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    Bessa

    4.5 (35 reviews)

    Bessa Photos

    BESSA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Dogs allowed

    Recommended Reviews - Bessa

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    Reviews With Photos

    Tâm T.

    I ordered bacalhau a bras, the seafood soup and a green wine. They were all good, especially this is my first time trying the codfish dish and really amazed me. Super nice with the green wine. For the heat of Lisbon this meal was awesome. Just the seafood soup didnt have much seafood in it only one shrimp and 2 mussels. Staff was nice! Gave me ginjinha at the end of the meal! Love that it feels like a family run business, home cooked meal.

    Amber S.

    Excellent shrimp appetizer that I had as my meal. Perfectly cooked, delicious sauce to dip my bread and potatoes in. The baccalau a bris was also a solid 4. They offered complimentary ginja at the end which was a nice touch. Service was stellar and atmosphere was quaint and clean. Not a tourist trap, IMO. Excellent highly recommended to all.

    Grilled octopus
    Darby C.

    We enjoyed an amazing meal at Bessa this evening in Lisboa. This restaurant is located on a smaller street in Praca da Figueira. The owner welcomes you at the door and they treat you like family. The servers are mostly young asians that speak fluent English. We ordered the grilled sea bass "Robalo" €18.20 and the grilled octopus "Polvo a Lagareiro €20.90. Both dishes were really good. The sea bass was grilled nicley with crispy skin served with boiled potatoes and veggies. The octopus was also really good and they give you two large tentacles. The dish presentation was also pretty nice. We also enjoyed a small draft beer which was refreshing and well balanced. The menu is simple enough but still plenty of options to choose. There's grilled meat, paella, risotto, and pasta dishes as well. I will definitely come back for a second visit to try some of their other dishes. 5/5 overall.

    Bacalhau a bras
    Victoria S.

    Restaurant was very close to where we were staying. Menu had good seafood options (as well as vegetarian). Overall vibe was cozy and warm. Servers were very helpful in answering our menu questions. Prices are moderate. I ordered the bacalhau a bras, an old-school Portuguese-style codfish dish with potatoes and egg. The meal was served in cast-iron dish and came out piping hot. The codfish was plentiful, could taste the tender salted fish in every bite. The potatoes and creamy eggs balanced the bacalhau well. Onions and olives also rounded it out. It was a very filling meal, but wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. After the dinner dishes were cleared the staff offered us complimentary Port wine to taste. We both got the red. It was simultaneouly sweet and strong, a perfect way to end a great meal.

    Menu, Sep 1, 2024
    Dan D.

    An honest-to-god seafood restaurant serving regional dishes. Yummy, friendly, and tourist-friendly: Fully half the visitors on our Sunday night dinner were Asian, and the front of house is all confident in their English. My mom's paella craving was finally satisfied here: the rice was al dente, thick, and textured. I went light by ordering the seafood soup, and was happy to find and savor the well-developed, briny stock. The portions were a healthy size. I didn't see any diners who hadn't cleaned their plates. If you're looking for seafood options that go beyond the Portuguese standards, you should stop in!

    Bread
    Ryan M.

    Came and got the clams in garlic butter and wine sauce for an appetizer. It was amazing I got some bread to sop up all the sauce. The octopus was tender and came with sauted vegetables and some potatoes. They explained that it was braised, grilled then cooked in olive oil again. Youzin was a great server I had a great time Overall a great meal.

    Isabella L.

    Quality of food, service, and atmosphere are all perfect! Complimentary cherry wine at the end was the final highlight! Reasonable price as well.

    Lis Z.

    I would say this is the best sea bass I have had! Excellent cooked and it is so refresh. Mussels are also very flavorful. They recommended a white wine to go with the fish. . The restaurant has a big room to hold many people. And we had the window seat which is perfect.

    Fonseca red wine and white wine recommended by the server
    Brij C.

    Not a lot of vegetarian options, only vegetarian option I could find was Risotto. However, it was good. I was just bored eating risotto as the only vegetarian option at most of the Portugal restaurants. The staff here was very knowledgeable in the accommodated me with my dietary needs. The Bangladesi server we had knew the wines very well and recommended us the local wines based on our taste. He also gave us the Port Wine sampler on the house. Overall, it was a very good experience for me.

    Andy L.

