Porto: A last word about the food in Porto…
As we get ready to leave Porto, I wanted to reflect on some of the highlights of all the great food, wine and port we had.
Our hotel, the Ibis Porto Centro Mercado Bolhao, has a staff that have been great and extremely helpful. Every recommendation they have made for a meal have been spot on. The breakfast buffet at the hotel is great and you can have your fill.
Fancy doesn’t necessarily mean expensive here. Staff recommended a restaurant that was off an alley in a beautiful old building. Inside there were stone walls with wainscoting in beautiful Portuguese tile. A photo above captures the interior. The waiters wore starched white shirts, bow ties and black pants with long black aprons. Service was excellent and the food was exceptional. Pork is a mainstay here and my go to dish. Barry was able to have his favorite Portuguese meal of grilled sardines. The waiters hovered in the background to top up our wine and water when it got low. The whole meal with an aperitif, 2 dinners, a bottle of wine, 1 shared desert and a nightcap for Barry only came to $75. It was nice to be treated so well!
For our meal for our last night in Porto, we decided to go back to this restaurant. The food was just as good this time.
By contrast, our lunch at the English port lodge, Taylor Fladgate was expensive but in fairness, the experience was very posh. The location can’t be beat: on the hill across the river from downtown Portugal with 180 degree views of the river and city. We also had an aperitif, bottle of wine, 2 meals, 2 desserts and an after dinner port each but the total there was $168. Lunch there was very fancy with lots of very knowledgeable wait staff including a sommelier to help us pair our wine with our meal and port with dessert. The food was outstanding and the gourmet desserts were a work of art. I normally don’t take photos of our food the but decided to mention the desserts.
Barry’s banana cheesecake.
My panacotta.
After port tonics, a bottle of local white wine and after lunch ports, we had to stagger down the hill, cross the river and climb the hill on the other side to our hotel. The offer of a taxi by the port cave was starting to seem like a good idea but we braved the weather and made the long trip back to our hotel. The exercise did us good.
For lunch one day we went to a place down the hill from our hotel. We had a toasted sandwich and glass of wine for very little but the cafeteria was beautiful as you can see from the photos.
Lunch counter
Lunch room
As we prepare to leave Porto in the morning to our last leg to Lisbon, we are reminded of the lovely city with great food and drink and lots of good memories. I doubt with all the future travel we have planned that we will return to Porto and we look forward to new adventures when we get settled in Lisbon. Cheers to Porto!
