Mercado de Arroios — Attraction in Lisbon

Being a big fan of the markets in my former home of Barcelona I was keen to check out the Lisbon equivalents. This was the nearest market to my initial landing accommodation so off I went.

The market building is enormous and was probably the hub of the community in years gone by, now it is probably about 30% full of traders with a generally ageing clientele and, I guess, a shadow of its former glory. That saying you can pick up pretty much all of your fresh fish, meat, vegetable, olives, bread and cheese needs at better prices than the supermarket.

The stallholders were generally very welcoming on my first trip, despite my lack of Portuguese and I continue to this day to go back, despite the (now) 20 minute walking time, and support those stall holders who made me feel at home and gave me a generous welcome and good service.

The vegetables and fruits are seasonal and largely "ugly" compared to the supermarket equivalents but if you ask for recommendations then the flavour will be so much better and there are still items, mainly greens, that I still don't know what they are! I generally found the fruit and veg to be 30% cheaper than the supermarkets. My only gripe is with the meat on offer, despite the tasting sessions I haven't found a stall with great jamon, morcilla and chorizo - certainly not comparable to the Spanish offerings but there is a great selection of cheese and I've made some great discoveries on that front with regular tasting sessions.

As well as the produce to cook there are also several shops, restaurants and cafes on the outside of the building and a couple of the eateries look particularly good - I'll report on them when I try them - you'll spot them easily enough if you look.

One word of warning though! There is one fruit and veg seller on the inner ring who ripped me and another tourist off when I first arrived, you will spot them as they have the most attractive stand in the market with quite a few "foreign" and unseasonable items. I was aware and queried the price with him as I was over paying when I gave him €2 for a small bunch of mint, the same time as he was charging a French guy €4 for two small bunches of herbs. I now take great pleasure in walking past him with my full bags of shopping and saying hello without stopping every time I go. He may have earned an extra euro from me one time but won't be receiving any of the hundreds of euro's I will be giving the other stall holders in the...

For me being Asian i loved this market because this market has many fresh seasonal vegetables and beans which I couldn’t sometimes find in the other market so I loved coming here at least twice a month or once a month I visited this market though it’s very pricey compared to the other fruits ,fish and vegetables markets.. but anyone who come here would be just cared when you pay and got your change back please don’t forget to check it .. I usually don’t like to check or count the change after paying but I always come how and check how much did I spent here how much have I spend for today and stuff so it happened to me twice already when I buy fish eggs half kilo when about to pay I asked how much the lady said 7 euros I paid 10 and got only 2 euros back this was just a year ago and today when I buy bean and spinach he gave me the bill 7 then I give 20 notes and the man gave me back the changed €2.20+10 notes he cheated 0.80 cents so guys please be aware .I came from India and my people in India do the same thing whenever we pay if we don’t count and noticed they will pretend like they don’t know or it had it a mistake so I find the people here in these market are nothing difference with my people from back home .. but to be honest i will say just this few people from the market are cheaters I’m okay with others they are very...

This market is only 15 min walk from us - one of Lisbon's coolest neighbourhoods. Due to the international crowd that has moved to this part of town the market and the whole square have changed radically for the better with a good selection of international and Portuguese restaurants, cafes and bars. And even the market itself has improved considerably in the last year with vegetable shops with assortment of vegetables, fruit, herbs, seeds etc you can't find elsewhere - same with the fish stalls. BONUS: Bring your kids - the centre of the circular mercado has a big...