I travel to Portugal far more often than my passport would suggest. One pour of twenty-year tawny Port, amber at the rim and smelling of orange peel and toasted walnuts, and I can see the rabelo boats rocking at their moorings in Vila Nova de Gaia. A spoonful of Serra da Estrela cheese takes me up into the mountains, where the air smells of woodsmoke and the stone villages close their shutters early against the cold. That is the quiet magic of Portuguese food. It carries you somewhere, and never more so than in late autumn and winter, when the whole country gathers around the table.
Where my love of food and wine began
My parents were both excellent chefs, and wine was always part of our table. My very first taste of alcohol was a glass of Champagne in Épinay, in France, with my first real food and wine pairing, and it has shaped the way I travel ever since. I travel slowly, I eat where the locals eat, and wherever I go, I try to book a cooking class.
My advice for your culinary trip to Portugal: do the same. Research the places recommended for personal, unhurried experiences, then check that research again. Ask where the locals eat. Those are almost always the best tables. If you are working with us we will confirm everything according to your travel style and needs.
Portugal’s food carries traces of the Jewish families who lived, cooked and kept their traditions here, sometimes in secret, for centuries. Today it is easier than ever to travel while kosher, and I share how below, along with pro tips from our partners at NONIUS Travel, who design private food and heritage journeys across Portugal.
Why November and the Holiday Season Are Great Times for a Culinary Trip to Portugal.
When clients ask me when to go to Portugal for the food, I say November. The harvest is in, the first new wine is being poured, and new olive oil runs green and peppery from the mills. On November 11, St Martin’s Day, villages roast chestnuts over open fires and hand them out hot in paper cones. The summer crowds are gone, the light turns soft and golden, and the evenings are cool enough for a long lunch. December is just as rewarding. This year Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday, December 4, and runs through December 12, when Lisbon and Porto are already glowing with winter lights. Lighting the menorah in a city where Jewish families once had to keep their faith behind closed doors is a moving way to spend the holiday, and Porto’s Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue and Lisbon’s Shaare Tikva Synagogue both welcome visitors.
NONIUS Pro Tip: If your dates are flexible, aim for the week around November 11. Many villages hold their own celebration, and you can join simply by turning up.
A week in Lisbon over Thanksgiving or Hanukkah can still come together this year. Reach out to me and I will see what is available. 
The Tasca, Where Portugal Actually Eats.
If you take one thing from this guide, let it be the tasca, the small family-run dining room where Portugal actually eats. Look for paper tablecloths, a handwritten menu and a kitchen no bigger than a closet. Grilled fish arrives blistered from the coals, a stew has been simmering since morning, and three generations share the next table with nobody in a hurry to leave. Many tascas are not kosher, but even travelers who keep kosher can enjoy the experience with a fish dish, and every visitor can learn from how Portugal eats: slowly, generously and together.
NONIUS Pro Tip: Go at lunchtime and order the prato do dia, the dish of the day. It is what the kitchen is proudest of and usually the best value on the menu.
The Regions on a Plate.
The Alentejo. Here you don’t order a meal so much as watch it arrive: warm bread, olives with garlic and oregano, sheep’s cheese, then small plate after small plate until lunch becomes the afternoon. NONIUS Pro Tip: the bread, olives and cheese placed on your table are not free, so ask for them to be taken away if you would rather save room.
Serra da Estrela and Belmonte. In Portugal’s highest mountains, winter is the season for Queijo Serra da Estrela, a sheep’s milk cheese so soft you eat it with a spoon. Just below the mountains lies Belmonte, home to a community that kept its Jewish traditions alive in secret for centuries. Its Jewish Museum tells their story, and Bet Eliahu Synagogue has served the community since 1996. The story is on the plate too. Families here made alheira, a sausage of chicken and bread, and hung it to dry in their windows like their neighbors’ pork sausages, so as not to draw suspicion. Today you will find alheira on menus across the country.
The North, in Lisbon. For caldo verde and hearty northern cooking without leaving the capital, NONIUS recommends A Gina, where regulars are greeted by name. Portions are generous, so order a meia dose, a half portion. 
Keeping Kosher in Portugal: Restaurants, Kosher Port and Wine Tours
A generation ago, keeping kosher in Portugal took real planning. Today Lisbon and Porto both have certified restaurants, kosher grocers and even kosher Port, so you can enjoy the table without compromise.
In Lisbon.
- Genesis Lisbon, Campo Pequeno. Israeli and Middle Eastern cooking, certified by both of the city’s rabbis, Rabbi Suiza of the Jewish Community of Lisbon and Rabbi Rosenfeld of Chabad Portugal. Closed on Shabbat.
- Kosher in Lisbon. One of my favorite ideas for a culinary traveler: kosher meals in a local family home, paired with guided tours of Jewish Lisbon.
- Portuel. A kosher grocery with stores in Lisbon and Vila Nova de Gaia, selling certified meat, poultry, prepared foods and wine.
In Porto
- Le J Restaurant. A casual kosher deli under the supervision of the Oporto Rabbinate, with burgers, schnitzel sandwiches and parve options.
