St. Martin’s Day is celebrated on November 11, the perfect excuse to get out of the house or office to buy a dozen of these hot, good, roasted chestnuts.
There are a few streets and alleys in the city where you can see the best roasted chestnuts in Lisbon coming out of the huge charcoal roasters, duly wrapped in a newspaper page or a sheet of paper from the yellow pages.
The best places to buy a dozen
If you can’t remember or simply want to know which streets sell these seasonal delicacies, follow our guide to the best places:
Rua Augusta (next to Rua de Santa Justa) is one of the most popular places, followed by Rua Garrett (near the Bertrand bookstore), Praça dos Restauradores (near the Glória elevator and the Hard Rock Cafe), Rua do Carmo and, of course, Largo do Chiado ( near the A Brasileira cafe).
You’ll be able to find roasted chestnuts on sale in other areas of the capital, such as Avenida da Liberdade (near the Tivoli Theatre), Praça Duque de Saldanha, in Cais do Sodré (at the Metro exit), on Avenida Almirante Reis (at the Anjos Metro exit), and at the main entrance to Jardim da Estrela.
The list of locations, in brief:
- Rua Augusta, near Rua de Santa Justa
- Rua Garrett, near the Bertrand bookshop
- Restauradores Square, near the Glória elevator and the Hard Rock Cafe
- Rua do Carmo
- Largo do Chiado, near the A Brasileira café
Other places (suggested by our readers on Facebook)
- Santa Apolónia
- Oeiras CP Station
- Next to Amoreiras Shopping Center
- Next to the Anjos metro
If you know of any new locations, share them in the comments of this post on Facebook or Instagram.
Don’t feel like leaving the house? We’ll show you how to bake
We guarantee that you’ ll be better served by a “professional” chestnut roaster, not least because they always taste better on the street in the cold.
But that’s not why we don’t show you how to roast them in your own oven or patusca, if you have one at home. Let’s go?
Start by preheating the oven to 200ºC. Then wash the chestnuts, dry them and use a knife to cut them horizontally, then put them in cold water again for 20 minutes.
Cover the bottom of a baking tray with coarse salt and add the still wet chestnuts, coating them in the salt. Avoid overlapping them so that they roast evenly.
Sprinkle them again with coarse salt and place the tray in the hot oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or as they begin to brown or toast to your liking
Serve them still warm, preferably with some agua-pé or jeropiga.
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