Eating in Portugal - looking for breakfast and non-seafood ideas

Try sea bream. It’s a mild white fish, kind of like Branzino. The Portuguese chefs love potatoes and they do roast potatoes very well. In my opinion, green salads are not very prevalent unless you seek out a restaurant focusing on salads/vegetables.

Go to a produce/farmers market and try some papaya, mango or oranges. I had the most delicious fresh squeezed OJ from a roadside stand near Sagres / Algarve. Happy travels and exploring the Portuguese food culture.

Ooh, I do love a good orange. Yum. And I'm always drawn into a farmers market. Hope I come across some.

Also, while in Lisbon, check out the TimeOut Market for a wide variety of food in a great hall. Here is the website

https://www.timeout.com/time-out-market-lisboa

One thing to consider, is that many of the supermarkets have hot food counters where you can get a meal and drink for around 10 euro. The tourist places can get expensive, but the markets sell to locals and are priced accordingly.

Breakfast has become trendy in the last few years so the bigger cities will have breakfast places with full English breakfast and American breakfasts - minus what we call bacon. Portuguese people (especially older ones) eat a simple pastry and coffee. Toast with butter is big, as are toasta mista - ham and cheese sandwich- which are quite good. No one other than obvious tourists eat ‘along the way’. You will really stick out if you walk down the street eating anything other than ice cream.

Robalo and Dorada are the big fish here. They are sea bream and sea bass ( not like sea bass in the U.S.). Both are delicious. You won’t find halibut and the cod is bacalhau (dried cod, which is huge here). Salmon is common. Bacalhau is not something I enjoy but it’s served many, many ways, so you might give it a try. Prawns are everywhere, scallops more rare. The prawns are very good as they are caught in the Algarve. You will see lots of polvo (octopus) clams and mussels on menus. The typical Portuguese restaurant serves plain grilled robalo or dorada but more options for prawns - camarão.

Many vegetables are vastly overcooked. Most Portuguese people get their veggies in soup, which all Portuguese restaurants will serve. They have a soup of the day with a different veggie every day.

Do try to find a small Portuguese restaurant to try. They have a Prato do Dia with soup, entree, drink and sometimes dessert (sobremesa), for a very reasonable cost (10-12 euros). You will have to go out of the main tourist areas, but it will be a true taste of how the locals eat.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I'm particularly interested in the toasta mista for breakfast. A little disappointed by the vegetables, but I'll figure something out, and I do love soup.

BTW "along the way" to me does not mean walking down the street eating. Yuck! It means stopping somewhere that we wander past, rather than preplanning a meal destination.

I'd like an egg, some fruit, some whole grains, plain yoghurt, maybe even a potato. Do I have any hope?

Stayed in Porto, Ponta Delgada, Peniche, Lisbon, Leiria, Obidos, There were eggs at every single breakfast we had last week. Bacon too. Some kind of fruit at each place too. Yogurt at maybe half of them. Breads were mostly white and sweet, but a few had grainy stuff. Surprise: green salad options at a couple of places.

We just got back from Portugal last week. We love salad, and we were able to order a simple green salad or a tomato salad at virtually any restaurant for lunch or dinner. It was always served with salt and bottles of oil and vinegar for you to use as a dressing. Even when there wasn't one on the menu, you could order a simple salad. The potatoes were usually very good, but most other veggies were way overcooked. The sea bass, shrimp, and cod were great. We also tried chicken, beef, and pork, and we found most was very tasty. Most places have a soup of the day that is good, usually a blended veggie soup. I particularly liked the stews as a main course.
We stayed at only two hotels, but their breakfasts had lots of good fresh fruits, yogurts, meats and cheeses, and enough variety that most people would be happy. We mostly stayed in Airbnbs and alternated between yogurt and fruit some days with the wonderful pastel de nata on other days. I suggest that you pack a few baggies, so you can easily take leftover cheese or whatever to the next apartment.
The food is usually quite good. If you want spicy, ask for piri piri sauce. Good eating, and have a great trip.