Value review insights for Porto, Portugal, Restaurants

5 course meal that emphasises SLOW cooking. Service is inconsistent between diner groups. As a solo diner, I was seated at the bar next to a pair of friends. At first, the server that guided me to the seat was friendly but as the night progressed, it gets progressively harder to get any server attention except when they are serving food. For my 7PM reservation: 6.45PM - Arrived 6.53PM - served bread and spreads 6.58PM - explained about “surprise menu” and given the drinks menu. Asked for recommendation with the food. She offered white wine. 7.05PM - couple next to me arrived 7.31PM - served tuna tartare (very yummy) 7.44PM - served this pork & tuna meatball - like starter (interesting, I like the flavour) 8.08PM - served clams (nothing special, not particularly delicious) 8.30PM - served codfish with pumpkin purée (can get at any other Portuguese restaurant) 8:55PM - served braised beef cheeks (super tender, but not flavourful nor fragrant enough) 9:38PM - served dessert - lemon mouse (10mins after I asked for it, and it wasn’t great) From the timeline, they seem to serve food at 20-40mins intervals. Very inconsistent and for most part of the evening, it was spent waiting for food to arrive. Yes 5 courses, but manageable serving sizes (even for ladies). I really don’t understand the great ratings and reviews. Will not recommend for solo dinners. They seem to thrive off group energy. For solo dinners, they pay you no attention and it was hard to get their attention. The difference was striking to me as they kept making conversation with the loud girls next to me and when explaining dishes, the servers always want to do it for the group of 3 at the bar but the whole time, they only make eye contact with the 2 girls and chit chat with them. This felt rude and off-putting. Even asking for a small dish for the clam shells was challenging. Either the server’s English proficiency is lacking, or she simply could not care less to help. At checkout, the server asked for feedback but it only seemed procedural. I commented that food is good but was much slower than expected. She only replied that it’s a 2-hour dinner. (lol I got surprised when I saw the timestamp of my photos)… Also, the bar seat is a bad idea as your hair and clothes will stink of the kitchen smells / torches for cocktails.

6€ for one tea, 3€ for 250ml water and 3€ a coffee not worth the price tag. Porto has awesome cafes and restaurants with better coffee /tea etc and a fraction of the price. Not always price means quality. People just ends up feeling robbed and I am not going to repeat the experience again. Just because is not worth to spend my money on it.

2 stars and I am not sure about this.. We had francesinha and a pulp brochette. First time we had Francesinha and its sauce, it was almost disgusting. Pulp brochette with prawns was lower the average, let’s say acceptable. I believe that real quality has a price and when you go in these places you note it a lot. Final bill 30€ but if you want really eat good food, even if for a more expensive price, is worthy to go to other places. Cannot come back.

A canteen. Much noise . Poor service. We asked to change tables, which was refused despite there being more tables, simply because they don't even have the capacity to understand what customer service is. Friday night with a half busy restaurant. Poor value for the price. Not to return

Designer food, a bit scarce for several diners based on tapas and excessive price in my opinion.

Review rating: 2.0

When you arrive, they welcome you and take you to your table where starters like cheese, meat and bread are already on the table even though you did not order them. These are later added to the bill and this was not clearly explained at the beginning. They also offer water, but the price is very high and it is not shown on the menu, which again increases the bill unexpectedly. Another important point: the restaurant is cash only, which you only find out at the end, which is very inconvenient if you were planning to pay by card. The food was average but very heavy and overall the experience felt very tourist-oriented and not transparent in pricing. We left feeling disappointed and that the restaurant is not good value for money. I would recommend future customers to be very careful about starters, water and desserts and always ask the price first.

Review rating: 1.0

5 course meal that emphasises SLOW cooking. Service is inconsistent between diner groups. As a solo diner, I was seated at the bar next to a pair of friends. At first, the server that guided me to the seat was friendly but as the night progressed, it gets progressively harder to get any server attention except when they are serving food. For my 7PM reservation: 6.45PM - Arrived 6.53PM - served bread and spreads 6.58PM - explained about “surprise menu” and given the drinks menu. Asked for recommendation with the food. She offered white wine. 7.05PM - couple next to me arrived 7.31PM - served tuna tartare (very yummy) 7.44PM - served this pork & tuna meatball - like starter (interesting, I like the flavour) 8.08PM - served clams (nothing special, not particularly delicious) 8.30PM - served codfish with pumpkin purée (can get at any other Portuguese restaurant) 8:55PM - served braised beef cheeks (super tender, but not flavourful nor fragrant enough) 9:38PM - served dessert - lemon mouse (10mins after I asked for it, and it wasn’t great) From the timeline, they seem to serve food at 20-40mins intervals. Very inconsistent and for most part of the evening, it was spent waiting for food to arrive. Yes 5 courses, but manageable serving sizes (even for ladies). I really don’t understand the great ratings and reviews. Will not recommend for solo dinners. They seem to thrive off group energy. For solo dinners, they pay you no attention and it was hard to get their attention. The difference was striking to me as they kept making conversation with the loud girls next to me and when explaining dishes, the servers always want to do it for the group of 3 at the bar but the whole time, they only make eye contact with the 2 girls and chit chat with them. This felt rude and off-putting. Even asking for a small dish for the clam shells was challenging. Either the server’s English proficiency is lacking, or she simply could not care less to help. At checkout, the server asked for feedback but it only seemed procedural. I commented that food is good but was much slower than expected. She only replied that it’s a 2-hour dinner. (lol I got surprised when I saw the timestamp of my photos)… Also, the bar seat is a bad idea as your hair and clothes will stink of the kitchen smells / torches for cocktails.

Signal: 0.0%

6€ for one tea, 3€ for 250ml water and 3€ a coffee not worth the price tag. Porto has awesome cafes and restaurants with better coffee /tea etc and a fraction of the price. Not always price means quality. People just ends up feeling robbed and I am not going to repeat the experience again. Just because is not worth to spend my money on it.

Signal: 0.0%

2 stars and I am not sure about this.. We had francesinha and a pulp brochette. First time we had Francesinha and its sauce, it was almost disgusting. Pulp brochette with prawns was lower the average, let’s say acceptable. I believe that real quality has a price and when you go in these places you note it a lot. Final bill 30€ but if you want really eat good food, even if for a more expensive price, is worthy to go to other places. Cannot come back.

Signal: 0.0%