Time Out Market

Welcome to one of Europe's oldest food markets, a place that has fed this riverside city for over 700 years. The building you see here in Cais do Sodré started as an open air fish market back in the 1200s, when fishermen sold their daily catch straight from the Tagus. By the 1600s, this market had become one of the continent's most famous trading hubs.

The current iron structure with its striking oriental dome opened in 1882 as Mercado 24 de Julho, where generations of vendors sold fresh fish, produce, and flowers under the grand ceiling. The market nearly disappeared. By 2000, business had dried up and the neighborhood fell into neglect. But in 2014 came an unexpected revival. Time Out magazine won the bid to transform half the space, handpicking 26 restaurants and 8 bars run by the city's best chefs and chosen by food critics.

The transformation worked brilliantly. Traditional fish vendors still arrive at 6am, selling to local chefs who shop here daily. At 10am, the food hall opens with communal tables that fill quickly with people sampling everything from grilled octopus to custard tarts. This reinvention earned the 2018 Hamburg Foodservice Award, Europe's top honor in gastronomy.