Sintra's kitchen runs on convent sugar and Atlantic salt: flaky travesseiros folded with almond cream, cinnamon queijadas sold since the 1750s, and the phylloxera-surviving Colares vineyards planted in dune sand a few kilometres west. Three days of eating downhill from the Serra to the sea.
The 1862 bakery where the travesseiro was invented — a puff-pastry 'pillow' of egg-and-almond cream, baked in batches all morning. Order at the marble counter, eat standing with a bica. Open 09:00-19:00, closed Wednesdays.
Family-run since 1756, selling nothing but queijadas de Sintra — small crisp-crusted tarts of fresh sheep's cheese, sugar and cinnamon, sold in paper-wrapped rolls of six. The recipe predates the palaces above.
A stone-stepped petiscos tasca off the main street doing Portuguese small plates: peixinhos da horta, alheira croquettes, black-pork presa and grilled chouriço. Terrace tables sit on the staircase itself.
Sintra's municipal market hall, busiest on the second and fourth Sunday of each month when the feira brings Serra cheese, Azeitão sheep's cheese, dried figs, Colares wine and Atlantic fish from Ericeira boats.
The 1931 cooperative cellar for the Colares DOC, whose ungrafted Ramisco and Malvasia vines grow in deep dune sand that phylloxera could never cross. Cellar tours pass concrete lagares and barrels holding wines aged a decade.
Built into the cliff below the white village of Azenhas do Mar, with a saltwater tidal pool beneath the windows. Whole sea bass and robalo are sold by weight from the ice counter and grilled over charcoal.
Beachfront kitchen above Praia Grande doing arroz de marisco in the pan for two, grilled sardines in summer and caldeirada. Big Atlantic swell views; the surf school crowd fills it by 15:00.
José Avillez's Sintra room inside Casa Holstein below Pena, serving his signature bacalhau à Brás com gema, ceviche and Iberian pork with a compact list of Colares and Lisboa-region wines.
The working bakehouse behind the shopfront, where queijada dough is rolled paper-thin by hand each dawn. Pair a warm tray with a galão and watch the cinnamon go in — the ratio is unchanged since the 18th century.
A seafront marisqueira at the mouth of the Ribeira de Colares, serving percebes (goose barnacles) prised off these same cliffs, ameijoas à Bulhão Pato and gambas al ajillo at tiled counter tables.
The 1904 electric tram from Sintra ends here beside a row of beach bars pouring Portuguese craft beer and ginjinha in chocolate cups. Sardine and bifana stalls run along the seafront through summer evenings.
Back in town, the narrow bakers' street shifts from pastry to petiscos after dark: cured presunto, Serra da Estrela cheese spooned from the rind, vinho verde and Colares tinto by the glass under the palace chimneys.