Salmon burger in chocolate bun at Time Out Mercado da Ribeira - Gourmet food hall in Lisbon, Portugal

We are in Lisbon right now.  Yesterday we went to market, Mercado da Ribeira, near ferry terminal, Cais do Sodre. Why did we go there ... because there is gourmet food hall in it.

With its roots dating back to the 13th century, the market is selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and flowers for decades every morning except Sunday. In 2010 the city council was seeking bids to manage a large part of the premises and Time Out Lisbon magazine won the bid and turned that into  a big canteen-style gourmet food hall which opens every day from 10am to midnight or up to 2am Thursday to Saturday.

According to their information, at least 2 out of 14 Portuguese Michelin Star restaurants have food stalls in the food hall here; they are saying that if it's good, it goes in the Time Out magazine. If it's great, it goes on to the Market!

We first of all had a look around the market. It was just before lunch time so the place was not busy; I am sure it would have been bustling with shoppers looking for fresh ingredients if it were a good few hours earlier...

 

What are these ....???

After having looked around, we then went into Time Out food hall to see what you can eat for lunch...

The place is big and spacious ...

We sat at one of the empty tables and had a cup of coffee first, just to soak into the atmosphere.

... then ponder what to eat for lunch; there are so many choices to make ...

Ok, we don't eat meat but I thought it is interesting to take pictures of these ...

 

There are also gourmet burgers, sushi, Thai, tapas, seafood, pizza, ice cream, cakes, chocolate ... everything... as well as beer, wine, gin, cocktails, coffee, juice ....

Also selling tinned fish ...

 

 

... and what did we have here?  I found a place where you can get Burguer de Salmao e Choco or Salmon Burger in a Chocolate Bun at O Prego da Peixaria. 

Salmon burger in a chocolate flavoured bun????  Very intriguing and I got to try it.

Well, it turned out that this is rather a delicious burger. It was well seasoned, with bit of salad leaves, chopped tomatoes and coriander. To be honest, I could not taste much of chocolate from the bun, however perhaps just as well.  Still, it was much much better and tastier than how I had imagined.  I saw many people having some Thai noodle stuff with some seafood from Asian Lab, which looked delicious. Also see many people getting sushi and sashimi too...

Anyway, by the time we finished and leaving the food hall, the place got really busy and there were not much tables left to sit at.  Best to go there before 12.00 noon, I think.

Anyway, it was an interesting place to be, to see and to eat some good Portuguese modern food. The price is not too bad neither. I think the coffee was less than 1 euro. Salmon burger was 7.50 euro which is around £5.50, which was a really good price considering the size of the burger with lots of salmon it it.  Considering it's right next to the market, I imagine that all the stalls would use fresh ingredients or that's how I would like to think. After all they are meant to have been vetted by the Time Out Lisbon. The place seems to be popular with both locals and tourists.

Anyway, that's all forks!