What to Eat in Porto - 12 Local Dishes and How to Order

Q: What should I drink in Porto besides port?

Order a *fino* (small draught beer), a glass of vinho verde from the Minho, or a Douro red. For coffee, ask for a *cimbalino*, which is Porto's name for an espresso.

What to Eat in Porto - 12 Local Dishes and How to Order

In Porto, eat the francesinha (a meat sandwich drowned in beer sauce), tripas à moda do Porto (tripe and white bean stew), a bifana or a sandes de pernil (roast pork leg roll) at a counter, bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fritters) and grilled sardines in June. Finish with a glass of port across the river in Gaia. Northern food is hearty, porky and generous.

Porto eats differently from Lisbon. Portions are bigger, the cooking leans on pork, offal and slow stews, and lunch is the main event. Most of what follows costs very little in an ordinary tasca (a small family restaurant), so you can eat well without booking anything.

The dishes Porto is famous for

1. Francesinha

The city's signature: layers of bread, ham, linguiça (a thin smoked sausage), fresh sausage and steak, sealed under melted cheese and soaked in a hot, spicy sauce made with beer and tomato. Many places add a fried egg on top and chips on the side. It's a full meal, not a snack. Expect to pay roughly €10-15 with chips. We cover the history, the sauce and a home version in our francesinha guide, so we won't repeat it here.

2. Tripas à moda do Porto

Tripe stewed with white beans, chouriço, pig's ear, chicken and carrots, seasoned with cumin. It's why people from Porto are nicknamed tripeiros (tripe eaters). According to tradition, in 1415 the city gave its best meat to the fleet sailing to conquer Ceuta and kept only the offal for itself. Whether or not that's true, the dish is a point of pride. Order it at lunch, ideally on a cold day, and look for it as a weekly special (prato do dia).

3. Bifana

Thin pork steaks simmered in a garlicky, wine-based sauce and stuffed into a soft roll. Porto bifanas are often wetter and spicier than Lisbon's, with the roll dunked in the cooking liquid. Ask for picante if you want the chilli sauce. A bifana and a small beer is the classic cheap lunch, usually a few euros. Make your own with our air fryer bifanas.

4. Sandes de pernil

Slow-roasted pork leg, sliced thin and piled into a roll, often with a slice of soft, pungent sheep's cheese. It's a late-night favourite as much as a lunch. If you see pernil com queijo on a board, order it.

5. Bolinhos de bacalhau

In Lisbon they're pastéis de bacalhau; in Porto people tend to call them bolinhos. Salt cod, potato, egg and parsley, shaped into ovals and fried. Eat them warm at a café counter, on their own or with a cold fino. Try our air fryer pastéis de bacalhau at home.

6. Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá

A baked salt cod dish with potatoes, onions, olive oil, black olives and hard-boiled eggs. It's named after a 19th-century Porto cod merchant, José Luís Gomes de Sá, and it's on menus all over the north. If you only order one cod dish in Porto, make it this one. Our guide on how to soak bacalhau explains the step most home cooks get wrong.

7. Caldo verde

Potato soup with ribbons of shredded kale and a slice of chouriço. The north is its home turf, and it's eaten at lunch, late at night and at every festival. See our caldo verde recipe.

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8. Polvo and arroz de polvo

Octopus is big in the north. Look for polvo à lagareiro (roasted with potatoes and lots of olive oil) and arroz de polvo (a soupy octopus rice). Here's our polvo à lagareiro.

9. Sardines at São João

On the night of 23 June the city celebrates São João, its patron saint festival. Streets fill with grills, sardines on bread, caldo verde, and people tapping each other on the head with plastic hammers. If you're in Porto in June, plan around it. Our Santos Populares food guide covers what's on the grills.

10. Seafood in Matosinhos

Matosinhos, just north of the city and reachable by metro, is where Porto goes for grilled fish. Restaurants grill on the pavement outside. Fish is often sold by weight, so ask the price per kilo before you choose. Our Portuguese seafood guide explains what's on the ice.

11. Pastries: pastel de nata and more

You'll find the custard tart everywhere, plus northern sweets like pão de ló (a soft sponge cake). Our Portuguese pastries guide tells you what to point at in a pastelaria.

12. Port wine

Port is made from grapes grown up the Douro valley, but for centuries it has been aged and shipped from the lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Porto. Many lodges run tastings. Start with a chilled white port with tonic as an aperitif, a tawny after dinner, and a ruby with cheese. Our port wine guide explains the styles.

What to drink in Porto

Fino: a small draught beer. Lisbon calls it an imperial; in Porto ask for a fino.
Cimbalino: Porto's word for an espresso, from the old Cimbali coffee machines. A bica works too, but cimbalino gets a smile.
Vinho verde: the young, fresh wine from the Minho, just north of Porto. Our vinho verde guide has more.
Port: see above. A glass is cheap in any café.

How to order like a local

Portions in the north are large. A dose is a full portion and often feeds two; a meia dose (half portion) is perfectly normal to ask for. Bread, olives and butter may arrive before you order. They're not free: you pay for what you eat, and you can send them back.

Lunch runs roughly from 12:30 to 15:00 and dinner from about 19:30. Many small tascas close on Sundays. If you want to understand the menu without guessing, our list of Portuguese food words covers the terms you'll see most.

Bringing Porto home

The two dishes most people miss after a trip are the francesinha and tripas. Both need a big pot and patience. For tripas you need a heavy stockpot that can hold beans, tripe and meats for a long simmer.

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Farberware 6-quart stainless stockpot

A best-selling stockpot for caldo verde, octopus and cooking bacalhau.

Tip: Works on all hobs, including induction.

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For the francesinha sauce, a little dried chilli gives it the kick that Porto cafés are known for.

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Piri-piri chillies from Portugal

Whole dried bird's-eye chillies, the heat behind frango piri-piri and the bottle of chilli oil on every Portuguese table.

Tip: Two packs last a year. Crush them as you need them.

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