As Portugal’s economy strengthens, more visitors are supporting restaurants old and new. Scattered across the Seven Hills, Lisbon’s azulejo-covered buildings (buildings covered in blue-and-white tiles) stack together forming countless arches through which the yellow eléctricos, or trams, pass, rickety over the cobblestones shiny with wear. The city’s transformation, immediately evident in the towering cranes to rival Manhattan (or Camps Bay) bending over these once-dilapidated buildings, transforming them into hotels or luxury apartments for short-term rentals, is fairly recent. Until 2015 Portugal was in the grip of an economic crisis after the catastrophic crash of 2010. One of the sectors to recover, hand in hand with tourism, has been the restaurant industry. Now it’s common to stand in two-hour queues at the height of summer for bowls of ceviche at chef Kiko Martin’s A Cevicheria in Príncipe Real’s hip Rua Dom Pedro V. Or to wait three months on a waiting list for a table at la...
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