Memmo Príncipe Real

Memmo Príncipe Real hangs off the hillside below Rua Dom Pedro V, which gives it what almost no hotel in the neighbourhood has: a terrace with the castle and the roofs of the Baixa laid out in front of you. You reach it through a narrow street and a short tunnel at number 56J, which opens onto that view with no warning. Samuel Torres de Carvalho, the architect behind memmo Alfama and memmo Baleeira, designed it as four white geometric storeys stepping down the slope, and it opened in October 2016 as the first five-star in Príncipe Real. Thirty-eight rooms, in a clean contemporary style with Portuguese materials, and the same limestone as the square outside carried through the ground floor.

That ground floor is almost entirely glazed, so reception, the restaurant and the terrace read as an extension of the public square rather than a lobby you sit in. The room categories are honest about what you are buying. The Superior Room is the entry and is sold without a view. Superior City View and Superior Terrace City View are the ones that pay for themselves, there is a Superior Two-Bedroom for families, and one room is adapted for reduced mobility. There is no gym and no spa, though guests can use the one at memmo Alfama.

The terrace has a small heated pool, open around the clock, and Café Príncipe Real, the restaurant that draws locals as well as guests. It runs from midday to eleven every day, serves contemporary Portuguese food and takes outside bookings, which is the clearest sign it is not simply a hotel dining room. The pool is for cooling off between walks rather than swimming lengths, and nobody pretends otherwise.

The catches are the obvious ones. Not every room has the view, and the entry category is sold without one, so paying up is the whole point. The hotel is reached by a narrow street and a short tunnel off Rua Dom Pedro V, which is awkward with heavy luggage. The terrace fills with outside diners in the evening, so the pool is not a quiet spot after six. The pattern in guest feedback is that the view rooms and the terrace deliver, that staff are helpful, and that the hotel feels like modern Lisbon rather than a stage set. Príncipe Real is on the doorstep, with Bairro Alto and Chiado a downhill walk. It suits people who want a view without paying palace money, and who would rather sit on a terrace than in a lobby. Choose it over Palácio Príncipe Real if outlook matters more than intimacy, and over Bairro Alto Hotel if you want a quieter street and a lower rate.