What I ate Vegan in Lisbon, Portugal

Veganapati

The first place we headed to after arriving in Lisbon was Veganapati. This is a fully vegan restaurant with many Indian inspired dishes on their menu.

We started with some rosé sangria which was really good. I decided to go for the 'brownie' burger which was tofu and bean based and came with caramelised onions, vegan cheese, salad and sweet potato fries. The flavours were good but the burger was a little too beany and earthy for me. The fries were naturally fried rather than having a coating like some other sweet potato fries I've tried.

My friend went for an interesting sounding dish similar to thai green curry- 'organic tofu with  creamy green coconut and lentil sauce served with slow cook pineapple and jasmine and lime rice.' The sauce was really nice and the tofu had a crispy outing but lacked flavour, it would have been nicer if it had been marinated.

Overall, Veganapati had a large and varied menu and I feel I would have enjoyed my meal more if i'd chosen something a little more unusual to try. It's definitely worth a try if you like the sound of their dishes.

Eight Health Lounge

On our first morning we decided to go to eight for a nice healthy breakfast. The Eight Health Lounge offer savoury buddha style bowls, toasts, smoothie bowls and juices and the menu has lovely colourful pictures so you know what you're getting! We both chose a smoothie bowl (I went for Emerald Dream and my friend went for Solar Infusion) and then decided to share the Almond Butter toast.

The smoothies were very good and both came with cocao nibs, banana and homemade granola. I had expected the smoothies to be a little thicker (I suppose more like a nice cream texture) but the flavours were very good. I wasn't the biggest fan of the granola as I prefer it with clusters, this was more like a muesli. 

I enjoyed the almond butter toast although it was on a toasted, hearty rye type bread so was very filling and a little too crunchy. The cocoa nibs on both the toast and the smoothie bowl didn't add much flavour other than a slight bitterness and were too crunchy for me!

Eight offers some great healthy options but from my visit I concluded that it's probably a little too healthy for me and I would have happily swapped it for pancakes with real chocolate chips!

daTerra

daTerra is a chain or vegetarian buffet style restaurants in Portugal with many vegan options. The buffet is a set price and includes soup, cold salads and hot food. I can't remember the price but remember it being very reasonable. I mostly went for hot food including tofu, rice, a spinach and mushroom pastry and seitan in apple sauce and when I went for seconds also really enjoyed the vegan quiche.

We also had to try a vegan Pastel de Nata for dessert which did not disappoint, they were amazing! We also took some chocolate cake to go and it was very gooey but very lovely.

daTerra is a great choice to fill up on a busy day, has lots of choice and is very good value.

Cabane

As we were in Lisbon for my birthday, I chose Cabane for my birthday breakfast. Cabane is a cute little vegetarian cafe with many vegan options. I went for the vegan brunch option which for only €15 includes one hot drink (I had a soya cappucino), juice or soup of the day (I went for the juice which was apple and spinach), toast with marmalade and peanut butter, toast with vegan cheese, nuts and tomato, a small salad, tofu scramble, soya yoghurt with fruit and granola and to top it all off, vegan pancakes! Yes, all of that was €15. 

My friend went for just pancakes which you can see here as mine came after, when I had finished the rest!

When the food arrived I was so impressed with how beautiful it looked and the taste did not disappoint. The toast came with vegan spread and jam made from carrots (apparently it's a typical Portuguese thing!) which was amazing, it also came with peanut butter which is always a winner for me!

The little toast was really good, the slightly melty vegan cheese, walnuts and tomatoes worked together really well. The tofu scramble was also really good and had grated carrot in it. The beautiful little wooden bowl of natural style soya yoghurt was beautifully decorated with fruits and granola and was so tasty.

Last but by no means least, the final part of my vegan brunch to arrive was the pancakes. My friend had surprised me and told them it was my birthday (while I was in the loo!) so they went to the effort of making my a little sign which was so sweet. The pancakes had some kiwi and strawberry between the layers and were delicious.

I cannot recommend Cabane enough, it's a must visit if you're in Lisbon. It's a shame we didn't get chance to go back to try their lunch menu and some of the amazing looking cakes and desserts like salted caramel crumble, which sounds amazing!

Kong

Kong is a fully vegan, stylish restaurant with lots of colourful and unique artwork on the walls and a life sized collaged Gorilla! I didn't really know what to expect from the food as they offer many 'fake meats' which can be very hit and miss in vegan restaurants. However, the food at Kong blew us away!

We decided to get two things to share- a sandwich made on a soft traditional Portuguese bread (I've forgotten the name!) and filled with garlic butter, vegan sausage and cheese and served with sweet potato chips and a 'fried chicken' burger with chips. 

Well, what can I say? When we tried the food we were absolutely amazed! It was possibly the best meal I have eaten as a vegan, if not ever!

The sandwich was deliciously soft, beautifully garlicy and contained the best vegan/ vegetarian sausage I have ever eaten! The chicken burger was incredibly realistic and approved by my friend (a regular real-chicken-burger-eater!), she said she couldn't tell the difference. I also thought it was amazing, the chips were incredible and I've never tasted homemade vegan mayo so good.

Kong is 100% definitely worth a visit and was definitely one of the best vegan restaurants I've been to, a must!

Noori

Whilst doing some shopping around Lisbon we walked past Noori. as a sushi lover I decided to pop in and see if they had any vegan options. I was pleased to find that they did and got two temaki. One had avocado, mango, edamame and sweet chilli sauce and the other had green apple, tofu and edamame. They were both really good and I hadn't actually realised that I like fruit with sushi but both the mango and apple worked really well with the fresh flavours.

Starbucks

On a final note, and just because it might be useful to others. We popped into Starbucks one day for a quick tea with soya milk and I noticed they had a mini vegan cake so I decided to give it a try. I was a little disappointed as I couldn't really taste the chocolate sponge or topping as the very sweet raspberry icing kind of overpowered it all. However, it was a quick sugar pick-me-up while sightseeing and it's nice to see more widely available vegan choices.

As you can see, Lisbon offers many great choices for vegans and there were so many other places that we didn't even get chance to try. My top picks if you visit would definitely be Kong and Cabane!