Cafeina, in Porto, offers sophisticated modern cuisine at a surprisingly affordable price compared with restaurants serving simpler fare.

For this third dinner in Porto, I’m continuing along the path initially planned: after modern, affordable cuisine (Gruta), a bistro (Cantinho do Avillez), here’s a slightly more refined table before moving on to a Michelin-starred restaurant the next day.

At the bottom of the page you’ll find a summary of articles about this trip to Porto.

The concept

Cafeina is owned by a renowned chef (Vasco Mourao) and is his first property. For the past 25 years, the restaurant has offered refined cuisine blending Portuguese and French influences.

The setting

In a brick-built building, you’ll find a large, warm room where wood predominates.

The menu

It doesn’t have a set menu, but offers dishes inspired by the Portuguese-French tradition, even if I find the Portuguese part less visible than the French.

The meal

As soon as I arrived, I was warmly welcomed and seated at my table.

While I’m waiting to make my choice, I order the “couvert” consisting of bread, butter and pâté. In France, this would be a welcome service, but in Portugal it’s a paid extra in almost all restaurants.

The menu is appetizing, but unfortunately there’s no set menu or tasting menu, so I’ll have to make choices!

I’ll start with the Shrimp Raviolo with Blue Lobster (Seafood raviolo, Algarve shrimp, blue lobster veil, bisque sauce and champagne).

The dish is brought and placed on the table without further explanation.

The shrimps are a little too lemony but with the coriander it’s fresh and tasty. The raviolo is very good, hearty and with the sauce the whole thing is a delight.

The only drawback is that the dish is barely warm.

Then I had the Arctic char, Algarve shrimp, creamy coriander polenta and sparkling wine sauce.

This time, however, it’s very, very hot.

The fish flesh is firm and the skin crisp, the shrimp tasty, the polenta light and with the sauce it makes a very tasty and balanced whole.

I had some doubts after the starter but now I’m won over.

For dessert, I’ll try a local specialty, abade de priscos.

It’s a kind of pudding.

With the sorbet it’s fresh but you can only taste the mandarin and I think the cheese takes away the acidity. I was afraid the pudding would be a bit heavy, but in fact it’s very light.

In the end, I came away with a total bill of 77 euros, equivalent to that of Cantinho do Avillez, and given the difference in search between the dishes, I’d say the value for money is better here.

The service

Good but rather distant and impersonal, with no warmth and virtually no interaction with customers.

Atmosphere

Pleasant background music, but perhaps a little too loud for the small number of customers.

Bottom line

In the end, a very good meal, with quite sophisticated dishes and very successful combinations of flavors in a rather creative cuisine. Too bad the service lacked warmth.

The articles about this trip to Porto

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