Porto has long been Portugal’s relatively sleepy second city, but in the last few years the city has woken up and become an exciting, cosmopolitan destination. The change is visible in hotels, museums and winery tasting rooms, but perhaps most of all in the city’s red-hot restaurant scene.
Classic Northern Portuguese cuisine is hearty stuff, a combination of countryside dishes packed with flavorful meat and vegetables and the simple fisherman’s cooking from the coast. Porto’s best new restaurants use the richness of ingredients available to them to craft dishes that take inspiration from the classics while bringing in new techniques, creative elegance, and influences from beyond Portugal’s borders.
Today, Porto is home to a growing number of fine dining restaurants, whose tasting menus may be honored with Michelin stars or not, worth the the trip. You can choose from a growing list of classic spots and adventurous newcomers. There’s also a growing movement in Portugal of relaxed fine dining a la bistronomie. The new generation of Portuguese chefs is hard at work making Porto a world-class food destination. The diversity of nearby wine regions, from Douro and Vinho Verde to Dão and Bairrada, also gives local sommeliers a wealth of choices for their pairings.
Here are some of Porto’s essential restaurants for those who want to taste the future of Portuguese cuisine in Port City.
Almeja
This cozy restaurant in the heart of Porto is a place to taste creative Portuguese cuisine from one of the Porto’s talented chefs. João Cura worked in some of Spain’s best kitchens before returning to his native Portugal. At Almeja, he’s applying the techniques of modern fine dining to local, seasonal ingredients. You can order à la carte or opt for the incredible tasting menu here, but either way you’re sure to enjoy beautifully presented and fanciful dishes that highlight regional produce, meat, and the best of the nearby Atlantic. This is a restaurant that’s on the radar of Portugal’s food-savvy.
Apego
In a stone-walled little space in the center of Porto, Apego serves updated Portuguese cuisine with excellent technique and inspired flavors. It’s a cozy restaurant, with couches lining the wall and dark wood accenting against stone. You feel at home as soon as you sit down. The short menu changes with the seasons and the market, always seeking to highlight the best ingredients of northern Portugal. Portuguese-French chef Aurora Goy is one of the city’s young talents. The delicious fish dishes are always worth ordering. To drink, choose from a short but select wine list with a special focus on artisan Portuguese growers.
Barão Fladgate
Barão Fladgate offers elegant Portuguese cuisine in one of the best locations in the city. Inside Taylors port lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia, the restaurant offers panoramic views of Porto across the river. On the menu, creative and subtle dishes that showcase the best products and recipes of Portuguese cuisine with modern technique and unique flavor combinations. This is a place for a long, relaxed lunch or a romantic dinner. The wine list is a draw, featuring special wines from Portugal’s major regions and an extensive collection of Port wines, including the best of Taylors itself. Barão Fladgate is a benchmark for fine dining in Porto.
Bistrô Flores
The restaurant of the Hotel Portobay Flores, Bistrô Flores, serves elegant, vegetable-forward dishes in the restored palatial dining rooms of the hotel. You can order from the short, seasonal menu or choose one of the tasting menus. Expect excellent Portuguese product with flavors pulled from the traditional Portuguese repertoire as well as from around the world. Since opening, Bistrô Flores has received significant acclaim in a city awash with good restaurants.
Casa de Chá da Boa Nova Restaurant
Meals at Casa de Chá da Boa Nova tend to last a while…usually because the desire to sit outside on their terrace after lunch or dinner, staring at the Atlantic, drinking wine, is hard to resist. Casa de Chá da Boa Nova (2 Michelin stars) is built on the rocks next to the Atlantic Ocean near the Matosinhos fishing port. With the tasting menus living up to the setting, lunch or dinner is sure to be an impressive (and lengthy) affair. Chef Rui Paula is a Porto native who combines the ingredients and flavors of his northern Portuguese heritage with creative techniques and ingredients from around the world.
Le Monument
Sometimes an outsider perspective on a cuisine can open up its secrets. This is the case at Le Monument, one of Porto's most fascinating fine dining restaurants and one of its newest Michelin stars. French chef Julien Montbabut takes diners on a journey through Portugal's regional ingredients and recipes refined into haute cuisine dishes. From the deep flavors of countryside produce and game to diverse fish and seafood from the coasts of Portugal and even the island territories, the menu is a love letter to Portugal's purity. The restaurant's elegant yet comfortable dining room in the luxurious Le Monumental Palace hotel is the perfect setting for this exploration right in the heart of Porto. The creativity of the tasting menus is expertly accompanied by wine service that includes carefully chosen pairings.
The Yeatman Gastronomic Restaurant
The elegant Yeatman Hotel across the river from downtown Porto, in addition to setting the bar for luxury accommodation in the city, is also home to one of Portugal's most important restaurants. The hotel bet on young Portuguese talent Ricardo Costa to head its flagship restaurant, an investment that paid off when the Yeatman Gastronomic became Portugal's first 2-Michelin star restaurant in 2017. Costa serves a single tasting menu which focuses particularly on the diversity of fish and seafood that northern Portugal is known for. Visually and gastronomically, each dish is a work of art, bringing together Portuguese ingredients and recipes with influences from Japan and beyond. Once you've had your appetizers and proceeded to the main part of the menu, you'll move to the main dining room for one of the best views of Porto's waterfront. Whether you opt for a wine pairing or select bottles for yourself, don't neglect the liquid component sourced from one of Portugal's most complete wine cellars.