, to find 15 of our favourite Portuguese foods.

This is where you’ll find traditional food to try in Portugal on your next holiday.

If you’re a sucker for seafood, this traditional Portuguese dish is going to tickle your tastebuds. It’s classic farmers’ and fishermen’s fare and consists of a freshly caught and dried octopus that’s roasted with olive oil and cloves of garlic and served with oven-cooked potatoes. You can expect to see polvo à lagareiro on restaurant menus across the country as well as providing a centrepiece for family meals enjoyed on Christmas Eve.

There’s a certain breed of pig in Portugal’s Alentejo region – just north of the Algarve – that leads a somewhat pampered lifestyle. Iberian pigs can trace their relatives to wild boars and enjoy nothing more than snuffling under cork trees on the hunt for acorns. Thanks to this free-range lifestyle and diet, porco preto provides extremely succulent and juicy meat.

Slow-roasted slices, grilled pork belly (secreto), sausages, and long-aged charcuterie-carved ham (presunto ibérico) are among the most popular variations.

The Portuguese like to slap sardines onto hot coals and smother them in sea salt. Throughout the summer months, the sweet smell of the grilled fish can be found across the country from beyond harbour walls to backyards and beaches. Often stewed in spicy tomato sauce and served with a hunk of crusty broa de milho (corn and rye bread), sardinhas assadas are the certified smell of summer and the traditional dish served on Santo António’s Day festivities on 13th June.

Grilled sardines

The combination of short-grain Portuguese rice (carolino) cooked with tender strips of shredded duck presents travellers with another popular food to try in Portugal.

Often blended with smoky chouriço (similar to Spanish chorizo) as well as onions, garlic and a meaty stock and duck juices, this hearty dish is designed to warm you up on a cold evening. Served with slices of orange in a large sharing bowl, there’s no finer smell to welcome you home after a winter’s walk.

This delicious flaky pastry custard tart provides the perfect accompaniment to a mid-morning coffee. You can pick one pastel de nata up from a café counter or patisserie for just a couple of Euros, although don’t expect it to last longer than one or two bites. Originally conceived by monks and nuns in Lisbon looking to make the most of discarded egg yolks – the egg whites were used to starch their clothing – pastéis de nata began to be sold on the streets of the capital and they’ve been selling like the proverbial hot cakes ever since.

Pastéis de nata

The national food in Portugal is salted cod. There’s literally a different way to cook this seafood staple for every day of the year however, bacalhau à brás (salt cod bras-style) is probably the nation’s favourite dish. It’s a heartfelt comfort food and very simple to create. Basically, the salted cod is left to soak overnight before being flaked and mixed with eggs, fried onions, shredded potato, black olives, and parsley. Definitely worth enjoying with a dry white wine such as an Albariño from the northwest region of Portugal.

Don’t underestimate the pulling power of Portugal’s take on a French croque monsieur. This tantalizing toastie – literally translated as Little French Woman – features layers of Iberian ham, linguiça sausage, roast beef or steak slices topped with cheese, and sometimes a fried egg.

The whole delicious stack is then covered in hot tomato and beer sauce which promptly melts the cheese and creates a delicious gooey sandwich. As you can imagine, francesinhas are best eaten with a good napkin close to hand.

Francesinha

This is a very popular food to try in Portugal because it’s just so simple and delicious. Basically, it’s a higher breed of burger using strips of beef steak that have been infused with garlic. The name ‘prego’ – literally meaning ‘nail’ – is how the sandwich gets its name as it relates to the way the garlic cloves are ‘nailed’ into the meat prior to the grilling process. Often topped with cheese, tomato chutney, pickles, and bacon, this is a food truck classic to take away and eat on the go.

This is Portugal’s answer to an Italian risotto or a Spanish paella, although it’s not quite as dry and has more of a soupy consistency. Whatever you compare it with, arroz de marisco is the taste of the Atlantic and features fish, such as monkfish and cod, which is simmered alongside lobster, clams, prawns, mussels and squid. The whole seafood soup is blended with short-grain rice, sweet peppers, and tomatoes. One to try if you’re enjoying a holiday on the Algarve.

Arroz de marisco

Although, traditionally, not quite as well respected as other areas of Europe, Portuguese cheese more than holds its own – especially when accompanied with one of Portugal’s better-known products, Port.

Queijo ranges from the buttery sheep’s milk cheese, Serra da estrela, to the harder and spicier são jorge from the Azores. And if you’re looking for an award-winner, queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado (soft, raw sheep’s milk cheese) was crowned 2024’s World Champion Cheese.

This traditional food to try in Portugal traces its roots back to the arrival of the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula at the start of the 8th century. Açorda is essentially cubes of very hard (stale) bread that are soaked overnight in boiling water and flavoured with garlic, coriander, olive oil, and stock. To elevate this rustic offering still further, you’ll often find lobster and seafood added to the broth as well as a splash of peri peri sauce to heat things up.

Açorda

Another fish dish to make our famous food to try in Portugal list is cataplana de marisco. Named after the pot it’s cooked in, this savoury seafood stew is not dissimilar to a North African tagine as the ingredients are slowly steamed and cooked once the Cataplana lid is closed.

All the seafood is thrown in at once – cod, monkfish, prawns, lobsters, octopus, clams – as well as peppers, onions, herbs, spices, and white wine. The end result is flavoursome, healthy and best enjoyed with a freshly baked papo secos bread roll.

This small edible sea snail is considered a delicacy throughout the Azores and is a must-try if on holiday in Maderia. You can often see locals collecting lapas from rocky beaches and grilling them over an open fire or barbecue. Although slightly chewy, lapas are packed full of protein and taste absolutely delicious when pan fried with butter, garlic, parsley, and a drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon. The Madeiran version of fried lapas includes a side plate of bolo do caco (garlic bread).

Originating from colonial cultivations in South Africa, peri peri peppers (African bird’s eye chillis) made their way back to Portugal onboard spice ships sailing from Mozambique and Angola. Their fiery, smoky flavour was dried before being mixed with oil, garlic, whisky, and a range of other spices to create a sauce that would become known across the world. There’s nothing better than a spit-roasted chicken basted in peri peri sauce to kick start an evening out.

Peri peri chicken

If you’ve got plans to attend a football match in Portugal or visit a local festival, you’ll never be far away from the sizzling smell of a food truck selling sandes de courato. This traditional Portuguese sandwich has been a street food mainstay for generations. Often soaked in garlic, white wine, and spicy pepper paste, its simple but tasty flavours are best accompanied by an ice-cold Super Bock beer.

Has that got your tastebuds tingling? Browse our Portugal holidays and start planning your culinary journey around this foodie hub.