Best Cafes in Lisbon: Our Top 5 Picks

A good cup of joe in Lisbon? Look no further!

Controversy warning: with the rise of supermarket cafetiers and with instant coffee machine sales at an all-time high, it’s very easy and convenient to forget about the atmosphere of a great cafe, including the taste of “proper” coffee. 

To clarify, we’re not talking about buying cuppas from big-name brands or edgy overpriced leather wingback armchair joints, starring several writers all cupping their chins in intense thought. Instead, we took a deep dive into coffee’s playground, Lisbon, and its cafe scene to find its hidden gems – or beans, you might say. 

With this in mind, our team compiled the ultimate top 5 list of best cafes in Lisbon. Use it well! 

Best Cafes in Lisbon #5 - Fabrica da Nata

Dessert Cafe

Fabrica da Nata is a cozy dessert cafe inside a century-old building, located right in the heart of Lisbon. While desserts are where it truly rules the roost, people can’t seem to get enough of Fabrica da Nata’s coffee either, which is very reasonably priced. 

The custard tarts here are beyond delicious – made to order fresh from the oven with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and cinnamon. We would have ranked Fabrica da Nata higher. However, we felt that our judgement was clouded a bit by the custard tarts! You could probably drink anything between bites and still enjoy it! 

We recommend Fabrica da Nata for a cafe with a relaxed atmosphere and great food. While it doesn’t serve the best coffee in Lisbon, it’s certainly up there – and undoubtedly one of the best cafes in Lisbon!

#4 - The Mill 

Australian-Portuguese Cafe

Though many haven’t heard about this, there’s something known as the Aussie brekkie movement, which exists for a pretty self-explanatory reason; Aussies cook a mean breakfast. A breakfast so mean that it warranted its own movement! Viva la eggs and bacon!

Perhaps for this reason, many recommend breakfast at this Australian-Portuguese cafe, The Mill, with a frothy flat white or a rich espresso, if you’re so inclined. So, if two experiences in one day sounds like your gig, maybe swing by The Mill for a breakfast/brunch you aren’t likely to forget about! 

We recommend The Mill for its top-notch breakfasts and its unique coffee blend.  

Best Cafes in Lisbon #3 - Landeau Chocolate

Another Dessert Cafe 

While we try our best not to repeat ourselves, another dessert cafe made the list – but hear us out! Chocolate is one of the few things you can pair with coffee without overwhelming the flavour. If anything, chocolate compliments coffee beautifully. Mocha coffee, for example, pairs the richness of hot chocolate with the strong aroma and body of coffee – the product of which tastes as if the two were made to be mixed.

So, while it is more difficult to tell good coffee from off the shelf stuff between scoffs of chocolate cake, a decent palate can experience both in equal measure. Enter Landeau Chocolate, a cafe with high-quality cocoa and coffee aplenty – arguably the perfect place to try out our theory! 

Coming in at number three (both on our list and also the 3rd best cafe in Lisbon by user rating) we recommend Landeau Chocolate for any coffee lover with a sweet tooth! 

#2 - Fábrica Coffee Roasters

Coffee Roastery 

Now, this one’s for the coffee experts! If we had to describe the difference between our top two and those which didn’t make it this far, try comparing an expensive bottled wine with something freshly uncorked in the vineyard! With house-roasted and single-origin ethically sourced beans making up the entirety of Fábrica’s selection, here’s an opportunity to try coffee that’s truly out of this world. 

Now, you’ve heard about the Aussie Brekkie movement, but have you heard of the Third-Wave coffee movement? For the shops whose values resonate with it, this movement is all about selling coffee containing assured quality beans traceable to a single point of origin. Fábrica fits this description to a tee. 

To answer your burning questions: yes, they’re self-professed coffee snobs – but friendly ones! Yes, the coffee here costs more. No, you absolutely won’t regret getting a cuppa here! We recommend Fábrica Coffee Roasters for top-tier quality and its welcoming attitude towards budding coffee aficionados!

#1 - Copenhagen Coffee Lab

Scandi Coffee Laboratory!

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you! While it isn’t quite a “laboratory”, it’s about as close as you can get to one in a coffee shop environment. Paired with the Scandinavian minimalist theme, the result is a relaxed, cool and squeaky clean coffee haven positioned near the “hustle and bustle area” of Lisbon. There are a few, but we like the one on R. Nova da Piedade best!

As this coffee lab also falls under the Third-Wave coffee umbrella, you’ll find that all their speciality beans are roasted directly onsite. In addition, they’re very transparent about their beans’ origins but also their own refined brewing process, which is its own kind of wizardry. Allegedly, the friendly staff may well talk your ear off about any number of these things – so don’t ask if you’re not interested!

That just about wraps up our ultimate top 5 list of the best cafes in Lisbon! 

Also, if you find yourself wandering around Lisbon (or most cities as a matter of fact) with an excess of energy from all that caffeine and you’re not sure how or where to spend it, try one of our city exploration games!