What an amazing final day in Lisbon. We started the morning off at the Lisbon Oceanarium, the largest aquarium in Europe. We never miss an opportunity to go to an aquarium, and the Oceanarium was stunning. It included a floor to ceiling 360 degree tank filled with hundreds of fish, penguins, 3 unbearably adorable sea otters, and an endless array of gorgeous marine life. We spent 2 hours here and really we could've spent all day. Do not miss this magical place.
We had a disappointing lunch at one of Lisbon's hippest, trendiest restaurants: Cantinho do Avillez. Owned by Portuguese celebrity chef Jose Avillez, Cantinho do Avillez is upscale, with fussy and fancy food that is way too overpriced. My main dish came with 3 scallops, 1 cut up asparagus, 5 thin disks of sweet potato and 6 cherry tomatoes and cost more than any other single dish we have had the entire time we were in Portugal. Matt's duck confit - sausage rolls wrapped in cabbage was good, but heavy and inappropriate for a late summer/early fall dish. The place was just trying too hard and it failed again and again. Our meals at Cervejaria da Esquina and Enoteca de Belém were much better for much better value.
Dinner, on the other hand, was one of the single greatest dining experiences of our lives. No joke. Cervejaria Ramiro is no secret -- if you do even a superficial search of best restaurants in Lisbon, it is sure to come up. Anthony Bourdain went there on the Lisbon episode of No Reservations (he actually was taken there by Chef Jose Avillez of Cantinho do Avillez). It is beloved by locals and tourists alike and for very good reason. This is a big, crazy, loud restaurant, with waiters constantly running by carrying everything from small glasses of beer to enormous live spider crabs. Tables are communal and you will likely be sitting next to another couple using mallets to crack open long crab legs. This place is all about shellfish, as simple and fresh as it gets. We had shrimp in a butter sauce, clams in garlic and cilantro broth, 6 glorious hefty langoustines and a grilled tiger shrimp which was roughly the size of a small lobster. Everything about the experience, from the atmosphere to the food, was absolutely unforgettable.
But wait, there's more....
For dessert, yes dessert, you don't get ice cream, you don't get chocolate cake--you get....a steak sandwich! Yes, all around you you will see your dining companions ordering a Prego, and I highly recommend you follow their lead. Thinly sliced steak, quickly seared, topped with large pieces of garlic and yellow mustard and served on a soft portuguese roll. We ate every last crumb and loved every last bite.
Of course, we left a little room for one last stop at Santini for an ice cream cone.... No matter how much you eat for dinner, there's always room for ice cream when you are on vacation!