CFB Porto, Douro and beyond: basically everything you need to know

Portuguese people are almost impossibly friendly and helpful and they all seem to speak good to excellent English since I think it is mandatory in schools. So if someone is trying to get your attention it is way more likely that they are trying to help you than scam you…unlike in some other countries [cough, Morocco, cough]. I would suggest using Portuguese people as a resource rather than fighting to do something yourself.

A very important fact when it comes to CFB: Portugal is a lunch country. On Saturday or Sunday especially if you don’t have a reservation for lunch then you will be waiting for a table. Also there are not really any “grab-and-go” type places for lunch; almost everywhere worth eating lunch will be a proper restaurant with table service and everything. This was a very difficult reality for me to grasp so don’t fall into the same trap I did—plan where you want to eat lunch (especially on or around the weekends) and make reservations.

As an added difficulty for someone like me, Portugal does not seem to be the most technologically savvy country. You will be extremely lucky even at the most sophisticated restaurants outside Lisbon to find some sort of online reservation capabilities. In some cases you won’t even have an email address, only a phone number to call. In these cases, see above regarding the friendliness and general proficiency in English of the population, and make the call to make sure you have a reservation (though it probably wouldn’t hurt to learn how to ask in Portuguese if someone is able to speak English). N.B. Just because Portugal is a lunch country that doesn’t mean you won’t also need reservations for dinner at fancier/popular restaurants like those you are likely to want to eat dinner at while on vacation.

One unfortunate thing about Portugal from a CFB perspective is the coffee is generally terrible. Even in Porto specialty coffee is scarce, in the Douro and beyond it is non-existent. I do not have a solution for this problem, I just want to make sure you are prepared : )

Finally, another unfortunate thing about Portugal that we learned the hard way that you may find useful if you plan on driving: they have a product at gas stations called “gasoleo simples”. Do not be fooled by the name; this is a kind of diesel fuel. Do not put it into a car that needs gasoline. Always look for “sem chumbo” on whatever fuel you are going to put into a car that needs gasoline. Trust me.

Anyway, on with the show…

Don’t miss

Quinta Nova Nossa Senhora do Carmo – Douro Valley – Hotel/Restaurant/Winery
If visiting the winery, be sure to book a tour as far in advance as possible, especially during the summer. The wines are very good and even if you don’t get on a tour you can still sit and look out over the beautiful vistas onto the Douro valley while tasting some of the wines. Just fyi, it’s a long drive to get here, from either direction, so take that into account if you’re planning to visit other wineries.

Quinta Santa Julia – Douro Valley – Hotel
Perched at the top of the hill, the views are amazing. The vines and gardens are beautiful and the house is charmingly old (i.e. dark and slightly claustrophobic) and giant and you can just feel the history. Staying here is more like staying with an old relative than at a hotel, and Eduardo, the owner of the house, is an absolute joy to sit and talk with the way you might enjoy sitting and talking to your grandpa who lived an awesome life.

Restaurante Castas e Pratos – Douro Valley – Restaurant
Huge wine list with excellent selections by the glass in both table wines and dessert wines as well as solid, composed food.

DOC – Chef Rui Paula – Douro Valley – Restaurant
Costs and arm and a leg but the food (and wine) was so good. I had the roast baby goat with oven rice and it was so perfect. I could eat it every day, especially paired with the Rebolar tinto by the glass. Plus the view is amazing from the deck across the river and the valley. Make a reservation.

The Wine Barrels – Porto – Restaurant/Wine Bar
Legit wine professionals here (surprisingly, since it feels like a pretty touristy place). They take their wine and your experience drinking it very seriously; I really appreciated the dedication to the craft, as well as championing the small producers of the Douro Valley. Plus the meat and cheese board was pretty dope and they have vintage port by the glass! Check out their sister wine bar The Wine Box, as well.

Cafe Progresso – Porto – Coffee
Genuine La Marzocco so you know the coffee is legit. The scrambled eggs and toast breakfast combo was good if a bit plain (could use some jam for that toast). They have single origin espresso options and speak very good English.

Combi Coffee – Porto – Coffee
Best coffee that I tasted in Porto. They roast their own beans and have multiple single origin options for espresso. Plus their Pastel de Nata is the best I tried in Porto. Very cool/hip ambience and perfect English is spoken by all the staff.

