My family and I just spent two weeks in Portugal, starting north in Coimbra and Porto, then spending a week in Madeira over New Year’s, and ending in Sintra and Lisbon. As seafood lovers, we ate so well throughout our entire trip, with an incredible variety of foods. I loved reading others’ HO Portugal food reports before embarking on our trip so adding my own here in case it helps future travelers.
Here were some of our favorite food stops.
In Coimbra, we had an outstanding dinner at Restaurante No Tacho. This is a tiny place on a narrow street near the cathedral square with only a handful of tables, so I would advise making reservations. Several of the parties that came in after us were turned away. Two of us shared a fabulous caldo verde, a cod confit with cauliflower puree and mushrooms, and best of all, the pigeon with mondego rice. The last dish, recommended strongly by our server, was so fragrant and served in a small covered pot, perfect to share on a cold December night. Service was warm, and they clearly took pride in their house specialities.
We had breakfast at our hotel, Sapientia Boutique Hotel, which had a generous breakfast spread. It included their own house made yogurt and multiple kinds of fruit preserves. We would gladly stay here again.
We took the train from Coimbra to Porto and grabbed a quick lunch at O Astro, right outside of the Campanha Train Station. The bifana was solid, as was the caldo verde, less refined than what we had tasted the night before but still tasty! We also tried the hamburger with a slice of ham and cheese, and it was perfectly juicy. The meal fueled us up for the rest of our afternoon and was a tremendous bargain.
We tried our first pastel de nata at Fabrica de Nata on the pedestrian street, Rua de Santa Catarina. We thought it was quite good and less sweet, which we preferred, than the one at Manteigaria that we had an hour later.
Later that afternoon, we had the opportunity to do the sardine cannery tour at Pinhais in Matosinhos and really enjoyed the experience and tasting. If you arrive on a weekend or holiday, as we had, the women are not working, which was a little disappointing, but you get to walk through the entire factory floor and see the equipment up close. My mom and I got to try our hand at filling a can on the assembly line, as well as learn how to wrap a can. We didn’t know that we would have to suit up completely, hairnets, scrubs, and all, but it just added to the fun of the experience. The tasting afterwards with bread and two kinds of sardines (spicy and regular) was very filling. I could have skipped dinner, but we had reservations at a seafood place in Matosinhos.
I had tried to make a reservation at O Valentim, recommended by Maribel in some of the posts I researched, but they did not return my online reservation request. We ended up making reservations at Meia-Nau. They also have a restaurant in Porto, so make sure you choose the right one when making reservations. We had the best seafood meal of our trip here with excellent clams a Bulhao Pato, tender grilled small squid, padron peppers, and an outstanding seafood rice to share for two people. This meal went well with a glass of Vinho Verde, which we enjoyed heartily throughout our time in Portugal.
Our breakfast the next day was at Mercado do Bolhao. We enjoyed exploring this sparkling clean market, getting our first glimpse of the dried cod, and trying out different foods. For breakfast, we had our first cod croquettes, a selection of seafood toasts, a charcuterie sampler, and some fresh fruit.
We skipped lunch, as we were on a walking tour, but we stopped along the tour at a local padaria for coffee and another pastel de nata. As it was Christmas Eve, we enjoyed seeing all of the locals come in for their holiday desserts.
Christmas Eve dinner had been challenging to book, as we didn’t want to pay over 100 euros a person for a set menu. We ended up finding a 55 euro set menu at Barao Fladgate, which we booked in advance. The meal was okay (chestnut soup was tasty, turkey was overcooked), but the views of the river and Porto across the way were stunning.
Next up: Madeira
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