Il Mulino, Ristorante Pizzeria in Lisbon, Portugal

I love fish and seafood in general and Lisbon is certainly the great place for that, however half way through our week in Lisbon, I was already feeling 'fished out'.  So, we decided to go for a pizza instead.

To be honest, we have been to 2 pizzerias in Lisbon in the past and we were really disappointed so I almost not bothered. I quickly did some homework, checking on TripAdvisor that seems to give good reviews so we decided to try this restaurant, Il Mulino (http://ilmulinolisboa.com), which is just off a square called Praca dos Restauradores. 

The location is perfect for us as our hotel is very near to this restaurant. There are lots of restaurants in this area, unfortunately most of them also hassle tourists to come into their restaurants to the extent that you can't walk without being approached by hard-sellers every 3 meters. This can really put you off; best to avoid eye contacts with them. My husband just put his hand on his stomach, indicating that he has already eaten or is already full and they just walk away.

Well, amongst such chaos, this restaurant does not hassle you at all.  The place was already busy but we were lucky to get a table without any booking.

Mulino means Mill in Italian ... that's why there is a drawing of a mill house on the wall...

 

Anyway, although we were fished out, we still like clams in garlic and wine so we ordered that along with a mixed salad for starters.

Clams came in a big pot - enough to share for two.

I know it's only a vinegar however I find Portuguese white wine vinegar tastes much milder than the one we get in UK, which is perfect for salad dressing. I think Portuguese white wine vinegar makes the salad refreshingly tasty.  I took a mental note to remember that I buy a bottle to take it home with me.

For main course we both ordered vegetable pizzas.  Pizza dough was light and crispy around the edges; it's just a normal vegetable pizza but we really enjoyed it.

The pizza was nice with chilli oil .....

We finished our meal with an Espresso....

Well, we really enjoyed our dinner - apart from clams, nice change from fish and traditional Portuguese dishes.  I saw a group of Italian family leaving the restaurant, giving some compliments to their waiter. If Italian thinks it good, the food here must be good....  I found their service was quire efficient, professional, courteous and friendly too.

Stepping outside the restaurant, you brace yourself to fend off all those hard-sellers again to go back to the hotel. Despite that, every restaurant now seems to be very busy with customers so their hard-selling tactics must be working after all....  It does give bustling and buzzing atmosphere which is interesting too to experience. Yes, we are on holiday in Lisbon. We just walk through the crowd with our hand lightly on our stomachs whenever hard sellers coming to our ways....

That's all forks!