The Café Continental is the last and most atmospheric of the surviving colonial-era cafés of the Baixa. Opened in 1908, it occupies the ground floor of a corner building on Avenida 25 de Setembro near Praça dos Trabalhadores — wooden panelling, brass fittings, slow-turning fans, marble-topped tables and a long bar that has seen most of the 20th century.
The menu is straightforward Portuguese-Mozambican: pregos, omelettes, grilled fish, the daily prato do dia of stew or piri-piri chicken, plus pastries and bicas for the morning. It is a useful breakfast stop on any walking tour of the Baixa, and a popular meeting place for the city's older writers, lawyers and journalists. Prices are reasonable; service is gruff but kind.