Best Restaurants Porto

Those of you who have read my article on Spain are wondering, “Are you in Spain or Portugal?” Don’t worry, I tried a lot of new places, but when I came across Honest Greens, which has become my regular stop on my trips to Spain, on Porto’s busiest shopping street, I found myself going here for coffee. I’ve been walking for hours, I traveled by bus at night, don’t you think I deserve a little rest? When I go in, the chocolate tart was looking so delicious. It was almost saying to me “you’re so tired, you deserve another dessert” and the best part is it’s flourless, sugar-free, which makes it an innocent dessert. It accompanied perfectly my oat milk latte.

I was looking for different places to eat in the evening, but the places I went to were either closed or full. University students also had a celebration that day, all the streets were full of people. I wish I could eat a slice of pizza or something, but there seems to no place for those. My dear Spain, I missed you already. After looking around a few places, my feet knew where to go. Honest Greens is also a safe choice in terms of food. I hoped that the shift in the morning has changed 🙂 There is no falafel in this branch, I preferred the chicken. It tasted a bit bland and I wished I had it spicy, but luckily it was a satisfying meal with its side dishes and portion size. I also had a glass with the H2O bar refill option. I tried 4 glasses of different natural waters.

Now that I was with my dear friend, Semiha, who can not be satisfied with a plain croissant for the breakfast, I needed to choose a place that offers larger portions. While wandering solo the day before, I noted a few places that caught my eye as crowded. Nicolau was one of them, we also checked out that its score is high on Google maps.
We waited in line at Nicolau for a little while. Then, we were being seated on the bar chairs by the window and watched everyone passing by, one of our favorite activities.

I ordered Florentine eggs with spinach and mushrooms. I wouldn’t even try the egg yolk that flows like raw when you pop it. Since I was going to pay a good amount of money, I had to eat it 🙂 Surprisingly it was so delicious with other ingredients and bread, now my only complaint was that the portion is so small. We ordered orange juice on the side, because our throats slightly hurt. And guess what, the orange juice came with ice. While we wanted vitamins to be good for our throats, we ended up making them worse. Prices were a little expensive for breakfast but everything was delicious. My friend was also very pleased with her choice; the egg plate with avocado and beetroot hummus. You can prefer this place for lunch as well, they have burgers, salads, hummus and so on.

Another place we admired in Porto. It’s almost like a museum inside. Perfect for a romantic date night with its dimly lit ambiance. Or we can say it is for those whose stomachs are ringing, but who make a start by inhaling the spirit of the place. The first things that come to the table are olives, bread, cheese and ham, but do not think of these as treats, because they are not free of charge. You can send back whatever you want. Hold on to the bread though, I think you’ll soon be dipping the shrimp in butter, which is also a suggestion by the owners as well 🙂 We ordered calamari, shrimp in butter and Portugal’s famous dish, francesinha. The seafood was delicious but the francesinha was a little dry. We also tried forest fruit white sangria here and absolutely loved it. The harmony of fruit and wine is much more delicious than the classic one with red wine.

The owners and staff are also very sweet, by the way. While we were eating Francesinha, the owner came and explained, using sign language, how to eat it and how to dip the bread into thesauce. Unfortunately, due to the dim environment, the photos did not come out very well with the phone camera, so you’d better go and experience it.

Mercado do Bolhão

We passed by this market on our way to Mesa325 and put it in the back of our minds. Since we were going to Lisbon by bus in the evening, we did not want to have a long dinner. We entered the market and walked around first. We bought quiches from one of the first stalls on the right at the entrance, they were hot, fresh and delicious 🙂 Just a few stalls away is a fisherman’s stall from the seafood paradise, Portugal, it seems like we are in a good place to try oysters for the first time. I couldn’t help but wonder as Phil Rosenthal (if you haven’t watched it on Netflix, please watch it now, the name of the program Somebody Feed Phil) was eagerly devouring those oysters in a few of his shows. The problem is that I only like the smell of the sea on the seashore or on myself, not on what I eat 🙂

We bought codfish as Portugal is also famous for codfish cake, but it seems a bit dry to me, I like oily fish. We wish we had eaten delicious fried haddock or sole 🙂 We again buy pintxos on bread, but the ones we ate by the river were definitely more successful.

Our favorite ones were the quiches, we went back and forth and bought another quiche each, thinking that our stomachs should not be empty, we still have a long way to go. Yes, our stomach full of carbohydrates and us, because we are now two separate entities with our stomach, a total of 4 entities, we are ready to set off 🙂 Lisbon is waiting for us, even if it doesn’t, we are going! It is sufficient if it welcomes us with open arms, I mean with a good weather or so. Spoiler: it didn’t but we still enjoyed it.

Hard Club

Hard Club was one of the places I read in local recommendations, recommended for concerts and nightlife. We didn’t think we would go since we wouldn’t stay long enough to experience the nightlife. However, it was raining as we went down to the riverside and we saw people in front of the Hard Club, which made us say let’s go in and see what’s on offer at this hour. The view outside the Hard Club is as seen in the photo. When we entered, there was no concert or entertainment yet, but people were already sipping their drinks at the bar.

After looking around, we noticed the stairs leading to the upper floor as we were about to leave. It said N’o Mercado on the entrance. When we climbed the stairs, we were greeted by a restaurant with a pipe stove, various chairs and tables, and even a Greek god-like statue in the middle. The service hadn’t started yet, but we thought it might be nice to sit down for the evening. Of course, since it was a little far from our hotel, we did not return for the evening though. Hard Club’s score is high on the reviews, but the restaurant’s is low, you might still want to give it a chance due to the atmosphere.

You might also want to check out my post on “Best Cafes in Porto”. For the places to visit in Porto, you can find the link to my article here.