A Merendeira: Where to Find Delicious and Affordable Portuguese Fast Food in Lisbon

LI Sam

Follow

Published in

Rokkorxblog

5 min readMay 2, 2023

--

For 6.8 Euros, you can experience the most authentic Portuguese food… Chorizo bread, traditional potato and vegetable soup, rice pudding, beer, and hot coffee. For the author, this is an excellent experience to taste authentic Portuguese fast food at the price of a McDonald’s combo meal.

A Merendeira

Location: Av. 24 de Julho 54G, 1200–868 Lisboa (Map)
Time : 11 AM — 7 AM
https://amerendeira.com/
Transportation: There are many public buses, such as 15E / 728 / 732 / 760, outside the Cais do Sodré train station, which can take you to your destination in two or three stops. If you walk, it takes about 10 minutes. Santos train station is only a 2–3 minute walk away.

There are two more branches; please refer to the official website for more details.
https://amerendeira.com/restaurantes/

A Merendeira’s history began in 1989 and has gone through two generations of hard work, always maintaining low-priced and high-quality authentic Portuguese fast food.

The reason why the author frequents A Merendeira, besides its good food quality and high cost-performance ratio, is due to the frequent strikes of Portuguese trains, especially during lunchtime. Often, one has to arrive at the train station to find out that the next train is in 40 minutes or an hour or two later. The best way to wait is to have a traditional Portuguese fast food meal at A Merendeira. From buying tickets to getting food and finishing the meal, it can be done in 20–30 minutes, allowing one to catch the next train. A Merendeira is located very close to Santos train station, only a 2–3 minute walk away. Therefore, eating at A Merendeira may become one of the author’s memories/comfort food in Lisbon.

The following images are taken by the author or from the official website.

The food offered in the restaurant has limited options, but the prices are very affordable. A chorizo sandwich with a drink costs between 4–5.5 euros. These prices are from the official website in 2022, and the latest prices may have increased by around 0.5 euros per meal. The restaurant also offers meat sandwiches, vegetable sandwiches, codfish sandwiches, mixed sandwiches (cheese/ham), and crispy bread.

As the restaurant only focuses on two or three food items and there is a large lunchtime crowd, the food can maintain a certain level of freshness, and the taste is quite good. Considering the price, it is already above average. If you manage your expectations, you will be much happier. For this price, you can enjoy a hot and delicious chorizo sandwich, traditional potato and vegetable soup, which is enough to fill you up and keep you going for the day.

The restaurant operates on a self-service basis where customers queue up to order their food. A Merendeira basically serves chorizo sandwich and potato and vegetable soup, and most of the food is already pre-made. After paying, you can usually get your food in just a few minutes. By Portuguese standards, this is already lightning-fast.

The chorizo sandwich is cooked using a charcoal oven, and if you arrive during lunchtime, the bread is usually freshly baked as well.

The chorizo sandwich is made by hand with plenty of ingredients, and every bite is filled with chorizo sausage.

The author usually takes a photo and shows it to the staff to tell them which lunch set they want to order. The latest price is 6.8 euros for the lunch set.

The indoor dining area can seat around 50–60 people, and about 20–30 seats are available outdoors. The place is relatively clean, and the service is self-service.

For Portuguese/European people, lunch usually consists of a croissant and a hot coffee/beer/red wine. Portuguese people like to go to cafes and small shops to eat pork cutlet sandwiches and pork and cheese sandwiches.

The author has visited A Merendeira more than ten times, and it has become one of their favourite fast food restaurants. The author usually chooses the 6.8 euro lunch set. If you don’t want rice pudding or hot coffee, you can get a chorizo sandwich, potato and vegetable soup, and beer/coke for only 5.5 euros, which is quite affordable and practical.

Super Bock is a local beer in Portugal, but the author prefers Sagres more.

The author is already a fan of A Merendeira, and their chorizo sandwich and potato and vegetable soup have become their comfort food in Lisbon, Portugal. As the restaurant is open from 11 AM to 7 AM the next day, A Merendeira is also a popular place for locals to gather and chat over a chorizo sandwich and beer for the whole night. If you want to experience authentic Portuguese local food, A Merendeira is a good choice.

The photos in the article are modified from TCP The Classic Film Presets 2021:

2021 Photo Reviews w TCP Classic Film Presets 2021

This year has been a very prolific year, with an excellent number of shots, but of course, it was still a trial run, a…

medium.com

You can also get a rebate from ME through Affiliate links…
https://theclassicpresets.com/?ref=o71q594tf2
Use Coupon Code “ Rokkorx” for 15% off when paying