Where to eat in Porto

Porto is one of those charming cities that you fall in love with. Among its cobblestone streets and views of the Douro, you'll find taverns where the wine and tapas taste heavenly. In this article, we'll tell you all about it where to eat in Porto, from traditional places where you can try a good francesinha to modern restaurants with great views. If you like discovering authentic places with good food and reasonable prices, keep reading: we've got a selection of ideal places to visit eat well in Porto, whether you're looking for something quick or a more special experience.

The best restaurants to eat in Porto

As good foodies, we love to try the gastronomy of the places we visit, especially if it is as good and inexpensive as in Portugal. Here are the restaurants that we liked the most during our visit to Oporto, as well as the best ones typical dishes of the area that you cannot miss. For us, the essential ones would be:

• Francesinha Sandwich filled with Portuguese sausages and cheese, bathed in a rich sauce. Sometimes it has an egg on top. 
• Alheira Porto typical sausage made with minced meat and paprika. Similar to chorizo. 
• Codfish Brás Cod dish with potatoes and egg. 
• Bolinhas A kind of croquettes with multiple flavors. They are very typical those of cod. 
• Cream cakes (or de Belem): Puff pastries filled with cream, originally from Portugal. 
• Portotonic Cocktail made with white port wine and tonic. 

A dish that we were also told is typical of Oporto are the Oporto's fashionable guts. It is  a stew that, as its name suggests, is made with tripe, beans and chorizo. You may be familiar with the tripeiros in reference to the inhabitants of Oporto, so you know where the name comes from. We have to say that we did not dare with the dish, but if you dare, they say it is very good. 

Remember that in Portugal meal times are a little different from those in Spain, at noon lunch is usually around 13:00h and then dinner is usually around 20:00h. It is important to take this into account as we saw people who almost did not have dinner because they arrived at 22:30h.

Pestisqueria Voltaira

La Petisquería Voltaira is a restaurant of Portuguese food specializing in cod and one of our favorites in Porto. The food was all very good and the service was exceptional, very attentive and friendly talking to us in Spanish when we told them where we were from. They have a small indoor dining room and some tables on the street as well. For this reason, we advise you to go early as we went without a reservation and we were waiting in line for a while. Here are the dishes we tried and their prices:

• Francesinha (10€). Delicious, one of the best we tasted in Oporto. The sauce had a spectacular spicy touch.
• Bolinha de alheira (1€/unit). Croquettes of this typical Portuguese sausage. Very tasty and tasty.
• Wine Tawny Port wine (3€/glass). Typical sweet red wine from Oporto.
• Bacalhau "à Brás (9,5€). One of their specialties, very tasty.
• Green broth (2€). It was nice and warm because we ate outside, but we were not enthusiastic about it either.

Ora Viva

Small restaurant located in the Ribeira with traditional Portuguese home cooking. The place is very curious because the ceiling is decorated with banknotes from all over the world and the walls are full of coins, anyone can make their contribution by leaving a coin or a banknote! It was recommended by our free tour guide and it was a success, the food was very tasty, you could tell it was homemade. Also the value for money is incredible and the staff very friendly. We ordered the following dishes:

• Seafood rice (13€/1pax). It was delicious and full of seafood. Excellent value for money. It is also a fairly large portion for one person.
• Grilled salmon (10€). Very good too, with a grilled flavor and accompanied by vegetables. To put a downside, the dish had too much oil but it was very tasty.
• Alentejo cheese (3,5€). Good starter for cheese lovers.
• Codfish bolinhos (1€/pp). Quite tasty, you could taste the cod in the stuffing.

Manteigaria

Pastry shops Manteigaria are undoubtedly the perfect place to try one of the most typical desserts of Portugal...!cream cakes! These crunchy cream-filled puff pastries are delicious when eaten warm.

We were in one of their premises which is attached to a cafeteria and you can sit down to have a cake and a coffee quietly. You can also see the workshop where the cakes are handmade. They are very cheap, each cake costs only 1,10€.

🍪 As a curiosity.
Something that not many people know is that these cream cakes are the same as Bethlehem cakes but they can't call them that because the trademark is registered.

