Lisbon’s secret and illegal Chinese restaurants??!!!

The best Chinese food in Lisbon is only 5 min from Tings

Have you heard about the illegal restaurants?

If the guest had asked me about legal restaurants I would have been surprised.

The Chinese ones….?

The guest continued and showed me his tablet with a story from Munchies last year: secret and illegal… the heading said. It was about Lisbon’s real Chinese restaurants.

We know them very well – and if there is something these restaurants are not then its being secret. And I doubt they are more illegal than most other restaurants in Lisbon.

We have travelled a lot in China – we have even been lost there – in places where guidebooks are useless, English doesn’t exist and the only way to find a place to sleep and eat is using your intuition. 

So years ago when we searched for food in Lisbon’s Chinatown for the first time we did what we always do when we’re travelling in China: looked up!

We recognized them right away. The eateries where the Chinese community eats. Not secret at all – just very basic and modest and very authentic with the colorful Chinese Lamps outside the windows.

Back then there then there were no menus  – all items were written on the walls in Chinese. Just like in China.

Today all of them have menus with colorful photos.

Lijang, China
Exellent food. Very local, very tasty, very cheap and very different. With Blue Hmongs in China, 2001
Chinese Families in Lisbon Are Running Secret Restaurants Out of Their Apartments. I tracked down one of the Portuguese capital’s Chinês clandestinos, the hidden eateries operating from the homes of some entrepreneurial Chinese residents.
John Doe Click to read the story

If you have traveled in China – especially in the countryside – you probably get as frustrated as we do when we – desperate to get the Chinese Treat – find ourselves in the so-called Chinese Restaurants that are highlighted in Guide Books and online communities like Zomato and The Fork. Except for the Soya Sauce most of these restaurant have nothing to do with Chinese food.

Unlike the Indians, the Nepalese, the Malaysian and the other non-European  communities the Chinese insist of having their own micro universe wherever the settle.

There are several so called Chinese restaurants - here are the four that are mapped 🙂

Chinatown is only 5 minutes from our door!

In Lisbon Chinatown is only 5 minutes from us down the hill from our Miradouro

Here you find our local Chinatown (between Martim Moniz, Almirente Reis and Intendente) where you get everything you need if you want to cook yourself. All kinds of sauces, herbs, spices, pastas etc., super fresh vegetables and fruit that are brought in every day all kinds of dried mushrooms and noodles and all the kitchen utensils you need.

But most important – you can buy Chinese delicacies such as fermented cabbage, pigs feet, Duck, Pigs ear, strange smelling intestines and a lot of other goodies – all to take a way with a bag of rise and/or Baos… for take away

The menus are more or less the same in all the restaurants – BUT one of them make their own noodles when you order your soup.

If you don’t have time –  a few of the Chinese groceries sell  take away dishes made in the their kitchen behind the shop.

No signs. But if you're lucky traditional Chinese lamps above you indicates 'food'.
No signs. But if you're lucky traditional Chinese lamps above you indicates 'food'.
Still no signs - but try ringing the bell.
Still no signs - but try ringing the bell.
Sometimes the stickers on the windows show you the way...
Sometimes the stickers on the windows show you the way...
If a Chinese family leaves with steaming plastic bags - its most likely Take-Away noodles. ENTER!
If a Chinese family leaves with steaming plastic bags - its most likely Take-Away noodles. ENTER!
Two years ago Menus were unheard off. Today you get them at the table (in Chinese only) - and on very rare occasion at the entrance.
Two years ago Menus were unheard off. Today you get them at the table (in Chinese only) - and on very rare occasion at the entrance.
Enter the gate and head til1st floor. But only turn right if you need a Chinese haircut - the restaurant is to your left (when they opened Grand Mom slept in a warn our sofa when you entered. Today its more civilized
Enter the gate and head til1st floor. But only turn right if you need a Chinese haircut - the restaurant is to your left (when they opened Grand Mom slept in a warn our sofa when you entered. Today its more civilized
Authentic - but still pimped up compared to similar joints in the Chinese Countryside. And don't be surprised to find chinese guests with chopsticks in one hand and a cigaret in the other :-)
Authentic - but still pimped up compared to similar joints in the Chinese Countryside. And don't be surprised to find chinese guests with chopsticks in one hand and a cigaret in the other 🙂
In general the best things about the food are: Its Secret, its cheap, plentyfull and served within a few minutes.
In general the best things about the food are: Its Secret, its cheap, plentyfull and served within a few minutes.
Most of the people in the kitchens can't be 'chefs' - but they are 100% Chinese. One exception is our favorite joint that has a master-of-noodles behind the stove.
Most of the people in the kitchens can't be 'chefs' - but they are 100% Chinese. One exception is our favorite joint that has a master-of-noodles behind the stove.
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We eat “illegal” Chinese at least once every month.

The food is cheap, tasty and unpretentious. And like in China the dishes are served within a few minutes after you order.


China TownChinese

Thomas Tingstrup

Blogger, Traveller and Food, Music & Literature lover. Founding partner of Tings Lisbon.

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