In the good cities, the most memorable food isn't in a restaurant but on the street, in the queue, among locals who stop between errands. It comes with no porcelain plate and no waiter's recommendation, just a napkin and a quick gesture. We've set side by side three cities we know well — Naples, Lisbon and Barcelona — and the handful of things worth ordering in each, plus the tourist traps worth steering around.
Naples: it all revolves around the dough
Pizza margherita is a must, and Naples is where it was invented — with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala and a base that stays soft in the middle, eaten with knife and fork or folded "a portafoglio," by the book. But Neapolitans eat pizza fritta just as often: the same pie, stuffed with ricotta and ham, deep-fried and taken by hand on the street. It's neighbourhood food, cheap and filling, the kind you won't find in the glossy guides.
Follow it with a cuoppo di mare — a paper cone of squid and small fried fish — and a warm sfogliatella for dessert, the shell-shaped pastry filled with semolina cream and orange peel. For coffee, order it at the bar, drunk standing: it costs next to nothing and is far better than the one on the terrace in the square.
- Ask for pizza "a portafoglio" — folded in four, to eat on the move.
- Cuoppo di mare from a friggitoria, not from a restaurant with a terrace.
- Coffee is drunk at the bar, standing; espresso, not cappuccino in the afternoon.
- Avoid the places near the station with menus translated into five languages and photos of the food.
Lisbon: sweet, salty and smoked
A warm pastel de nata dusted with cinnamon and a "bica" (Lisbon's espresso), taken standing at a neighbourhood pastelaria — that's the perfect morning. The one in Belém is famous and worth it once, but any local pastry shop turns out fresh trays all day, at half the price and with no queue.
At lunch or in the evening, look for a tasca — the Portuguese family eatery, with checked tablecloths and house wine by the jug. Order bacalhau (salt cod) in any of its "thousand ways," grilled sardines if they're in season, or a bifana, the sandwich of pork marinated in garlic and white wine. To finish, a glass of ginjinha, the sour-cherry liqueur, drunk from a little chocolate cup at a kiosk in the centre.
Barcelona: the market is the best restaurant in town
Skip La Boqueria off the Rambla — it has turned pricey, crowded and more stage set than market — and head for a neighbourhood one instead: Santa Caterina, with its rippling roof, or Sant Antoni. There you take breakfast or lunch at the bar in the middle of the hall, where even the stalls stock up. Order a few pintxos speared on toothpicks, a bomba (a potato-and-meat croquette with spicy sauce, invented right here in Barceloneta) and a glass of cava. And at midday the „menú del día" — three courses with bread and a drink at a fixed price — remains the best value in the whole city, the way working Spaniards eat, not the tourists snapping photos.
What to drink so you never go wrong
The right drink rounds out the meal and often costs less than you'd think. In Naples, a glass of the house Campania wine or a cold Peroni goes with anything fried; for dessert, a small, ice-cold limoncello. In Lisbon, light, tart vinho verde at lunch, a glass of Port with dessert and a ginjinha at a kiosk in the evening. In Barcelona, vermouth on ice with a slice of orange before the meal — the Spanish Sunday ritual — and cava by the glass instead of champagne.
Three street-food rules that hold anywhere
Beyond these cities, a few principles will see you through any culinary unknown, from a Greek taverna to a trattoria in southern Italy.
- A short menu is a good sign: a kitchen that makes ten dishes makes them well; one with a hundred pulls them from the freezer.
- Follow the lunchtime queue, not the reviews — locals stopping between errands are never wrong.
- Ask for „what they're having" — point at the plate on the next table; it's the best menu in any city.
Don't ask where the best meal in town is. Ask where the people who serve meals all day long go to eat.
Radu Ionescu