When I arrived in Portugal from Britain, I thought that, as I was moving to a latin and more laid back culture. I imagined how I would be spending much of my time hanging out, lounging around in cafés, slowly taking in the day with my newspaper and coffee and more importantly, my cake.
But as my other-half showed me round the must-sees of Lisbon as an introduction to things Portuguese, I discovered to my horror the proper procedure in the Portuguese café: Go in. Order what you want. Drink it. Eat it. Pay. Leave. As you drink your coffee, what you may listen to is locals complaining to the café owner about the state of the government/football team/neighbours.
The Portuguese are obsessed with having enough to eat at all times, so they won't let you starve to death before your next meal. Whether you find yourself in a dingy café-bar, with two old grumpy men in the corner with their glasses of aguardente or in a more glitzy, elegant café, there is always a little something for refuelling.
A classic café that is essentially Lisbon, which I love, is the Casa Chineza on Rua do Ouro 274 in the Baixa (downtown, literally "low"). What makes it even more Lisbon is that it's right next door to the "Discoteca Amália", not a disco, but a Fado record shop, that blares out Amália Rodrigues songs on a loud speaker. Stand there for a minute or two, while looking at cakes in next door's window. Just do it.
Inside Casa Chineza, the 19th century meets the 1970s and the main counter is a U shaped chiller cabinet stuffed full of brownish yellowish cakes and salgados (savouries). That was another of my initial disappointments; the cakes weren't the fancy fruity creamy concoctions I was used to. I discovered, though, that they are so much better than that. Almondy, cinnamonny, eggy, sugary things that will revive you after your walk down from Chiado or up from the river. Their in-house pasteís de nata (pushtay'sh de na'ttah) are pretty near perfect and try a broa de amêndoa too. A couple of those will keep you alive till dinner.
Metro: Baixa Chiado.