Brasão Allies

Restaurant of typical portuguese food A little more touristy than the rest of the recommendations on the list, but we still really liked the food. There are several around the city, but we went to Brasão Aliados because we heard it usually had shorter lines than Brasão Coliseo, which is more central Meat specialists They also have a wide variety of beers both artisanal and international. 

• Rissol of Enchidos e Queijo Picante (2,5€/unit). Cheese filled dumplings with a spicy touch. Very visually striking as they are red in color. They were very tasty. 
• Francesinha no Forno com Ovo (13,6€). We love this dish so we went back for seconds. In this case it was tasty but not the best we tried as the sauce lacked flavor. 
• Prego no Pão Misto (11,1€). Typical dish of Portuguese cuisine, it is a grilled meat sandwich with cheese accompanied with potatoes. Very tasty, we liked it better than francesinha.

Café Majestic

One of the most famous coffees of Oporto, both for its history and for its architectural style that exudes luxury and sophistication. Painters, politicians and influential people of the time used to meet in this picturesque cafe in the 1920s, making it one of the most famous in the city. Located on the Rua de Santa Catarina or the "street of stores", is one of the most frequented spots by tourists either to have a drink or simply to get close to see it and take a picture. 

If you don't mind paying at least 5€ for a coffee, this is the perfect place to have a snack, although there are usually quite a few people waiting to sit down. The truth is that we only stopped by to see its beautiful facade and its spectacular interior.

Postigo Do Carvao

Restaurant located in the area of La Ribera, also of traditional Portuguese food. It is on the same street as the Ora Viva restaurant mentioned above, and was also recommended to us by the free tour guide. The prices are a bit higher than the latter but the food was very good too. In fact, we were so hungry when we went there that we forgot to take pictures, but we will tell you what we tasted:

• Caseira meat ball (2,6€/unit). Meat pie with cheese. Tasty.
• Dourada Grelhada (14,8€). Very tasty grilled sea bream, accompanied with vegetables. 
• Pork meat à alentejana (14,5€). Curious dish with pork, clams, potatoes and coriander. Not one of the Portuguese dishes we enjoyed the most but it was good.

Where to have a drink or a few beers

To go out at night and have a drink in Oporto, some friends recommended us to go to the bars along the Rua da Galeria de Paris right next to the Lello bookstore. This is the typical area where the Portuguese usually go out to party and it is a street with quite a nightlife atmosphere.

If, on the other hand, you feel like visiting a typical Portuguese tasca where you can have a Sagres, a Super Bock and a snack, you have to go to the Rua dos mercadores and pay a visit to the Tasquiña da Paula.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, a drink has become popular in Oporto that consists of mixing the white wine produced in its cellars with tonic water, the Portotonic. Its resemblance to Gin Tonic is more in the name as it is a much softer drink. We liked it very much and we recommend you to try it. 

As always, we leave you with all the restaurants that we have been telling you about in the summary map which you can see below.

Where to eat in Guimaraes

Troubadour Tavern

If you have followed our guide to what to see in Porto and dedicate a day to visit Guimarães After touring the city and its historical monuments, you will surely feel like trying some of the local gastronomy. On this occasion we decided to go to a restaurant that, despite being a bit far away on foot, was totally worth the walk.

When we arrived at the Troubadour tavern We found a lot of local people eating there, which we thought was a good sign and was totally confirmed when we saw the food. We ordered:

• Mini Bifana (1,4€/piece). Pork sandwich. Delicious but very small, we should have ordered several. 
• Alheira (4,5 €/unit). Very tasty, it reminded us of the patatera extremeña. 
• Codfish bolinhas (0,8 €/piece). Something similar to cod croquettes.
• Meat Rissois (0,8€/piece). Similar to meat patties. Very tasty.
• Olives, pâté and lupins (0,8€/person). It is served as a starter in almost all Portuguese restaurants. The truth is that the pate was tremendous.
• Bola de bolacha (3,5€). Typical grandmother's chocolate cake.

Places to have a drink in Guimaraes Square

After lunch we went to the Santiago Square where there was a very good atmosphere and a lot of places where you could have a cocktail, a drink or a porto tonic, if you had not yet followed our advice .... Ask for it now! We sat in a very local bar. It was called Fresco Painting basic but recommendable.

If you want to read other articles ideal for your trip that complement Where to eat in Porto you can visit our posts about Porto.