This first line of text is to warn you that in these five restaurants you’ll find some of the spiciest food you’ve ever tasted in Lisbon.
Malagueta, chili, piri-piri or any kind of pepper are all synonyms for things we love to add to our favorite dishes in these restaurants.
And since January 16 is International Spicy Food Day, today’s guide will take you to five of our favorite restaurants where they serve good doses of this ingredient, which makes many sweat and many others cry… including us (watch the video).
If for some people spicy just adds a little extra flavor to their food, for us it makes us feel it even more intensely.
Table Of Contents
Oven
Oven is the only Indian/Nepalese restaurant with a traditional copper oven where, with this lunch menu, you can travel through the flavors and aromas of these countries without even leaving Lisbon.
In this friendly and comfortable space located in downtown Lisbon, you’ll be able to try three delicacies where the spiciness stands out the most:
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Vindaloo chicken/lamb/tiger prawns (12,95€/14,95€/16,95€): traditional vindaloo sauce, cooked with potatoes, tomato gravy, garnished with fresh herbs and fresh chillies;
- 🌶️🌶️ Special Goat Curry (€16.95): goat cooked slowly over low heat;
- 🌶️🌶️ Madras chicken/lamb/tiger prawns (12,95€/14,95€/16,95€): strong flavor of madras sauce, cooked in tomato gravy, garnished with fresh herbs.
Address: Rua dos Fanqueiros 232 (Baixa)
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 12 noon to 3.30 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.; closed on Mondays
SOI
When we go to SOI – Asian Street Food, it’s usually to enjoy the executive menu, which lets us try a different dish from each region of Southeast Asia every day of the week.
For International Spicy Day, you can try some dishes with different intensities of spiciness:
- 🌶️/🌶️🌶️ Korean Chicken Wings/Ribs (11€/17,50€), fried chicken wings sautéed in spicy Korean sauce/”slow cooked” pork belly with Korean barbecue sauce;
- 🌶️🌶️ Thai Panang Tiger Prawn Curry (16€), panang curry with roasted peanuts, tiger prawns, coconut milk and Thai basil;
- 🌶️🌶️ Tom Yum Goong (15€), aromatic broth of lemongrass, galangal, chilli, kaffir lime with coconut milk, prawns, tomatoes, mushrooms and coriander.
Address: Rua da Moeda 1C (Cais do Sodré)
Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday, from 12pm to 6pm and from 7pm to 11pm; Friday and Saturday, from 12pm to 6pm and from 7pm to midnight.
Panda Cantina
If you’re paying attention to what we write around here, I’m sure you’ve already noticed the spicy challenge we did at Panda Cantina, which serves one of our favorite ramens in Lisbon.
Panda Cantina is a Cantonese restaurant that serves incredible and very spicy ramen, with a level ranging from the “calmest” one to the boldest and strongest five (🌶️ to 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️).
Since a picture or a video is worth a thousand words, here’s our video to see what it was like.
Address: Rua da Prata 252 (Praça da Figueira); Rua Joaquim António de Aguiar 73D; Rua de São Marçal 86; Rua de Entrecampos 14A
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 12pm to 3pm and from 6.30pm to 10pm
Afuri
We love going to Afuri Izakaya, in Chiado, whenever we feel like more or less spicy Asian food. And on this special day we might even stop by to try the dishes that promise to set everyone’s taste buds on fire.
The menu prepared by one of our favorite Asian restaurants includes:
- Softshell Crabbun (6€): fried softshell crab, served with spicy Japanese mayonnaise, cucumber and kimchi;
- Spicy Karaage Don (9€): rice served with fried chicken thigh, marinated in spicy sauce, spicy Japanese mayonnaise, sesame, spring onion, ginger pickle and nori seaweed.
- Ramen Yuzu Ratan (14€): chicken broth, spicy soy tare, chashu pork belly, egg, chicory, bamboo shoots, fried garlic, leeks, sesame seeds, yuzu and nori seaweed.
The level of spiciness? Ask before you order 🌶️🥵
Address: Rua Paiva de Andrade 7-13 (Chiado); Avenida Dom João II 45 (Parque das Nações)
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, from 12pm to 3pm and from 6pm to 11pm; Saturdays and Sundays, from 12pm to 11pm
Tambarina
In the section of restaurants with the spiciest dishes in Lisbon, we couldn’t miss one of our favorites for eating Cape Verdean cachupa. It’s located in Rua do Poço dos Negros and offers three varieties of cachupa: meat, fish or special.
The restaurant is the closest thing to a Cape Verdean tavern, simple and very satisfying in terms of the portions of this African delicacy.
And if you go between Wednesday and Sunday, be prepared to listen to some of the best Cape Verdean rhythms, with live music.
Address: Rua do Poço dos Negros 94 (Santos)
Opening hours: every day from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
