{"id":17047,"date":"2019-03-15T19:17:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T19:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devourlisbonfoodtours.com\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2023-08-17T17:35:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T17:35:01","slug":"grocery-stores-in-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/grocery-stores-in-lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery Stores in Lisbon: Know Where to Go and What to Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is one calling card Lisbon is famous for, and effortlessly, is food. Our guide for foodies shows you which grocery stores in Lisbon to go to and why!

Walk down any cobblestoned street in the historic center of Lisbon and count how many roasted chestnut vendors (in the winters), salted codfish stands, canned sardines’ shops, wine shops, and jam-packed grocery stores you find.<\/p>

If you’re feeling the cartoon-like urge to follow the pungent cheese scent coming from the door behind that crowd of tourists, take a deep breath. There are places where customers are mostly locals and where products are better than the price tag would have you believe.<\/p>

We’ll show you what grocery stores in Lisbon to peel your eyes for and what to buy.<\/p>

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Photo credit: Sandra Henriques Gajjar<\/a>, Text overlay: Devour Lisbon Food Tours<\/a><\/em><\/p>

Mercearias<\/h2>

Mercerarias<\/em> (grocery stores in English) are the ancestors of supermarkets in Lisbon before large national chains and shopping malls came along. These tiny stores, typically located in strategic locations near residential neighborhoods, are full top to bottom with anything and everything you need daily.<\/p>

In the old days, people came here to mostly buy dry goods (rice, beans, flour, canned food like the now tourist-famous conservas<\/em><\/a>) and regular customers had a tab (buy now, pay later or, as the Portuguese call it, fiado<\/em>).<\/p>

These days in Lisbon, there’s a mix of traditional mercearias<\/em> that still survive, as long as there are customers to keep the business going, and other establishments, some of them more recent, that became tourists’ delight for their specialty items like cured meats (Manteigaria Silva<\/a> in Baixa), fresh goat milk butter (Mercearia do Poço dos Negros<\/a> in Santos), local products from the Portuguese islands of Azores (Mercearia dos Açores<\/a> in Baixa), and salted cod<\/a> (Pérola do Arsenal<\/a> in Baixa).<\/p>

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At specialty grocery store Mercearia dos Açores you can find all sorts of products from the Azores Islands. Photo credit: Sandra Henriques Gajjar<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>

What to buy at a mercearia<\/h3>