For The Love Of Port

I admit that I had about forgotten about this website. So it was very fortuitous that I checked my email this morning before heading up to Porto for the 3 day weekend and found an update email from Roy that jogged my memory.

Within a few hours of arriving in Porto I've already decided it's one of my favorite places. And, I'm going through the forum now to decide what to do tomorrow. I know I plan to have a francesinha (have to compare to the one I've had in Lisboa) and of course go taste some port.

Have fun and let us know where you visit and what you eat and drink please. :)

Before I forget the name, last night we ate near the river at a place called Cozzza Rio. The food was just ok for me, but the sangria was delicious. I had Bife Porto Hot (steak with a port reduction and pepper sauce). My friend had the Bife 3 Pimentas (steak with a sort of cream sauce with 3 types of peppercorns) that I thought was better. Our wives both got the grilled squid and seemed happy with it. Another person with us had the seafood paella and didn't like it too much.

Seven L. wrote:Before I forget the name, last night we ate near the river at a place called Cozzza Rio. The food was just ok for me, but the sangria was delicious. I had Bife Porto Hot (steak with a port reduction and pepper sauce). My friend had the Bife 3 Pimentas (steak with a sort of cream sauce with 3 types of peppercorns) that I thought was better. Our wives both got the grilled squid and seemed happy with it. Another person with us had the seafood paella and didn't like it too much.

Was this on the Gaia side or the Porto side?

Andy Velebil wrote: Was this on the Gaia side or the Porto side?

The Porto side. We didn't really go to the Gaia side at all. We did stop through Aveiro on the way home today though. I'm afraid that I was the only one in my group that really likes Port and since we had little kids we basically just walked around the city and checked out various buildings and gardens and such.

I'm hoping to go back soon to check out some of the wineries, caves, etc...

Thanks. Always good to get food reviews in our favorite part of the world.

The second day we ate lunch at Clerigos Cafe and Brasserie. It's a huge and slightly upscale kind of place. I had the francesinha which was really good, but cost 12 Euros (with fries) as compared to the place I usually get one in Lisbon. I saw some little hole in the wall place that had a special of francesinha and a drink for 5.99 and would've really liked to try that, but the time we happened across it was right after we had just eaten. I definitely want to try one at a lower end place as I have a feeling that, much like burgers in the US, dumpy little hole in the wall places often taste better than higher end places.

Back to Clerigos, my wife had the salmon for about 15 Euros and liked it. We had a liter of sangria which was 18Euro! That's twice as much as the Cozzza Rio and it really wasn't as good.

At one time this place by the Torre de Clerigos was very special and chef Pedro Lemos was a partner. He only stayed on for a few months before the partnership ended. The quality of that eatery is ok, but nothing more than that. They do have nice wines by the glass in there though.