Lisbon (Portugal) #8: LX Factory & Village Underground

We heard a lot of good things about LX Factory, as a place to discover absolutely, because the concept is too trendy, too cool blah blah blah blah.

In the end, it’s just a nice place (without more) to discover in Lisbon on a bored day – or when you run out of Instagram photos.

Part 1: Travel Diary Part
2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

Opinions are rather mixed on this place, and one of the negative opinions underlines that it should be visited on a Sunday, the market day. Otherwise, one is bored like a dead rat. So we went there on a Sunday. The place is a little eccentric so we took a driver Kapten, for only 5€.

LX Factory is a small creative village, installed in the former warehouses. Every Sunday there is a flea market for the trendy people.

The place is very lively, thanks to the market stalls, selling handcrafted products, farmhouse cheeses and other design objects.

We have lunch at the Cantina, an old warehouse with a flea market design. Unfortunately, the quality of the dishes is oversold. I regret having chosen it for lunch.

The only consolation is the gigantic Ler Devagar bookstore with this mechanical part in the middle – representing a flying cyclist. The place also houses exhibitions, concerts, mini puppet shows. It’s really nice and worth a visit.

We could console ourselves, after thisn’t good lunch, at Landeau‘s place… Their chocolate cake (3,5€/piece) is really very good, and the store superbly decorated. We see ourselves chilling here for hours.

Despite the quotes from magazines – on the wall of the store. No, it isn’t the best chocolate cake from Lisbon or Portugal. It is delicious, but that’s all 🙂

I don’t know if we’ve been oversold the place, but looking left to right, wandering from store to store, I just think “ok what else?”. I know the pictures look good, but other than that, I wasn’t impressed by this place.

We explore the large building that houses start-ups and a coworking space on the top floor. The industrial atmosphere remains omnipresent.

The industrial elevator is still there.

We were very disappointed by the coworking space. The only space that is pretty much design is this kitchen. The offices are quite ordinary, there is no particular decoration. I also inquired about the youth hostel in the surroundings and some people talked about bed chips. No thanks!

I like these windows!

We completely forgot to visit the well known rooftop bar at the LX Factory

Village Underground Lisboa

A 5 minute walk away is the “Village Underground Lisboa”, which has a coworking space (owned by Impact Hub I believe, the company whose coworking we used to coworking in Budapest), a recording studio and a bus that has been rehabilitated as a restaurant. It’s a bit difficult to find, you have to go through the entrance of the rail museum to find this corner, at the very end of the alley.

It’s pretty cool, until a smell of frying smells on our clothes (we’re sitting upstairs, right above the kitchen). The acai (fruit bowls) are excellent, as well as the fruit juices. From here, we see the statue of the bar at the rooftop of the LX Factory.

Conclusion

I didn’t like this place as much as the others, but that’s just my opinion.

Maybe I didn’t schedule my visit according to the activities/exhibits or I didn’t look enough at the graffiti on the walls?

I don’t know, I find the whole thing a bit messy and the prices charged in all the restaurants and stores too high for what it is.

Part 2: Practical Tips

It’s a little off-center so to combine with your visit to the surroundings of Belem? It’s better to visit on Sunday indeed, without the flea market, I don’t know what you’ll be able to do.

I advise against the youth hostel in the area because it is very out of the city and the rates aren’t that advantageous.