- Kosher grocers: Club J Market and Portuel’s Gaia store. Hotel da Música’s kosher restaurant and Ibéria Kosher were temporarily closed this summer and are expected to reopen by the end of the year, so check the Porto Jewish community’s kashrut page before you travel.
Kosher Port and Wine Tours
- Porto Cordovero. Taylor’s kosher Port returned in 2026 after almost two decades, with a Ruby at about $27 and a Late Bottled Vintage. US kosher wine retailers such as KosherWine.com carry it, so you can taste it before you go.
- Quevedo. A family Port house that has made a Kosher Ruby Port since 2011, sold at its lodge on the Vila Nova de Gaia waterfront, where you can taste where it is made.
- A kosher Port tasting in Porto. Portoalities includes a kosher Port tasting on its private Jewish Heritage tour of Porto, from €290 for two.
My pro tip: Confirm certification directly with each restaurant before you go, since the Lisbon community itself recommends this, and book Shabbat meals well in advance. If you would rather not plan it all yourself, this is exactly what I arrange for clients. If you are booking through me I will check each activity and restaurant for you before making reservations.
The Holiday Season in Portugal.
From late November, Portugal glows. Lights are strung through Lisbon and Porto, the smell of roasted chestnuts drifts from street carts, and markets fill the squares with local cheese, honey and sweets made only at this time of year. Lisbon rings in the New Year with fireworks over the river at Praça do Comércio, Madeira’s New Year’s fireworks once set a Guinness World Record, and the Serra da Estrela usually opens for skiing in December. With the summer crowds gone, it is the perfect season to wander slowly.
NONIUS Pro Tip: Many traditional restaurants close early on December 24 and stay closed on the 25th, so plan and book your meals for those days well in advance.
Celebrating the Holidays in Portugal, Whatever Your Traditions
For observant families: Hanukkah in Portugal. Hanukkah 2026 begins at sundown on Friday, December 4, so the first night falls on Shabbat and the Hanukkah candles are lit before the Shabbat candles. Arrange your Shabbat meals ahead through the kosher options above. For services, Lisbon’s Shaare Tikva Synagogue has served the community since 1904, Porto’s Kadoorie Mekor Haim is the largest synagogue on the Iberian Peninsula, and Chabad Portugal runs the Avner Cohen Casa Chabad in Cascais, just outside Lisbon.
My pro tip: Pack a travel menorah, and ask your hotel before you arrive whether candles may be lit in your room or in a designated space. As your advisor I will sort this out for you in advance.
For blended families: Christmas in Portugal. If your family celebrates both holidays, Portugal makes it easy to honor each one. This year Hanukkah’s eight nights fall in early December, leaving the rest of the month for the Christmas lights of Lisbon and Porto, the markets, and the medieval town of Óbidos, which becomes a Christmas village that children love. Portuguese families celebrate on Christmas Eve with the Consoada, a feast of salt cod, rabanadas and the crown-shaped bolo-rei, so that is the night to book a special table. A December trip that begins with the menorah in Lisbon and ends among the Christmas markets gives everyone a holiday to remember.
2027: A Heritage and Culinary Journey for Your Group
For 2027, I am designing small-group journeys that bring Portugal’s Jewish heritage and its table together, because the two stories are deeply intertwined. A journey might look like this:
- Lisbon. Walk the old Jewish quarter of Alfama, visit Shaare Tikva Synagogue, opened in 1904, and share a kosher meal in a local family home.
- Tomar. See the 15th-century synagogue that now houses the Abraham Zacuto Luso-Hebraic Museum.
- Belmonte and the Serra da Estrela. Meet the story of the community that kept its traditions in secret for centuries, and taste the mountain cheese in its winter season.
- Porto and the Douro. Visit Kadoorie Mekor Haim, the largest synagogue on the Iberian Peninsula, finish with a kosher Port tasting in Vila Nova de Gaia, and slow down for a day in the Douro Valley.
Every meal can be arranged kosher, and Shabbat can be planned around the community in Lisbon or Porto. It is an ideal journey for synagogue groups, families marking a milestone, or friends who want to travel with meaning. Tell me about your group and I will design it around you. 
Come Hungry
If I could give you only one piece of advice, it is the one NONIUS gives every guest: don’t over-plan your meals. Book one or two special tables and leave room for the lunch someone insists you stay for. Ask the people you meet where they eat. In Portugal, that question is always taken as a compliment. Whether it is a last-minute November escape, Hanukkah in Lisbon or a 2027 heritage and culinary journey, I would love to plan your Portuguese table. Contact me at Dream Destinations Travel.
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This is where the trip actually comes 
together. NONIUS DMC, Portugal’s destination specialists, hold relationships with venues in every region and a full bench of trusted suppliers (planners, photographers, florists, musicians, private drivers), with one point of contact who stays with you from your very first question through the last dance. Here’s how easy this is: you book with me. I’ll help you choose the region, the season, and the shape of the week, and then NONIUS finishes the trip, guiding you and every guest through it on the ground in Portugal, so nothing is left to chance and nothing falls on you. A trip, not a night. An experience, not a venue. Let’s start planning it. bookings@noniustravel.com, https://www.instagram.com/noniustravel