Casa Guedes – Porto – Sandwiches
Don’t be fooled by anything else on the menu—the sande com pernil e queijo is the way to go. They are small though so maybe get two per person or some fries or soup. But man those pork sandwiches are basically perfect

Época Porto – Porto – Breakfast
The sourdough bread and eggs with Turkish spices is so good it makes me upset. I could probably eat that every single morning. Plus, really good coffee, cute and cool decor, and English-speaking staff; I loved this place.

7groaster – Porto – Coffee
Solid coffee and a very cool ambience. They roast their own beans and have multiple coffee options (espresso and brewed coffee). They have food as well which—except for the so-so pastel de nata—we did not try, but as far as acceptable coffee goes in Villa Nova de Gaia I’m sure this is your best bet.

If you have time/maybe not for everyone

Quinta do Vallado – Douro Valley – Winery/Hotel
The winery tour is decent and the winery is beautiful but the wines you taste at the end are mediocre. Personally, I would probably choose a different winery to tour if I were to do it all over again.

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Offley – Porto – Winery
Next time I would probably just skip the tour and the lackluster tasting (even the Barão de Forrester tasting was lackluster) and go straight to the tasting room on R. Costa Santos for either the €15 flight of aged tawnies (10-, 20- and 30-year old) or a €7.50 glass of one of the vintage ports.

Caves São João – Aveiro – Winery
Great wines, especially the Poco do Lobo wines (both the Arinto and the Cabernet Sauvignon) from the 90’s make it worth seeking out. Your guess is as good as mine as to where you’re supposed to park, but assuming you do find somewhere then you should know that tours are given every weekday at 10:30a and 3:00p. If you happen to show up at a different time they will still sell you wine and they have a huge list of current as well as older vintages for very reasonable prices. It would be nice if the website were more up to date and the entrance was a bit more…welcoming, but I guess that’s Portugal for you.

Quinta do Noval – Porto – Winery
No tours here, just tastings. The ports are good but there are no options for just a glass of vintage port; you have to buy a bottle or do one of the tasting flights in order to taste a vintage port. They did however have a colheita by the glass and their 20 year old tawny is very nice indeed, with a wonderful cocoa and leather nose, at a fairly reasonable price of €8.50 a glass.

Caves Vasconcellos – Porto – Winery
I really wanted to like this place because the tour is private and it is a small producer of port and our guide Jorge was very passionate, but in the end I just found their ports to be a bit too thin and racy for my tastes, and there was kind of an awkward, simultaneously hard and soft sell to get us to buy something—seemingly anything—at the end of our tour and tasting that I was not a fan of.

ODE Porto Wine House – Porto – Restaurant
Four stars for the creative, artistic and (most importantly) delicious dishes and delightful Portuguese wine pairings. It would be a very good choice for a special occasion but it’s way too expensive to be a regular visit. Minus one star for being so expensive and not accepting credit cards; two people will need at least €200 in cash and most likely more if you really want to enjoy yourselves. [Update: apparently they now do take credit cards, which would take it up a notch in my book, but I have not verified this.]

ALOJAMENTO BATATA – Nazare – Hotel
I would not necessarily recommend Nazare overall, but in case you are there or want to go there for some specific reason, this is a wonderful space to stay with modern but comfortable decor and very welcoming staff! Apartments are perfect for a beach vacation in Nazaré; good location and value.

Casa Pires – A Sardinha – Nazare – Restaurant
If it’s not sardine season, go for the fish stew with potatoes. Heck even if it is sardine season maybe still go for the fish stew—it’s so delicious. There seemed to be a healthy mix of tourists and locals and the waiters speak good English in case you don’t speak good Portuguese : )

Queque de Cenoura – Nazare – Pastry Shop
Tooth-achingly sweet (in a good way!) pastries, and a super-duper pão com chouriço. The coffee is miserable, but I think that’s pretty standard for Portugal? Good luck finding a proper flat white in Nazaré. Perhaps most importantly though the staff is very friendly and helpful even though they don’t speak English; take your Google Translate app and you’ll be fine.

Taverna do 8 Ó 80 – Nazare – Restaurant/Wine Bar
Excellent tapas and very good steak (N.B. “veal rump steak” aka alcatra in Portuguese is much more tender than beef rump steak, so it is actually their best steak as the menu says). Good, extensive wine list. My only (admittedly snobbish and very minor) complaint is they have a lot of newer vintages, not very much that is more than just two or three years old. The staff is very friendly and helpful, especially in helping select a wine to drink, and they speak very good English.