As Der Spiegel wrote, Porto is being flooded by tourists which is good for the local economy, but it also brings a rise of tourists traps.
Therefore it is my moral obligation to write about the few surviving traditional restaurants in Porto, hoping that you might like them as much as we do and contribute to its survival.
A few things before we dive into the amazing world of the traditional restaurants in Porto:
- Don’t expect vegetarian / vegan / gluten free options in traditional restaurants in Porto. Out of courtesy they might come up with an omelet or a fresh salad to accommodate your dietary restrictions – but then again you will not be taking advantage of eating in such restaurants, will you?
Therefore if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, I recommend you to stick to the restaurants on my Survival Guide for Vegetarians, to avoid having a disappointing meal. - These are traditional restaurants in Porto, so don’t expect to find proper English menus. Instead, make sure to use google translator and creative communication techniques with the waiters!
If you just want to get an overall idea of Portuguese food, I recommend you to join a food tour in Porto. You will be tasting some of the most traditional things in Porto, like cod cakes and bifanas, while meeting new people!
It’s time to unveil the best traditional restaurants in Porto:
O Buraco
Rua do Bolhão, 95 | Porto
Another traditional restaurant in Porto that I really like is Buraco. Located in the center of Porto, close to the iconic Bolhão market, Buraco is a 50-year-old Porto restaurant where traditional Portuguese food remains true to itself and at moderate prices.
Buraco has a fixed menu where the boiled cabeça de pescada (hake’s head) stands out (my father’s favorite dish) :), the carapaus de escabeche (horse mackerel escabeche) and the fígado de cebolada (fried liver with caramelized onions), but every day of the week there is a special dish, so, as we are in the north of Portugal, these feature the feijoada à Buraco (bean and pork stew) (Wednesdays) and the tripas à Buraco (tripe) (Fridays).
This traditional restaurant in Porto is very popular so most likely you will have to wait for a table, but you won’t wait too long because the service is very efficient.
How to get there: Bolhão subway station is 4 minutes walking distance.
O Rápido
Rua da Madeira, 194 | Porto
O Rápido is one of those places that you feel like keeping just to yourself, it’s so good (and still relatively unknown). It’s a discreet restaurant, located at the back of the São Bento train station, so it’s the ideal place to have lunch before catching a train.
It’s a small but very welcoming place, with a short menu of honest food, including cod that is to die for and the tripas à moda do Porto (Porto tripe stew), perhaps the best in town. The desserts are also great and homemade 🙂
Another advantage of dining at O Rápido is that it is one of the few traditional restaurants in Porto where you can make a reservation to guarantee your spot.
How to get there: São Bento subway station is 2 minutes walking distance.
Palmeira
Rua do Ateneu Comercial do Porto, 36 | Porto
I can still remember the first time I went to Palmeira – how unexpected it was to have to go down a flight of stairs only to find myself in what is, in fact, a restaurant tucked away in a windowless basement.
But that shouldn’t stop you from visiting Palmeira, dear reader, because it is undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in Porto, with a familiar and welcoming atmosphere.
It serves all the typical Portuguese dishes such as filetes de polvo (octopus fillets) and cabrito assado (roasted goat), and some that are almost forgotten, such as mão de vaca com feijão (cow’s hoof and bean stew).
In the end, delight in the endless dessert’s list – I swear on my honor that I have never seen such a long list.
How to get there: Aliados subway station is 5 minutes walking distance.
Adega Vila Meã
Rua dos Caldeireiros, 62 | Porto
With more than 45 years of history, Adega Vila Meã stands out for being our “home away from home”.
The food is wonderful, from which I could highlight numerous dishes, but I stick with the Miminhos de porco preto (Iberian black pork), the alheira (traditional portuguese sausage) and the caldo verde (typical portuguese collard bean and potato soup) (ask for a plate of sliced cured ham to accompany it).
The portions served at Adega Vila Meã are, in good old Portuguese fashion, HUGE, so careful you don’t over-order 😀
How to get there: São Bento subway station is 3 minutes walking distance.
Antunes
Rua do Bonjardim, 525 | Porto
I am privileged to work in an office just around the corner from Antunes, one of the best traditional restaurants in Porto. Lucky me!
Antunes serves, in an unpretentious way, typical Portuguese dishes such as the famous roast pernil (pork shank) (17€ / 2 pax), the rojões à moda do Minho (typical fried pork dish from the Minho region) (9€) and the alheira (garnished game sausage) (8€) . For fish, you can find dishes such as bacalhau à Rosa do adro (fried cod) (12€) and fried sardines with tomato-rice (7€), but the house specialties are definitely the meat dishes.
My advice is to book a table or get there early, as it is a very popular restaurant.How to get there: Trindade subway station is 6 minutes walking distance.
O Ernesto
Rua da Picaria, 85 | Porto
I’ve been going to Ernesto since I am a little girl, to eat hake fillets with my family. In fact, Ernesto is one of the few Portuguese restaurants that has been part of the families from Porto for generations.
The restaurant’s menu consists of traditional Portuguese flavours coupled with daily dishes that depend on the day of the week:
- Monday: bacalhau à Gomes Sá (traditional codfish dish from Porto) and coelho assado no forno (roasted rabbit)
- Tuesday: tripas à moda do porto (beef’s stomach cooked in a stew with white beans, carrots and cumin)
- Wednesday: filetes de pescada com arroz de feijão, de grelos ou de legumes (hake fillets with vegetables’ or beans’ rice)
- Thursday: filetes de polvo com arroz do mesmo (octopus fillets) and cozido à portuguesa (amazing Portuguese dish with different types of meats and sausages served with rice, potatoes and boiled vegetables)
- Friday: arroz de pato (roasted duck rice)
- Saturdays: rojões (pork cubes cooked in pork lard) and cabrito assado no forno (baby goat cooked in the oven, it’s to die for!)
There are those who recommend Ernesto’s famous fruit salad to finish off the meal, but I prefer a crème brûlée. It never fails to amaze me!
How to get there: Aliados subway station is 5 minutes walking distance.
Cozinha do Manel
Rua do Heroísmo, 215 | Porto
One of the most traditional restaurants in Porto is hidden in Bonfim, the hipster neighborhood that divides the tourist area from the the oriental part of the city. I’m talking about Cozinha do Manel, a restaurant that has been cheering Porto’s palates for the past 30 years.
Cozinha do Manel is one of the most welcoming traditional restaurants in Porto: you enter through a narrow hallway, from where you can take a sneak peek at the delicious desserts displayed on the fridge. The hallway gives access to a cozy dining room, covered in granite and tiles.
The starters are simply to die for: alheira assada (traditional Portuguese sausage) from Trás os Montes and queijo da Serra (soft sheep cheese) are mandatory at my dining table.
As main dishes I recommend cabrito assado no forno (baby goat cooked in the oven – you need to order it with at least two days in advance!), arroz de pato (roasted duck rice) and vitela assada (roasted veal – even though, to be honest, it always feels a bit rubbery). If you prefer to go for fish, I recommend you to try bacalhau assado no forno (oven roasted codfish) or hake / octopus fillets.
You should not leave Cozinha do Manel without trying its fabulous rabanadas – the Portuguese twist on French toasts -, served throughout the entire year.
How to get there: Heroísmo subway station is 5 minutes’ walking distance.
Adega do Carregal
Travessa do Carregal, 102 | Porto
I ate my very first rojões in Adega do Carregal many years ago. Even though I am not a huge fan of this traditional Portuguese dish, that consists of pork’s cubes cooked in pork lard, I couldn’t resist to try one of the famous dishes at one of the best traditional restaurants in Porto.
At Adega do Carregal I recommend you to try the codfish dishes as well as posta à mirandesa (an amazing steak with a olive oil & vinegar sauce). There are always daily dishes like the infamously good tripas à moda do Porto (beef’s stomach cooked in a stew with white beans, carrots and cumin) and anho assado no forno (roasted lamb).
