In summer, there are just a couple of things that lisboetas will queue for: the beach and ice cream. The city is blessed with good places for both, but between the two, we prefer the latter, which in Lisbon tends to be Italian-style gelato, as served in the most long-lived and successful shops in town. Tucked away in a corner of Restauradores, A Veneziana still has the same façade and is run by the same family as when it opened in 1936. The shop is small, with a big esplanada, or terrace, on which customers can sit and enjoy their treats.

At the end of Rua da Voz do Operário, the main road that leads up to the hilltop of the previously sleepy Graça neighborhood, is a new, hip Lisbon kitchen that is reflecting the city’s growing hunger for great food and a good time. Damas, as the name indicates, is run by two women who have both previously worked in some of the city’s well-known food institutions, including Chapito. The restaurant, bar and club has been popular pretty much since it launched in 2015, thanks to its combination of knowledgeable chefs, classic and not-so-classic dishes done well, and a regular music program that ranges from punk to afro-beats.

Lisbon is still one of the best cities in Europe for fresh, unpretentious seafood dining, despite the onslaught of fads and newfound taste for speculative real estate. Eating mollusks here – as at a cervejaria-marisqueira, a sort of old-school beer and seafood house – is not at all associated with the luxury it symbolizes elsewhere. Here, it is normal to dig out the insides of unique, claw-like barnacles or suck the heads of the freshest prawns for a decent price in a genuine atmosphere. And in such restaurants, forget the lime tart or crème brûlée afterwards: the purist’s dessert after a shell-laden chowdown is a prego – a garlic-laced beef sandwich that couldn’t be fancy even if it tried.