What and where to eat in Porto
A compilation of great dishes and food places in Porto that travelers and nomads have to taste at least once while traveling through Portugal.
After having spent 2 months living in Porto, I can confidently say, that I’ve tried quite a few restaurants in Porto and can therefore share my personal opinion of great dishes & food places that are worth checking out. I don’t like to call it a list of “Best Food in Porto”, because it’s always subjective and honestly, who on earth has tried every restaurant and single dish in a city to call it “Best of …”.
Many dishes on my list are not unique to Porto only and can be found almost everywhere in Portugal. However, if you only have the chance to come to Porto, then you can cover and satisfy your most important Portuguese food cravings with this list.
Here comes the list of my favorite dishes & food spots in Porto:
Pastel de Nata
A pastry from heaven for only 1.10€
While the best Pastel de Nata cannot be found in Porto (but only in Belem), Manteigaria in Porto comes pretty close. Believe it or not, the best one I found was actually in the center area. Because of the high number of pedestrians in this area, their turnover rate is so high, that most of the time you end up with pastries fresh from the oven that are still warm, crunchy outside and soft inside, with the right touch of sweetness.
Dourada Grehlada
Grilled Sea Bream
Portugal is well know for the sea food and one of the more popular dishes that you can get almost everywhere in Portugal, is the grilled Sea Bream called Dourada Grelhada. It’s available almost in every traditional restaurant, however, sometimes it’s a whole fish and sometimes just half. My favorite one is at Casa Viuva that only sets you back 6.50€.
Salmão Grelhado
Grilled Salmon
Another classic that can’t be missed out is the grilled salmon. My absolute favorite seafood restaurant so far has been Tito 2 in Matasinhos (first image). Not only is the salmon there fantastic, but also the grilled octopus and bacalhau. To be fair, you can’t really go wrong with any of the sea food restaurants in that area because it’s so close to the sea. If you stay a bit longer in Porto and have an Airbnb with an oven, you can also get super fresh and high quality salmon from the market and create amazing dishes yourself (last image).
Cheese & Ham With A View
Great Place for snacking and Pre-dinner warm-up
Everything is fine with cheese & wine…and ham. This is a great restaurant in porto with a view, but I would consider it more of a “warm-up-your-belly-before-dinner” place rather than something to spend your entire evening. It is a wonderful place to get some appetizers while enjoying a lovely view before it gets dark. I found this one in particular nice because it is still a hidden and relatively undiscovered spot (just 195 reviews in 2022).
Bifana
Solid every day Pork Sandwich for 2.40€
I wouldn’t consider a Bifana as the highest culinary experience in Portugal, but sometimes you just need to satisfy your hunger quickly while on city exploration. Something that is available almost everywhere that you can grab quickly without overthinking and comparing reviews for, is a Bifana. A Bifana is a simple pork sandwich that doesn’t want to blow you away with a fancy appearance but rather wins you over with a feeling of comfort.
Amorino Gelato
Smooth Ice cream made with natural ingredients
If you’re more of a sweet tooth, then this place will be heaven for you. I can’t remember how many times we went there during our stay. For a very fair price of 3.50€ (small size) you can add as many types of flavors as you want and they make it an interesting looking flower for you. If you’re not a Gelato person, then the thick hot chocolate is a worthy alternative.
Secret Tip – Khao Soi
Need a change from Portuguese food?
If you ever feel tired of Portuguese food during your stay, then I can only recommend trying some Khao Soi from the sweetest lady, named “Sunny”. Sunny has no store and only takes orders via Facebook every week. I’ve eaten A LOT of Khao Soi during my time in Thailand and I can tell you, her Khao Soi is legit.
As a BACKUP: Thailander is pretty good too and they have a bigger variety of dishes that are pretty authentic. Sunny’s Khao Soi still wins though 😉
I hope you enjoyed this quick list of wonderful food options in Porto that didn’t start with Bacalhau or Francesinha 😉 There are still so many more places in Porto to explore for me as well and I hope to be back in the future to check out some other amazing food experiences. There are still a few places that I didn’t have photos of but are worth checking out: