Nina - Brunch & Speciality Coffee

Coffee from The Folks, brunch by the Tejo

The coffee here comes from The Folks, the Lisbon roaster, pulled on Victoria Arduino equipment and served all day beside a brunch menu rather than as a separate ritual. That combination is the whole proposition at Nina: espresso-based drinks first, brunch plates beside them, and a terrace over the Tagus doing as much work as either.

The café opened in Parque das Nações in May 2025 and takes its name from the founder’s mother. The pastry side runs to pain au chocolat, pistachio croissant, house-made pastries and vatrushki, the Eastern European bake that sits slightly outside the usual Lisbon case. Monthly creations add the rest: apple in February, pear in March with a bolacha de pêra, baked pear with cardamom and filo, and Pêra da Floresta served with gin or without. A spicy Moulin Rouge pavlova ran for Valentine’s, which is how the desserts here tend to work, as limited moments rather than fixtures.

A riverside room built for lingering

The room is a casual brunch café rather than a formal restaurant, with a terrace overlooking the Tagus and a riverside view that shapes the visit as much as the menu. The Parque das Nações setting puts it near Oriente, the Oceanário and the Vasco da Gama tower, and close enough to the airport to be useful as a pause on the way through.

It is set up for easy daytime use: family-friendly and pet-friendly, with a kids’ menu, a toys corner and sugar-free natural snacks for babies. Remote workers get free Wi-Fi. The overall rhythm is unhurried, brunch plates and coffee, children and dogs, and a long look at the river. The terrace is the reason most people stay longer than they planned, so it is worth arriving with time rather than an errand.

What to order first

Start with coffee from The Folks on the Victoria Arduino setup. For the clearest named drink, take the iced caramel macchiato; for a classic milk coffee, the latte is the one regulars single out.

Pair it with the pistachio croissant or the pain au chocolat, then check what the current flavour of the month is, because the seasonal run is where the kitchen puts its ideas. If the visit is a full brunch rather than a coffee stop, the plates are built to be shared across a table on the terrace.