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A Baîuca
A special place with fado vadio, when anyone can take a turn. On a good night it's packed with locals, with hissing if people dare make noise during the singing. The food is simple and tasty; fado goes on until midnight, food stops around . Reserve ahead.
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A Ginginha
Near Largo de São Domingos there are several tiny bars serving up medicinal sized shots of Ginginha , a potent, punch-packing cherry brandy. The most popular such joint is A Ginginha, which has been inebriating locals and visitors since around 1840. You can take your medicine com (with) or sem (without) cherries... most folk prefer cough syrup! Try it once.
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A Lontra
Near Bairro Alto, this place hosts an eclectic, mainly African-Portuguese clientele bumping and grinding to African sounds, R&B, hip-hop and house. It fills up about and stays open late.
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Adega do Ribatejo
Catching a fado performance is a 'must-do' for visitors to Lisbon. These operatic folk songs about love, death and longing can be enthralling - in the right atmosphere. Adega do Ribatejo is one place where the fado is often excellent. The food's nice too and it's hard not to like a place where the chef belts out a few tunes.
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Adega Machado
Filipe de Arajo Machado runs this fado house, started by his fadista mother and father. Clientele is largely groups, but there is a good and lively atmosphere.
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Adega Mesquita
A long-established fado house, with singers and folk dancers.
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Bar Água No Bico
A cheerful, gay-friendly place with rotating art exhibitions.
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Bar Americano
Across the road from the British Bar, this place is similarly classic. It dates back to the 1920s.
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Bar das Imagens
Set with outdoor tables overlooking a lovely stretch of the city, this friendly bar serves potent caipirinhas and other nicely prepared cocktails. Jazz plays in the background.
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Bar do Rio
Intimate, funky and on its lonesome at Cais do Sodré, Bar do Rio is worth hitting for a drink before heading to Lux. Get there too late and it might seem like too much of an effort if it's crowded, but the staff are friendly and relaxed. Good soul, funk and house.
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Bar Marroquino
The Arabian Nights-inspired 'Moroccan Bar' provides a cosy setting for smoking banana- or cherry-flavoured tobacco out of large waterpipes. Look for the blue lantern out the front.
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Bar Snob
This one is a favourite watering hole (serving meals until about ) for shift workers, night owls, journalists and the advertising crowd. A good mixture of red-eyed desperados and storytellers, biding time before the sun comes up and it's time to clock on once more.
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Belém Bar Café
About 1.5km west of the Docas mayhem, this slinky riverside spot brings a well-dressed and strait-laced crowd, with DJs spinning a mix of house, hip-hop and R&B.
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Bicaense
Out of the main action, this place has so-hip-it-hurts clientele. It's dimly lit and decked with old radios and projectors; the back room is used for occasional live music.
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Blues Café
This long-standing, popular bar/restaurant/club offers up deep south ambience, Cajun food and 30-something mating rituals. Weeknights the bar serves up decent drinks and on weekends the disco serves up a mix of Latin, dancefloor hits and cringe-worthy '80s throwbacks.
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British Bar
Resembling an early-20th-century railway bar, this bottle-lined bar has old-fashioned clientele and a backwards clock. There's even a resident shoe shiner.
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Buddha Bar
This big multilevel club is the best of the bunch out in Docas. Buddha statues and other Near Eastern props (red lanterns, gauzy curtains, fountains) decorate the space. Good DJs, a fun dance-happy crowd and that breezy outdoor terrace with bridge views makes it rather worthwhile.
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Café In
About 1km west of Doca de Santo Amaro, Café In offers good views of the bridge from either the riverside terrace of the all-glass bar inside. DJs spin ambient tunes for a fairly well-dressed crowd.
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Café Suave
This unpretentious place attracts a hip, laid-back crowd more interested in conversation than getting blitzed. Minimalist artwork and friendly staff.
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Capela
This atmospheric former chapel hosts experimental electronica and occasional house. Get there early (before midnight) to appreciate the DJs before the crowds descend.
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Catacombas Jazz Bar
This bar has live jazz on Thursday night, and on other nights its small rooms, tables and chairs are packed. It's a relaxed place to be, and not as self-consciously trendy as some bars.
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Centro Comercial Colombo
Mall with cinema multiplex with all the blockbusters.
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Centro Cultural de Belém
Hosts classical concerts and ballets, as well as regular free music and dance performances. Everything during its day-long Festa da Primavera (Spring Festival) in March is also free.
