Tapisco

Henrique Sá Pessoa of Alma fame's tapas and petiscos establishment Tapisco should not be overlooked amidst the other numerous excellent restaurants in Lisbon. A must order is the coveted giant carabineros shrimp - simply grilled to retain the crustacean's natural sweetness and flavour. After eating the flesh, remember to suck on the juicy innards of its head to extract maximum flavour and every last drop of briny ambrosia.

Taste: 4/5

Ultra hot A Cevicheria had a massive queue spilling out onto the streets much to our disappointment, so we headed down the road to tapas and petiscos restaurant Tapisco. While waiting outside for our turn, we passed the time with some very excellent vermouth cocktails. The Majestade’s smooth liveliness and complex balance of sweet, spicy and herbaceous flavours belied its potent mix of Zacapa rum, Grand Marnier and Olave Rojo vermouth, tempered by ginger beer.

Taste: 4/5

"Fried calamari again?", was the refrain next to me. But my dining partner changed her tune the minute she sunk her teeth into the softest, most buttery batons of cuttlefish we've ever had the pleasure of eating. Sheathed in an ultra-thin and crisp layer of tempura batter, these were heavenly drizzled over with fresh lime and dunked into unctuous aioli.

Taste: 4/5

Essentially giant, spherical croquettes, I ordered this based purely on its impressive appearance. I like giant mashed potato balls filled with alheira(Portuguese sausage) topped with spicy sauce as much as the next person, but these eventually got too heavy and a little one-note.

Taste: 3/5

Trashy fast food, tapas style. Absolutely love the combination of runny fried eggs dribbling their saucy yolks over a hill of crisp fries. The twist here is the Iberican blood sausage – asserting itself with bold punctuations of pungent meatiness.

Taste: 3.5/5

A Spanish tapas staple as well as a perennial favourite of mine, the tortilla is deceptively simple in apperance but not so simple to master. My benchmarks are the ones I’ve had in Barcelona, but this sadly falls slightly short of the mark. A generously sized portion no doubt, lavished with razor-thin shavings of jamon, but the insides were just shy of runny and silky smooth, the way I like it.

Taste: 3.5/5