Lisbon Bars & Cocktail Lounges

Lux

• Avenida Infante D Henrique Santa Apolonia Lisbon
• Telephone: 00 351 218 820 890
• Hours: M-S 6pm-7am

Another retro bar, but this time packed out with furniture from 30 years ago. Very cool, and very popular with the town’s dudes. Lux is right by the harbour but there isn’t a fake ship’s wheel or shrimp net in sight, instead, there’s a rabbit warren of corridors for you to wander through and find somewhere tucked away for a good old…

Bar do Rio

• Cais do Sodre Armazem A Porta 7 Lisbon
• Telephone: 00 351 218 347 0907
• Hours: 24.00- 4.00, Thurs - Sat.

Welcome to your second childhood! A bar with the most bizarre décor – miniature spaceships, trains, drums, you name it! adorn the walls. But this is a playground for grown-ups, where the stylish toy with their latest plaything. Oh, and there’s Jazz, too.

Bar Incognito

• Rua Poliais de Sao Bento 37 Sao Bento Lisbon
• Telephone: 00 351 218 390 8755

Imaginative split-level club-bar with no name on the door. Divided into basement dance space downstairs and quieter loft bar upstairs, with a chrome stairwell linking the two. Sophisticated club-set crowd, very much part of the scene, we suggest you take a Manhattan upstairs, incognito, and watch the style slaves play out your fantasies below.

Bica do Sapato

• Avenida Infante D Henrique Santa Apolonia Lisbon, 1900
• Telephone: 00 351 218 810 320
• Hours: Mon 1700-0200; Tue-Sat, 1100-0200

Adjacent to Lux and just as hot. Spacious and refreshingly modern, this is the perfect spot to begin an evening. Cruise the esplanade drink in hand, and make sure that new number you’re wearing is seen before you disappear into the night. A real mixed bunch shows up here – so you never know who might be looking.

Cafe a Brasileira

• Rua Garrett 120 Chiado Lisbon
• Telephone: 00 351 218 346 9541
• Hours: M-S 2pm-12pm

Oldest, most famous cafe in the city, with wooden booths, mirrored walls and a long oak-panelled bar straight out of the 18th century. Young pre-clubbers coming in meet elderly locals going out and make for a lively mix of tradition and trend. There are chairs under umbrellas outside to watch the crowds night and day, and that statue of the man in the hat? Poet Fernando Pessoa who knocked back too much absinthe in here 70 years ago.

Resto

• Rua Costa do Castelo 7 Lisbon
• Telephone: 00 351 218 867 334
• Hours: M-S 7.30pm-2am

New player on the drink'n'eat scene, this restaurant-bar high up on Castelo Hill has a spectacular view of the Tagus and Alfama from the terrace windows. Outside is a courtyard for sipping and schmoozing and the upstairs dining area offers an even better vantage point. Pricey and posey but worth a look-in if you've made the long climb.