The 12 best seafood restaurants in Porto

‘When I was little, every weekend I would go with my father to the São Pedro Market in Niterói to buy fish and shellfish that would then be cooked on the grill,’ recalls Rafaela Louzada, the chef of Gruta in Rua de Santa Catarina, where she works mainly with what she finds at the Matosinhos fish market. Highlights include lobster bisque with lemongrass, octopus carpaccio, courgette salad with lemon, mint, pine nuts and parmesan, fish moqueca and rice. Oh, and make sure you try the Lobster Roll, a homemade brioche stuffed with blue lobster from the coast, kimchi mayonnaise and crunchy chips. 

The dishes at Escama are intricate and delicious, from the ea bass with pineapple, lemon and Malibu (you heard us!) to the  smoked mackerel tartlets with beetroot tartar and horseradish cream. We also recommend the seafood rice with steamed redfish, crab, razor clams, sea urchin, cockles, seaweed and crab foam. Fish and shellfish are king at this Mouzinho da Silveira restaurant, but the wine cellar is home to some serious gems too.

At Zizi at Praia da Aguda, there is always fresh shellfish: mussels, clams, shrimps, goose barnacles and more. There is also the best massada de robalo (pasta with sea bass) in the area, which comes in huge servings.

Salta O Muro is one of Matosinhense's most loved restaurants, both for the warm service and for the seriously good fish dishes. From grilled sardines to pataniscas, and octopus rice to fish stew, there are plenty of reasons to visit, but we recommend getting pudding too (the crème brûlée is our fave). They also do a lovely fish of the day on rotation, which comes grilled or fried. 

There are many reasons to head to Leça da Palmeira and eat chef Rui Paula's food. Besides his creative and gastronomic skills – which he already demonstrated elsewhere, such as DOC in the Douro and DOP in downtown Porto – dining the Casa de Chá da Boa Nova (designed by architect Siza Vieira) makes everything seem different: that's due to the dramatic landscape. Every meal starts with an aperitif in a room overlooking the ocean, and the menus are unreal; one is seafood only, while the Mar e Terra is more of a surf & turf mix. Boa Nova offers lighter fare.

Just a few metres from the sea, this small restaurant has a short menu focused on what the ocean has to offer. Recently renovated, Lessa's menu was designed and created by chef André Pinto Baptista. There are dishes worth trying, such as the tomato carolino and cod nuggets and the market ceviche with clams, white fish, prawns and Bulhão Pato tiger's milk. As for desserts, the new dish to try is the summer ceviche, which is basically a deconstructed fruit salad. 

This was Matosinhos’s first marisqueira (it opened its doors in 1957) and 60 years on it still draws huge numbers of locals and tourists in search of proper shellfish, including locally caught shrimp, oysters, lobster and crab.

Housed in a stone-walled cottage overlooking Angeiras Beach, this is the ideal restaurant to end the hottest days of summer with friends. Casa Guripa's menu is the best of the sea, from cuttlefish with black mayonnaise to clams bulhão pato style and paella with monkfish, squid, prawns and bivalves and crab cornets.

It’s been a classic for decades now and remains a safe haven where seafood is concerned. The amêijoas à bulhão pato (clams with garlic and coriander), percebes (goose barnacles), camarões (shrimps) or the filetes de pescada (hake fillets) – the top seller here – are all good excuses to head for Matosinhos, seafood central.

With three restaurants spread across Porto, the Casa Coelho group – which includes Adega São Nicolau and Taberna dos Mercadores – is also responsible for Terreiro, where you can sample a wide variety of fish. Choose the terrace overlooking the Ribeira and go for starters like the petinga ribs or the octopus salad. For mains, go for the fried dory with roe açorda, the lobster mayonnaise or the sea bass. There's also always a choice of fish of the day.

The name means “Seafood of the poor”, but all income groups are accepted and they actually sell seafood in various price ranges. From lobster to mussels, from shrimp to whelk, they have it all at fair prices (20/25€ per person).

This small venue by sushiman Ruy Leão is inspired by Japanese izakayas, bistros where group of friends go to share plates and have a drink after work. In Shiko’s menu, at Batalha, the majority of dishes are meant to be shared: from yakisoba noodles to sushi, through to the pancake-like okonomiyaki, here stuffed with shellfish. Dive head first and without hesitation, dear reader, before your friend eats it all alone.