In my experience restaurants in Portugal never have tinned sardines on the menu (as a starter, in salads, in mains). They also have fresh ones in the season (around June). I have seen fancy shops in tourist areas selling only (!) tinned fish though. So I always assumed it is mostly a tourist thing.
This reminds of some years ago, when a small restaurant in Cascais (!) opened that only served microwave oven meals. Homemade, but still, not my idea of eating out. But at least they were very honest about it ;)
Nuri sardines are fantastic, as are most of them from Portugal -- they take their tinned sardines seriously.
Another surprise for me were Patagonia's tinned fish, which were phenomenal: https://www.patagoniaprovisions.com/collections/tinned-fish.
In my experience restaurants in Portugal never have tinned sardines on the menu (as a starter, in salads, in mains). They also have fresh ones in the season (around June). I have seen fancy shops in tourist areas selling only (!) tinned fish though. So I always assumed it is mostly a tourist thing.
Some places serve them in sandwiches and toasts. There's also a few restaurants selling exclusively canned goods[0][1][2].
There's very high quality canned food being produced here.
Most people will eat them at home, but they're very popular. I have a lot of canned sardines in spicy tomato source in my pantry right now! :)
[0] https://www.nit.pt/comida/restaurantes/loja-conservas-restau...
[1] https://www.visitlisboa.com/pt-pt/locais/can-the-can-lisboa
[2] https://www.lisbonne-idee.pt/p3067-abre-latas-novo-restauran...
This reminds of some years ago, when a small restaurant in Cascais (!) opened that only served microwave oven meals. Homemade, but still, not my idea of eating out. But at least they were very honest about it ;)
I'd say it's unusual but definitely not "never" because I had some a couple of weeks ago. :D
....what? Why?
I mean it's interesting and I'm probably going to buy the sardines but why is this here?