Delightful snack bar serving up delicious, cheap, and authentic Portuguese food! I stumbled upon…read morePica Pau while meandering back to my hotel after realizing that the restaurant I was originally planning to eat lunch at was closed on Thursdays. It was getting a wee bit late for lunch (~1:30 PM), and I was quite hungry, so when I passed by Pica Pau and saw how packed it was, I knew I had to drop by to give it a try. It's absolutely bustling inside; there are several tables inside and outside, and you can generally just seat yourself as long as there's an open slot. There are very few tourists here -- another great sign -- so the menus will all be in Portuguese, and it will be hit or miss as to whether your server can translate for you. However, the menu is pretty simple, so it's easy enough to intuit what they say (or to just use Google Translate) -- the menu is spread across three blackboards, one for daily specials, another for seafood, and the last for other meat dishes. Everything is just twelve euros for lunch, and it also comes with a drink and bread. You genuinely can't go wrong with anything on their menu. My mom and I both ordered from their seafood menu, and the fish is super fresh and grilled to perfection. It has a perfect char on the outside, and is super flaky and tender on the inside; they add a hit of salt and a side of lemon, but the fish honestly doesn't need much else. The fish also comes with a side of boiled veggies and potatoes, which are a great, neutral accompaniment to the fish. I ordered the swordfish, and my mom got the sea bass, but we ended up splitting both of the dishes between us (especially since they both conveniently came with two pieces). Both were phenomenal, but I did enjoy the swordfish a tiny bit more; it was a bit more tender, and they also descaled the swordfish but did not for the seabass, so it was a slightly easier eating experience.

4.5 Stars Lovely restaurant with warm ambiance…read more Took a while for the food to arrive, but really enjoyed the meal. The starter bread with pica pau (meat) sauce was a great snack, as well as the garlic prawn starter. We all enjoyed our dishes, as well as the porto tonic drink!

Delicious tasting milkshakes including lactose free, they are not thick but a little on the thin…read moreside (mom liked it that way.) Burgers are big and served on brioche style eggy soft buns. Meat patties were about average, they tasted fine and not overcooked. Not seasoned but the toppings and flavor choices enhance it all. Cheesy sauce with the onion rings was like a smooth velveeta style which I've really liked. They serve Super Bock beer! Decor is so cool, lots of retro 50s vibes. Excellent service too, they were very nice and so helpful. We are very short heights and the tables were so tall compared to the vinyl booth seating. Getting into the restaurant was a bit of a challenge. It's on the second floor of a large concrete building. Finding the stairs to get up was a little search. Then we had to take an elevator because my mom is in a wheelchair. The elevator is locked behind a glass anteroom, so we had to find the security guard (who was very nice & friendly) to let us up and then take the stairs down to let him know we were leaving.

My son and his partner got food poisoning from this place. They were sick for days after eating…read moreburgers and fries. I do not recommend -- do not eat here. Gross.

Outstanding Sandwich and Service. We got lucky with the wait times (yes we went several…read moretimes)...price point is great...definitely worth the time...you will love it. Oh! Don't forget to add the sauces...these add even more great flavor...the hot sauce can be a little warm but not too much. We tried both with and without cheese. For the location...a cool little area of Lisbon in which we stayed across the street. Having another today before we head out.

As I continue to slowly get through the large list of review drafts I wrote when I was in Portugal,…read moreat this point, a bit over 3 months ago, in no particular order... this was one of two places that ended up on my list of places I had to try a famous bifana sandwich when I was in Lisbon, the other being O Trevo the next day. To both of them equally I say, there are very few places I'd be willing to stand in line for an hour for, and few of them involve meat on bread. Luckily, being the off-season, I didn't have *any* wait to order a sandwich. Unluckily, being the off season, that's also because it kept raining off and on, and this is a strictly take-out affair. So I ended up eating the sandwich under a nearby awning. In nicer weather conditions, though, there are plenty of nearby benches to sit on right there. Would i wait in a long line? I would not. But it was a legitimately great sandwich, great fluffy bread, great cheese if you splurge on cheese (as of a couple months ago, they were 3.5 euro without cheese, 5.5 with cheese), and solid, juicy, meaty meat, even if I do *personally* prefer the thin-sliced version like the other place I went, did. For how filling they are, that'd make them pretty darn affordable, if you don't add cheese, which I would probably keep doing anyway if I lived here, I'd just go when it was the off-season and not busy, *and* not raining*. At least as of when I was there, being a takeout place, they didn't have much in the way of drinks, but there was an unrelated business in the next alcove over selling cheap large glasses of beer and large blended fruity pineapple drinks. p.s. Make sure to absolutely douse your sandwich in mustard and chili oil, if you like spicy food like I do. They're self-serve, and great.