Restaurants in Porto
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Nakité
This pleasant vegetarian restaurant has satisfying daily specials featuring tofu, seitan and tempeh paired nicely with goat cheese, shiitake mushrooms and other fresh ingredients. Nakité also has fresh juices and good desserts. Dine inside (amid piped-in New Age tunes) or on the back patio next to a gurgling fountain.
reviewed
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O Escondidinho
Amid azulejos, dark wood furnishings and starched white place settings, O Escondidinho serves excellent traditional cuisine. Chefs here combine fresh ingredients and a wood-burning oven to create classic bacalhau dishes and flavourful baked octopus, while grilled seafood dishes are equally impressive.
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Confeitaria Do Bolhão
This cheerful belle-époque cafe, popular with everyone but especially ladies of a certain age, serves good food at great prices, including a daily lunch special of soup, main course and freshly squeezed juice for €5. The front counter serves an irresistible array of local sweets to go.
reviewed
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D
O Caçula
Tucked down a narrow lane, O Caçula serves healthy-tasting lighter fare in a trim, contemporary, bi-level space. In addition to a few vegetarian dishes (vegie lasagne, ratatouille), there are grilled items (chicken breast with Roquefort cheese), steak, and fresh juices and smoothies.
reviewed
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O Comercial
Hidden at the back of the stock-exchange building, this one-of-a-kind restaurant boasts towering arches, old-world service and a stylish, fireside lounge. At dinner, the food has been known to disappoint, but the three-course lunch menu is great value.
reviewed
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Leitaria Quinta Do Paço
Dine alfresco at tables on the tiny plaza, or inside the sleekly designed cafe. Neither will break the bank, with excellent lunch specials (chicken cordon bleu, grilled beef and the like) and a tempting dessert counter.
reviewed
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Boa Nova Casa-Chá
Designed by famed Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira and completed in 1963, this cliffside tea house and restaurant is set alluringly above a crashing sea. Massive boulders frame the white, low-rise building, while inside the Zenlike design continues as light floods the wood and stone interior. The restaurant is 20 minutes north of Porto along the coast. It’s best reached by car or taxi.
reviewed
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Rota Do Chá
This proudly bohemian cafe has a verdant but rustic back garden where students and the gallery crowd sit around low tables sampling from an enormous tea menu. Teas are divided by region and include addictive concoctions like iced matcha (green tea) latte and yerba mate. Tasty snacks include broccoli and cheese crêpes and vegie empanadas.
reviewed
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Praia da Luz
Beautifully set along the rocky beach of the same name, Praia da Luz is a worthwhile stop when out exploring Porto’s coastline. Sit outside on the wooden deck (but bring a sweater), and enjoy grilled seafood or meat dishes, snacks, salads, and of course a cocktail. It’s about 500m north of the Castelo de São João.
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Don Tonho
Built into ancient riverside ramparts, this elegant restaurant serves traditional Portuguese fare prepared with a contemporary twist. Opened by Rui Velosa, crown prince of Portuguese pop, it serves up superb seafood, including fine bacalhau (dried salt-cod), and also boasts one of Porto’s most extensive wine lists.
reviewed
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Sabor de Minas
Specialising in the hearty dishes from Minas Gerais (Brazil), this small, inviting place offers decent value for its all-you-can-eat buffet. While the selection isn’t huge, the dishes are nicely prepared, with salads, desserts and a few side dishes on offer. Friday night is dedicated to churrasco (grilled meat).
reviewed
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Tromba Rija
Porto’s branch of Leiria’s famous eatery offers a huge, soup-to-nuts buffet of classic, well-prepared Portuguese dishes – plus all the wine, port and homemade liqueur you can drink. Tromba Rija is a great introduction to Portuguese cuisine – and always festive thanks to all that free booze.
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Mariazinha
This snug but rustically elegant eatery, run by an enthusiastic husband-and-wife team, serves creative haute cuisine based on market-fresh ingredients. You must order from the prix-fixe menu. In fact, each course comes as a surprise, along with a different Portuguese wine. Reservations recommended.
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Guernica
Guernica brings a self-conscious dash of style to Porto, with excellent international cooking in a slim Manhattan-style bistro. Recent favourites include lasagne with mushrooms and brie, codfish with sausage, wild boar and seafood pasta. For once, you can order wines by the glass.
reviewed
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Pedro Dos Frangos
Frango no espeto (spit-roasted chicken) is the name of the game at this extremely popular and inexpensive grill. Grab a spot at the stand-up counter and join the good old boys for a filling meal (abundant chips included). Other grills are nearby.
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Indian Classic
The only decent ethnic option in the centre, this cheerful (though by no means cheap) eatery cooks up surprisingly good Indian fare, including fragrant lentil soup and excellent grilled meats and curries. English spoken. Open until midnight.
reviewed
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Café Majestic
Porto’s best-known teashop is packed with prancing cherubs, opulently gilded woodwork, leather seats and gold-braided waiters who’ll serve you an elegant set breakfast, afternoon tea or any number of snacks and beverages.
reviewed
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Adega São Nicolau
Half-hidden down a narrow lane, this cosy place serves satisfying traditional seafood to a mix of locals and travellers. Bacalhau a Gomes (codfish with potatoes) and polvo com arroz (octopus with rice) are top picks.
reviewed
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Barão de Fladgate
With excellent food, enviable views, and of course lots and lots of port, the restaurant in Taylor’s port-wine lodge is a worthy splurge. The menu is long on seafood, the speciality being (surprise!) bacalhau.
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O
Abadia
It's gotten a little touristy, but this rather cavernous backstreet place serves up very good northern dishes, including excellent porco preto (flavourful grilled pork) and tripas (stewed tripe).
reviewed
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Café Embaixador
A perennial favourite of everyone from suits to construction workers, this double-decker Art Deco restaurant provides good standards at excellent prices. Skip the upstairs buffet - it's overpriced cafeteria fare.
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Café Guarany
With a sunny, tiled interior, marble-top tables and an Afro-Brazilian mural, this classy affair has attracted the business and literary elite since the 1930s. It regularly has live music, and serves full meals.
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A Tasquinha
Tucked inside a rustic house, this touristy but pleasant place offers cask wines, garlicky appetisers and good northern specialities. The €13 tourist menu includes three courses, coffee and drink.
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Sitar
High-end Sitar serves tasty Indian fare (with highlights from north and south) in a small evocative dining room. The pappadams and tandoori are standouts, but the lassis are best avoided.
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Casa Filha da Mãe Preta
Set smack on the Ribeira’s riverfront, this is the most congenial of a long line of touristy riverside restaurants. Go early to bag an upstairs front table for views of the Douro.
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