Where to wine and dine in Porto
First of all, Porto is absolutely beautiful! If you can travel here when it’s a sunny day, you will be in paradise!
I recommend staying on the river in an AirBnB or rent an apartment through Douro Apartments, which will likely be cheaper than AirBnB; they also really take care of their apartments. Our apartment had a large water bottle and some delicious port, waiting for us upon arrival, andh we obviously downed the port as soon as we got there. :)
For Brunch/Coffee:
This…place…rocks! Really delicious brunch and…most importantly…delicious coffee!!! I got a flat white and my boyfriend got a latte and both were perfect; great espresso beans and everything was well-foamed like a true espresso beverage. I got regular milk because I wasn’t really liking the non-dairy milk options in Europe (having tried it in London and elsewhere in Porto). For food, I ordered a green salad and the waffle with fresh berries. Wow! Flavor burst in my mouth! Definitely scraped my plate clean hehe oops!
Breakfast of champs: balsamic, arugula salad, waffle with berries, granola/berries/yogurt, latte, and a flat white.
For dinner:
The chef of this restaurant, José Avillez, has restaurants in Lisbon, Porto, and other parts of Portugal so we definitely wanted to give his Porto location a try! We got the fried green beans, which were delicious (especially after indulging in some port prior to dinner ;) ) and for my main, I got the risotto. I’m not a big fan of risotto but risotto is very big in Portugal so I wanted to give it a try and I’m so glad I did. Tasty!
For Port:
My boyfriend LOVES port but I didn’t really have an appreciation for it as I’m more of a red wine lover; however, I wanted to learn more and aprpeciate port so we did a wine tour through Porto Walkers. They do a free waking tour as well but the port tour is 25 euros (as of now), which is totally worth it when you experience the tour. We had a tour with Alex and he was super chill. Our group was also pretty small (ten of us) so by the end of the first port tasting, we all were talking and bonding.
We visited Ramos Pinto, Cálem, and Quinta Santa Eufemia. At Ramos Pinto, pronounced hay-mosh pin-thu, we were able to learn the differences between tawny, white, and aged port. Really fascinating story. We also learned about the advertising tactics of the owner, Adriano Ramos Pinto, which were quite scandalous back in the day. tldr: the Tawny port was delicious!
At Cálem, we were able to see how big the port barrels can be and learn more about the various types of ports. I loved the ports here, even the white ones! We also learned that it’s a pretty intense job to clean barrels that store the port and it can even be life endangering!
At Quinta Santa Eufemia, the tour was good and shorter than the others, which was fine with me cuz I was feeling really good with the previous cellars’ ports and was having a hard time focusing hehe. Anyway, we were able to go inside of a barrel, which was pretty cool to get the full picture of port storage. I loved the ports here. Really high quality!
I also loved how we were able to check out the ports that I don’t traditionally see in liquor stores in the US. Obviously, Sandeman, Graham’s, and Taylor Fladgate were there and are known for their incredible ports (which we tried, of course), but I was very impressed with the tour, our guide Alex, and the group. Highly recommend!
So basically…go to Porto…now!
Beautiful riverwalk in Porto.
