When our hotel porter informed us that there would be a long wait for this seafood extravaganza we thought he was exaggerating a tad. However, he insisted that if we were in Lisbon we had to try Cervejaria Ramiroo which was according to him and other recommendation the best place for seafood in the whole of Portugal.

When we arrived on the street for the restaurant we saw the queue and growled a tad but never the less attached ourselves to the end and watched the tank of langoustines they had placed in the window for the ques entertainment. We waited for 45mins in total and we can confirm it was worth it.

This place is not about the frills but truly about the freshest seafood Portugal has to offer at a ridiculously cheap price. The restaurant is cramped and the service is manic but you soon forget these things once you finally taste the fresh seafood.

We ordered clams in garlic sauce, edible crab, oysters and garlic bread. Cervejaria Ramiro blew our minds and souls, the crab was the juiciest crab we have ever tasted and fellow customers didn’t mind my crab shells flying onto them, it was a whole lot of fun. You may start your meal trying to be dainty but five minutes in you are up to your elbows in ripping meat and deshelling, DEFINATELY not a sexy dine but a fun experience with friends or if you don’t mind getting down and dirty with a loved one.

I originally thought garlic bread could only be made well by an Italian but boy were we wrong. Cervejaria Ramiro had the best garlic bread we have ever tasted. An odd combination as it sounds with seafood but it worked really well with the flavours.

For the first meal we had on our trip to Portugal it was fun and fabulous. Well being us we then had to find places to beat it.

Star Rating: *****

Cervejaria Ramiro
Av. Almirante Reis nº1 – H, 1150-007 Lisboa, Portugal
www.cervejariaramiro.pt