Mike Schwalbach and Nikki Mol

Lights dotted across the ceiling and walls glow over Mito's green and wood dining room on Rua de José Falcão, one of Porto's most vibrant streets. Chef Pedro Braga (ex-Pedro Lemos, and trained under Pierre Koffmann in London) opened it in 2017 with no divide between courses, just a menu to share. Order the green mole courgette flower and beef croquettes with chouriço mayonnaise, then the monkfish and shrimp rice. A bar at the back stirs revisited classics and bolder twists.

A 16-seat, U-shaped sushi counter fills the ground floor of a residential building just beyond Porto's historic centre. Chef Vasco Coelho Santos (also behind Euskalduna Studio, one of the city's most creative kitchens) now runs Kaigi in the spirit of a Japanese izakaya, with Nikkei leanings and Portuguese produce. The nine-course tasting menu follows the day's best ingredients: freshly caught fish, Hokkaido toast with fermented pepper and cherry tsukemono, and a sweet potato crème brûlée to finish.

The lemon-tree-shaded courtyard is the main draw of Clara Café, hidden inside the Brotéria cultural centre on the fringe of Bairro Alto. Chef Diogo Noronha and barman Fernão Gonçalves (who have worked together before) run an all-day kitchen of seasonal, largely vegetable-led cooking. The menu rotates, with a slice of quiche Lorraine served alongside potato salad with parsley and basil pesto or, for something sweeter, a caramelised croissant topped with cherry and blueberry marmalade.

Warm Mafra-style bread, Azorean butter and a side of pica-pau sauce land on the table first at Pica-Pau, in Lisbon's Príncipe Real. The name, which means woodpecker, also refers to the Lisbon dish of seared cubes of beef served in a beer-based sauce (traditionally eaten with toothpicks). It's a go-to for those craving a taste of the Portuguese tradition, where the daily specials showcase family recipes from north to south: start with octopus salad and codfish fritters, order the special, and finish with the Algarve almond tart.

A small, 25-seat institution on a side street in the buzzing Bairro Alto neighbourhood, it features an open kitchen, minimalist interiors and neutral tones. Chef André Lança Cordeiro, one of Lisbon's leading ambassadors of French cooking, opened it in 2019 with a menu dedicated to classic French showstoppers: beefsteak tomatoes served with slivers of cured ham and caviar, a pâté en croûte, lobster and sweetbread vol-au-vent, and skate wing à la meunière, all matched with natural wines.

An eight-seat intimate dining experience, where wine and sake are paired to an omakase experience. The atmosphere is remarkably informal, as every course is left to the chef, and the drinks pairing strays far from the obvious. The freshness of the seafood, whether in the Algarve oysters finished with a brunoise of nashi pear or the blanched squid served over a black sesame sauce, is the main takeaway.