Restaurante Marco — Restaurant in Lisbon

A bit of history first then about our experience with the restaurant:-) Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich named by Daniel da Silva in the early 50s. Silva, a Portuguese emigrant to France worked as a cook for a restaurant called A Regaleira in Porto after he returned to his country. Here he began to serve his interpretation of Croque Monsieur. It got very popular & spread across Portugal. This is only one of the theories though^^ The sandwich is made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage such as chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with melted cheese & a hot, thick spiced tomato-beer sauce. And served with french fries. We had it first in here and loved it! It’s a huge meal so not exactly breakfast but more like a lunch or dinner. The french fries were also very tasty. I almost finished the whole plate. A cold beer goes perfectly well with...

Before coming here, we'd done research online to find a restaurant with Portuguese dishes. We didn't make a reservation, but when we arrived there was enough room for us. The restaurant has an indoor and outdoor seating area, with many places. The staff was incredibly nice and they all spoke English very well.

The menu had multiple vegetarian dishes. They didn't have any vegan options, but I ordered the Frade salad without tuna without any problems. The salad was lovely and really big! I especially liked the chickpeas. It was served with olive oil, salt and pepper on the side so I could season it to taste. The franceshinas that my company ordered were also very delicious. Great value for the price, as the franceshinas themselves were filling and had fries on the side as well. We spent roughly €20 on a main meal and...

After looking online for authentic Francesinha, I came across Restaurante Marco which had good reviews. We were the only customers at the time since we were there after lunch and before dinner. The service was excellent while we dined outdoors. Our waiter recommended a fantastic Sangria with Passion Fruit - a must try! It was my first time trying the historic Portuguese Francesinha sandwich, and although it was good - I'm not sure I would order it again. With all of the various meats (Ham, Chorizo and Roast Beef) plus cheese and sauce - it was hard to distinguish flavors with all of the competing components. The sauce had a hint of spice and a smooth texture. It was alot to finish! Restaurant Marco is definitely...