The musicians' café since 1933
Two minutes down the same avenue, a café founded in 1933 and better known as the musicians' café, which still runs a programme of cultural events. It serves its own breakfast, afternoon tea, sandwiches and full main courses, and its own site gives daily hours of 9:00 to 22:00. That makes it the easy answer on a Sunday or Monday night, and the nearest alternative if you want breakfast outside the hotel.
Walk inAvenida dos Aliados 85/89
Francesinhas and steaks, beer-hall style
Porto's own sandwich, one street behind the avenue: the francesinha here is bread, steak, fresh sausage, linguiça, ham, cured meats and cheese under the house sauce, with a vegetable version too. It is a cervejaria, a beer hall, and the list runs from Super Bock to a house IPA. Its own site gives lunch every day from 12:00 to 16:30 and dinner from 18:30, until 23:30 from Sunday to Thursday and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Reserve aheadRua Ramalho Ortigão 28
Everything cooked over wood fire · €€€
An open kitchen in a restored 19th-century building where everything is cooked on wood: a wood oven, a grill built for the room and a bed of coals for smoking, with produce from small Portuguese suppliers. Dinner is à la carte or the eight-course Invicta tasting menu at 95 euros a head; the restaurant warns you to expect smoke and does not recommend it for children under 12. Its own site gives 19:00 to 23:00, closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Reserve aheadRua do Almada 51
Contemporary cooking, a novelist's house · €€€
The house where the novelist Camilo Castelo Branco watched Ana Plácido appear on her balcony, the affair behind Amor de Perdição, is now a restaurant named for him. The kitchen crosses Portuguese classics with flavours from further away: mackerel with fermented gazpacho, suckling pig, salt cod with chickpeas and pil-pil, with most main courses at 21 to 30 euros on its own menu. Its own site gives dinner from 19:00 every night but Tuesday, until 22:30, or midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Reserve aheadRua do Almada 378
Market-led cooking, casual fine dining · €€
Chef João Cura came home after Barcelona kitchens that included two with Michelin stars, and calls what he cooks here casual fine dining. The method is the reason to go: the kitchen asks small producers what they have and writes the menu afterwards, so it follows the seasons; the summer 2026 card had tasting menus of seven and ten moments at 66 and 98 euros. Its own site does not publish opening hours, so book ahead.
Reserve aheadRua Fernandes Tomás 819
Salt-cod house in the Bolhão · €€
A restaurant given over to bacalhau, the salt cod Portugal treats as part of its identity, cooked the traditional way on the gallery floor of the Bolhão, the city's market for more than a hundred years. Its own site gives Monday to Saturday, 12:00 to 17:00 and 18:00 to 22:30, closed on Sundays. Go at lunch and walk the market first: the stalls open at 8:00 and close at 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays.
Reserve aheadRua Formosa 322, Mercado do Bolhão
Breakfast is served in The Mezzanine, the hotel's breakfast and brunch room, and guests praise the buffet; check what your rate includes. The dearer Bed & Breakfast rate, 76 euros a night more per room, is the one the hotel says adds hot à la carte dishes. On a room-only rate, ask the price: the hotel does not publish it. The nearest alternative is Café Guarany, two minutes away, from 9:00.
The quayside terraces of the Ribeira, a kilometre downhill, where the river view is most of what you pay for. Eat in the Baixa, walk down for a glass by the water, and take a taxi back up the hill.
