Time Out Market

Time Out Market occupies part of Mercado da Ribeira, the large covered market opposite Cais do Sodré station. Food counters surround long communal tables beneath a lofty iron roof. It is a useful place to eat when everyone wants something different, with a traditional produce market elsewhere in the same building.

The pleasure here is in choosing. You can look at several menus before deciding, order from different counters and bring everything back to the same table. A full meal works well, but so does a smaller stop for a snack and something sweet. Before settling in, look up at the roof and step outside to see the market's clock and dome. The building gives the food hall a sense of occasion that a row of restaurants would struggle to match.

Come for an informal meal with plenty of choice, especially if you are travelling with friends or children whose tastes differ. The busy shared hall suits sociable lunches better than a quiet conversation over dinner.

Mercado da Ribeira opened in 1882, giving the food trade near the river a purpose-built covered home. It became a major supply market for Lisbon, handling fish, fruit, vegetables and flowers. The market's scale makes more sense when you remember that it served the needs of a whole city, rather than simply the surrounding neighbourhood.

Its wholesale role ended with the opening of the regional wholesale market outside Lisbon at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Retail trading continued at Ribeira. This helps explain the two experiences within the building: shopping for ingredients in the traditional market and eating prepared food in the much newer dining hall.

Time Out Portugal opened its food hall here in 2014. The magazine's editorial team selected the businesses for a project intended to bring its recommendations together in a physical space. The format has since travelled to other cities, but this was the first Time Out Market. The nineteenth-century building remains an important part of what distinguishes the Lisbon original.