The best late-night restaurants in Porto

The Bolhão BB Gourmet (there are six of these around the city) is a great choice at any time of the day. You can go there for breakfast or get a takeaway meal for lunch. You can also have a hot bun (baked on the premises) in the afternoon and then return for a dinner of veal with risotto alla parmigiana. At the weekend they have brunch from noon to 4pm, and crucially, they’re open till midnight Saturday and Sunday. 

Time Out tips:

– The veal croquettes.

– If you have a sweet tooth, try a verrine; it’s basically dessert in a small glass.

Brasão is a proper Porto success story. It’s the ‘son’ of O Paparico in Areosa, which has got to be a good thing. It brings a degree of quality to snacks, offering hardcore francesinha sandwiches (plus lighter options) as well as rump or sirloin steaks. The menu is simple and hearty, and they cater brilliantly for larger groups (though you do need to book ahead). Take your meat mates along. ‘Meat’ is an anagram of ‘mate’, after all. It’s open till midnight (2am on Fridays and Saturdays).

Time Out tips:

– Try the special Brasão by Sovina beer.

– Start with fried onion in black garlic mayo and go for the hazelnut chocolate mousse for dessert.

This Foz restaurant has survived for more than 20 years, so it probably deserves a plaque! Its reputation is based on classics like duck magret or the wellington tournedo, both signature dishes of chef Camilo Jaña. The menu also includes steak and eggs, plus some creative starters such as tuna tartar with avocado and spicy radish mayo.

Time Out tips:

– Try the buttery chocolate cake for dessert.

– If you’re a member of Client Club, take advantage of the Business Menu.

Chef José Avillez has been warmly welcomed by Porto residents. Northern Portugal was yearning for a restaurant like this and Avillez was also looking to expand to the upper part of the country. The chef told Time Out that this would be his ‘riskiest project’, but we can assure you the risk has paid off. Judging by the absolute lack of empty chairs at lunchtime, it’s safe to say things are going well. The lunch executive menu is based on list items and draws a big crowd, but Cantinho do Avillez also has plenty of local patrons for dinner. Dusk makes the mood a little more romantic. And what could be more romantic than farinheira sausage with a cornbread crust... or, since this is Porto, a reinvented francesinha sandwich with truffle and Serra cheese gravy. Absolutely delicious. All this, and it’s open till midnight.

Time Out tips:

– What comes from Porto has to be good: mushrooms, farinheira and linguíça sausages are all delivered from the Bolhão market.

_ The Portuguesinha, a sort of stewed pie, is a must.

– What do we recommend for dessert? Hazelnut!

Enough of alheira sausage with greens. At the Casa de Pasto da Palmeira, in Cantareira, the snacks are on another level. There’s alheira muffins, Rui-style eggs and smoked chicken rolls – all of these are among their best-known treats. But every month something new comes along, such as fried chestnuts, pork cheeks with pumpkin cevadotto or the cinnamon and sweet eggs ice cream. Will they still be on the menu when you visit? Probably not. But that’s part of the fun.

Time Out tips:

– If there’s something you like, have seconds, as the menu changes monthly.

– These items are permanent fixtures though: alheira sausage muffins and chicken rolls.

– The outdoors tables are among Foz’s most coveted, even in cold weather.

Add one of the city’s most beautiful panoramic views to the area’s best pizzas and the result has to be a success story. That’s exactly what happened with Casa D’Ora, located in the Marginal Road, where Italian-born Maria Paola Porru opened a restaurant and a pizzeria. The only thing the two have in common is being Italian – the upstairs pizzeria is a lot more relaxed than the more formal restaurant. There are plenty of Italian specialities to enjoy, from the popular diavola (devil) pizza to the ossobuco alla milanese. You can have that and enjoy an incredible view of the Douro River, its’s ideal for a romantic evening.

Time Out tips:

– Don’t be overwhelmed by choice. You can order different toppings for each half of your pizza.

– Besides pizzas, the rotolo di spinaci is a best-seller.

– Roll like an Italian: drink one of their typical beverages.

Few things are better about this city than the abundance of family restaurants where you can eat superbly – and this has been one of them for more than 35 years. Casa Nanda is a typical example of northern hospitality, the kind you would find at an elderly grandparent’s place, where the same dishes have been cooked hundreds of times, their taste refined to perfection. Here those dishes include hake fillets with rice or potato salad and the grilled beef rib.

Time Out tips:

– Ham is cured in-house.

– Writer Miguel Esteves Cardoso is a passionate fan.

– Start your meal with the chicken soup, finish it with aletria pudding or crème brulée.

At the restaurant in the Espaço Porto Cruz, led by chef Miguel Castro e Silva, it’s all about sharing. Bring company, order lots of snacks and try out each of them, including octopus fillets with tartar sauce or cod iscas. That’s lunchtime. For dinner, there’s a different menu with DOP maronesa beef ribs with oven-roasted rice or the fresh cod and mussels cataplana pan with grapes and saffron. You can also order the special menu for two and try the roast veal cheeks with creamy sausage rice or the butter bean clams. There’s plenty to choose from.

Time Out tips:

– The chef just released In Miguel Castro e Silva’s Kitchen, a book co-written with journalist Augusto Freitas de Sousa.

– Take a peek at the cocktail menu; drinks are served on the terrace.

– The Terrace Lounge 360º bar is so successful, it now has its own menu.

After travelling 30,000 kilometres through Latin America, Mexican Sol Cavillo and Portuguese João Marques decided to open a Mexican restaurant in Porto – there were none at the time. That made 2014 a good year for Porto. The food is faithful to Mexican gastronomy: recipes are cooked with imported ingredients and there are no Tex-Mex influences. Examples? Start your meal with totopos with pico de gallo and guacamole. Then go for a pollo mixiote (chicken rolled up in a banana tree leaf, served with mashed beans) or one of the menu highlights, the pescado tatemado – sea bass wrapped in corn leaf.

Time Out tips:

– The menu is due to change this year – nothing will go, but some dishes will be added.

– Everything goes down better with a margarita or a good South American beer.

– Try not to let the Mexican papers on the wall distract you too much.

If you’re in Porto, hungry and bereft of ideas about where to go, then the São Domingos square, at the end of the Rua das Flores, is a great option. This area has the greatest concentration of restaurants in the city, and some of them are pretty good (really good). LSD Largo São Domingos is one of those. Unlike most restaurants, they have a policy of retiring dishes when they get too popular. So enjoy your meal while you can – unless your favourites are ‘meat, meat, meat’ or the black chocolate parfait. Those are menu fixtures.

Time Out tips:

– The cheese cart spinning around the tables is a bit of a local celebrity.

– Chef João Pupo Lameiras is in charge of the kitchen.

– Owned by the same proprietors as the Casa de Pasto da Palmeira.