Lisbon Café of the Week: Liberty

When Europe's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026 ranking was announced, Portugal had six cafés featured on the list. Five are in the Lisbon area, and we decided to visit every one of them. The second stop in our series is Liberty, a speciality coffee and brunch café in Santos, one of Lisbon's most popular neighbourhoods for brunch and café culture.

Although the ranking recognises Liberty's Parede location, we visited the original café in Santos, where the concept first began. Liberty secured 57th place in the European ranking, which makes it one of the continent's top speciality coffee destinations.

The staff made us feel welcome from the moment we arrived, and our waitress even offered to take some photos for us, which was a lovely touch.

Watch the full video here 👇👇👇

One of my favourite features was the seating by the entrance. An old doorway that is now used as a “window”, and a table overlooking the street, a perfect place to sit with a coffee and watch Lisbon go by.

It was also a pleasant surprise to find copies of The Portugal News on display. As Yuriy Gushchin, the founder of the café, told us, Liberty has been subscribing to our newspaper for the past three years, and it was lovely to see our publication sitting alongside the café's books and magazines.

When you order from the café's special menu, you also receive a little gift. I chose the raspberry matcha, while my partner went for the strawberry lemonade. Together with drinks, we were given a Liberty-themed colouring sheet and crayons. It turned out to be a fun little activity and a great stress reliever!

Books are a big part of Liberty's identity. The Santos café is home to its own independent bookshop, so it's easy to spend some time browsing the shelves before—or after—brunch.

We're also working on a full interview with Yuriy, where we'll talk about Liberty's journey, the story behind the café and what it means to be recognised among Europe's best coffee shops. You'll be able to read it in one of our upcoming editions.

This was the second stop in our series exploring Lisbon's highest-ranked cafés. Over the coming weeks, we'll be visiting the remaining cafés featured in the ranking, sharing our experience through articles and reels on our social media channels.