The service is very attentive, without fake pretentiousness; we’re at home.
How to get there: Aliados subway station is a 10 minutes walking distance.
Garfada do Ouro
Rua Senhor da Boa Morte, 84 | Porto
This is one of the well-kept secrets of Porto: Helder, one of the former owners of the amazing restaurant O Carteiro, fell in love with an Italian woman and they created a new project that rescues the concepts of sustainable food using local, seasonal and biological ingredients.
Helder opens the doors if his house – and what a house, located in Foz Velha – every Tuesday and Thursday night.
They are often wonderful events for meeting new people, but it is also a good place to have private dinners with friends or business colleagues.
You have to subscribe to attend these amazing dinners so there is no point in showing up unannounced. To book your place, send an email to geral@garfadadoouro.pt. The dinners cost 60€ / person, which include all dishes plus wines. Do not forget to use the code PORTOALITIES5 which gives you a discount of 5€ / person on your meal.
In order to have dinner at Helder’s place just send an email to geral@garfadadoouro.pt to check his availability.
How to get there: take the tram Line 1 until the stop Ouro. The house is a 2 minutes walking distance.
Badalhoca
Rua da Picaria, 26 | Rua Dr. Alberto Macedo, 437 | Porto
Badalhoca is not quite a restaurant but rather a down-to-earth tavern where we lay our appetite in smoked ham sandwiches and small plates of pork liver baits or octopus cooked with green sauce.
Always watered with a tap Super Bock – the traditional beer from Porto -, as if we order a soft drink we are greeted with a bell ring that will embarrass you in front of everyone. It’s really worth going there!
How to get there: For the downtown location, Aliados metro station is a 5 minutes walking distance.. For the other location, take bus 502 (direction Matosinhos Mercado) until Gomes da Costa bus stop. The restaurant is a 6 minutes walking distance.
O Gaveto
Rua Roberto Ivens, 824 | Matosinhos
O Gaveto is undoubtedly my favorite seafood restaurant in Porto. It helps the fact that fish and seafood always have primacy on my table and that Gaveto serves them both in an irreproachable way.
In this beautiful (almost) seafront restaurant, I strongly recommend you to try amêijoas à Bulhão Pato (steamed clams with a garlic and white wine sauce – who would have guessed that such a simple dish could be so delicious!), the monkfish rice and the pièce de resistance, the seafood açorda (bread stew with seafood and loads of spices).
In my opinion Gaveto is also one of the most interesting traditional restaurants in Porto as it has a superb wine list, making it a mandatory stop for wine lovers like myself.
How to get there: Matosinhos Sul subway station is a 5 minutes walking distance.
Manuel Alves
Avenida de Fernão de Magalhães, 782 | Porto
Hidden from the tourist sights, in the Paranhos neighborhood, is one of the best traditional restaurants in Porto, Manuel Alves.
The menu of this restaurant is very diverse, consisting of countless fish options (baked shrimp and cod are always safe bets) and meat (I particularly like the veal medallions and the roasted beef).
How to get there: Campanhã and Estádio do Dragão subway stations are both a 15 minutes walking distance.
Rogério do Redondo
Rua Joaquim António de Aguiar, 19 | Porto
When Anthony Bourdain first landed in Porto, in 2000, the first restaurant he went to was Rogério do Redondo. I think this alone tells you about the importance of Rogério do Redondo in the gastronomic scene of Porto.
One thing that I love in this traditional restaurant of Porto is that the owner, Rogério Sá, really took the time to source the best ingredients from all around the country, such as seafood from Vila Real de Santo António and prosciutto from Barrancos. The potatoes come from Trás os Montes, where my family comes from.
Here you can taste delicious traditional Portuguese food, like cabrito assado (roasted baby goat) and tripas à moda do Porto. If you want my advice, just get there and be like Anthony Bourdain, who, according to the legend, tried everything, including a giant hake’s eyes (yes, we eat the fish eyes).
How to get there: 24 Agosto subway station is a 5 minutes walking distance.
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