I recommend to walk the district of Mouraria. There is a route called Rota das Tascas da Mouraria. It is a very old district that is not very touristic, but is one of my favorites. It is on the bottom of the castle.
You can find the Rota das Tascas online. "Tasco" is bar. So you don't have to go to every single bar, but I recommend taking a ginjinha in one of them, and seeing the atmosphere of the district. It's authentic! It's like an old town, with children playing in the streets and dogs running around. It's like the old home of your grandmother. The architecture is very old because, like Alfama, this district survived the earthquake. They were the only ones, so the structure is quite peculiar, like many of the buildings are a little sideways, because of the earthquake.
There is one tasco called Os Amigos da Severa. It's in a street where fado was born--like, people started singing fado there. The wall of the street had pictures in wood in the wall of famous fado singers. There is also a vegetarian restaurant I love, The Food Temple. It's in a very small square—I love that square. Go in there for a tea or a piece of cake or dinner. One of the cooks is from Thailand, so it's different.
What do you love about Lisbon?
People is what I love. I'm not originally from Lisbon, I'm from Spain. The first time I came here it was a surprise. Everyone in Lisbon is open and so warm. I was standing in the square waiting for someone, reading a book, and an old woman walked up to me and was like, are you lost? Can I help you? And that would never happen in Spain, but it happens here in Lisbon.
So for me that's the best, the people. And I like that it is small, a lot happening, a lot of free live music. Small coffees and restaurants, and I like the variety. You can find the more sophisticated, bohemian, hippie, rockabilly.
The Secret Lisbon is the best Lisbon guide ever. It's not like, "In 19blahblahblah the king blah." It's a really nice book. It's not a novel, so read it in parts. It’s divided in districts, and it changes how you walk to the small districts, the small details. It's my favorite book about Lisbon.
You know where you should go, is Estrela da Bica. It's not traditional Portuguese, but Portuguese people go there. You have to go early--like at 8. Otherwise it will fill up completely. I've gone many times around 8:30 and they are already booked for the first night. It's very very good. Maybe go up the funicular, have a tea and look around, and then drop by early to book a table.
Illegal Chinese is very cool. In Mouraria, there are three. There's one that is really good. There is one that is horrible, it's awful, it’s so bad. Everything tastes the same because they just cook everything in the same sauce. But it's cheap, I guess. But when I went there I was like, I'm never coming back.
Which one is the bad one?
I don't know, they don't have names! They're just houses. You walk in and they have tables in the living room, the dining room, all the rooms. The last time, I went with four people, and there was just one little table for us in like, a tiny room.