    I tried the Octopus at Bessa in Lisbon for lunch a while ago. The dish changed my opinion of octopus...First of all, I didn't think octopus can be so tender (as if a knife wouldn't be needed). The sauce was rich, the veggies were refreshing, and both complemented the dish (sauce added extra flavour and veggies added an extra crunch). Service was great as well in that they suggested I stay inside after my meal as it was raining pretty hard then. Overall, I'd give it 9/10

    Black paella - the seafood was perfectly cooked
    Greg L.

    Wonderful local restaurant. The owner greeted us while the attentive staff gave us suggestions of what would be a good local dish to introduce us to Portuguese food. The seafood looks fantastic!

    Tracy L.

    A delicious and truly phenomenal dining experience! From the dishes to the service to the ambiance. I visited from California back in November 2023 and this entire experience was nothing short of amazing. Food: I ordered the garlic clams as a starter and the seafood "stew" as a main. The clams were plentiful and cooked in a white wine sauce with garlic and lemon. The seafood stew (which is one of their more popular main dishes), was a hearty dish with mussels, shrimp, squid, clams - mixed with rice and a savory red sauce that was packed with rich, flavor that balanced so well with the seafood.Both dishes did not skimp in terms of portion and the seafood quality was fresh; the sauces made perfect to each dish. Service: I believe my server was Krishna - she was extremely kind, warm, and informative! And she recommended the seafood "stew." The entire staff was extremely friendly. I would definitely recommend this to friends or family visiting Lisbon - a must go-to spot for an amazing price.

    Mixed Paella
    Tess B.

    Food is very good. Their paella is very good. Service is okay but if your going to order paella it takes abt 30 mins to 40 mins to cook so you have to wait. The spagetti bolognese is also very good. My son ate it twice. This restaurant is close to the Santa Justa Elevator. Ambiance is very nice.

    Paella Valencia plates, clams in white wine sauce, grilled sea bass.  All so yummy!!!!

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    5 months ago

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    10 months ago

    Loved this place! Food was wonderful! Atmosphere was wonderful! Really friendly staff! I would come back!

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    3 years ago

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    2 years ago

    Good food, good service, and a decent amount of tables, so your odds of getting in are greater than some other smaller places.

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    2 years ago

    Traditional Portuguese restaurant, Well decorated, nice and clean. Decent service. Perfect place for nice food.

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    3 years ago

    Our server named Prabhat was very kind and knowledgeable. We appreciated his service. The food was some of the best we had so far.

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    15 years ago

    very good food but the treatment does not like me to

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    Review Highlights - Bessa

    We were immediately greeted by Prabhat who explained all of the menu options.

    Mentioned in 3 reviews

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    Restaurante Duque - amazing sea rice

    Restaurante Duque

    4.6(302 reviews)
    0.3 kmRossio - Baixa - Chiado, Chiado
    €€

    Fresh seafood and reasonable prices. Settled on a hilly street . Make sure to try the octopus…read moresalad for a real treat . Good service and fresh food make this place worth a try

    The restaurant is away from tourist neighbor. But I suspect its target customers are tourists…read more They play American pop music all night long which is fine with me, but if you are looking for a local experience, this may not what you expected. Pastries de Bacalhau - the crust was not brown enough. May be longer time. The stuffing was flavorful but it's more the cod taste than the flavored mash potatoes which I prefer. I actually prefer the other local restaurant I tried the night before better. Caldo Verde - The potatoe part of the soup is great. Perfect viscosity but the flavor is not. It wasn't salty enough but more importantly is the flavor of the veggies and the spicy sausage they supposed to use that makes the soup taste different. Grilled giant pawns - The flavor of the prawns is not as intense as expected and hope to be. The squid ink pasta also lacked of flavor. That's disappointing. With the prawns, they should at least use the prawn shell to make sauce for the pastas. The pasta was tasteless, didn't even use enough garlic and olive oil to flavor it up. Seafood rice - Another disappointment. They used fish, small mussels and little bit of shrimp pieces along with some bigger whole shrimps and mussels. However, the rice was lack of the true seafood flavor that made from shell fish. They also added cilantro which overwhelmed the whatever left of seafood flavor. The lemonade was not a sweet lemonade but sour. Fyi. It's not fair we just went to another restaurant in the neighborhood and everything was so much better but people should know.

    Photos
    Restaurante Duque - Full

    Full

    Restaurante Duque - Delicious grilled octopus- caramelized onion and garlic in olive oil

    Delicious grilled octopus- caramelized onion and garlic in olive oil

    Restaurante Duque - House bread

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    House bread

    Bessa - restaurants - Updated July 2026

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