Four tips (with restaurants) for dining well in Porto

I hadn't anticipated our Porto visit being a "foodie" trip. I had no expectations; I was entering the unknown. While French, Italian and Spanish cuisines are all legendary, and restaurants based on their traditions fill London, Portuguese hasn't really entered our culinary cultural awareness.

How many classic dishes can you name? If told you to cook Portuguese, what ingredients would you reach for? Can you name a Portuguese restaurant or grocer? The DK Eyewitness Travel book doesn't have a food section in its guide to the country, the first time I've noticed this omission in a European destination.

I'm delighted to say that a low profile does not translate to unremarkable food. We ate as well on this trip as on more food-focused jaunts to France or Italy and, as mentioned in my earlier article, paired our meals with delicious wines at better prices than those from European neighbours. I would still have difficulty identifying what's classically "Portuguese" beyond flaky custard tarts, a deep affection for octopus, salt cod or slow-cooked pork in a variety of preparations, and the propensity to put eggs in everything; most of our meals could be included in a classic European menu without an immediate cultural affiliation. Given that we were eating at the equivalent of upscale gastropubs, with a few fine dining experiences thrown in, perhaps we missed "typical" Portuguese. All I can say with certainty is that we didn't have a bad meal, and everything was approximately 20% less than its equivalent in London, even with the current weak pound.

Here are my four tips for dining in Porto, with related restaurant recommendations.

1. Check out the Michelin men
With more reasonable prices than London, especially for the wine, Porto is a great place to splash out on Michelin-starred cuisine. Our culinary splurge of the trip was Restaurant Pedro Lemos, an elegant one-star establishment tucked into a house on an otherwise-residential street not far from the beach in  the upscale suburb of Foz. Lemos credits his grandmothers with his inspiration: one sold fish on the coast,  one was a farmer. Thus "surf and turf" threads throughout his cuisine, as he takes seasonal, traditional core elements and gives them the modern fine dining treatment. The five course chef's menu, adjusted according to allergies, is your only choice, and changes daily according to what's seasonal.

What does this look like on the plate? We started with two amuse bouche: the prettiest little dollop of fresh mozzarella with tiny tomatoes and micro herbs and a succulent mouthful of local pork with prawns. Foie gras on a disc of fruit bread with a brûléed top and a sliver of roasted nectarine kicked the proper courses off, followed by a delicate lobster curry with fresh, wild mushrooms. On to a perfectly cooked piece of white grouper complemented by white asparagus, jerusalem artichoke puree and sprigs of fennel. All light enough to leave room for beef with chanterelles and truffled potato cream, the meat so soft it fell to shreds with a gentle prompt of the fork. A bit of strawberry and vodka ice cream cleansed the palate before a choice between desserts: banana, lavender and sagu pearls (a bit too modern for me) or a comforting dark chocolate tart with a port sauce, pear and chees. We chose the wine flight, naturally, allowing the sommelier to introduce us to yet more local gems. (Except for the pairing with the lobster, when he chose to head to the Mosel.) The per-person charge for this extravaganza was £130, which is about what the menu would cost without drinks in London.

For about half that price, you can sample the style of one of Portugal's most famous chefs, Jose Avillez, at Cantinho do Avillez. Much as top chefs like Raymond Blanc and Angela Hartnett have done in the UK, Avillez expanded from his two-starred Belcanto restaurant to open more affordable, casual bistros. Booking in advance is essential; we tried to return here later in the week to find no availability for the rest of our stay. We had some amazing tuna here, with just the perfect amount of char on the outside to let the raw purity of the fish stand out. They also delivered a beef tartare that could best many French versions. I wasn't so keen on the Farinheira sausage with cornbread crust, or the poultry liver with port and onion marinade; the first was too heavy, the second too assertive in the offal flavours. But I suspect this is the closest I got to properly local tastes all week. We split their triple hazelnut desert, which was delicious. More memorable, however, was the service and ... once again ... the wine pairings.

2. Then ask the locals what's hot
When we couldn't get into Cantinho do Avillez for a second time, one of the waiters suggested a couple of local options. It was a hot tip, as Largo de Sao Domingos (LSD for short) delivered the best moderately priced meal I had the whole trip. I had a pork stew here so amazing I've been thinking about re-creating it ever since returning home. (One decent attempt, more experimentation needed.)  Desserts were a real standout here. I went for a fanciful mix called "childhood" that featured an artistic mash-up of swiss roll, oreos, m&ms and cookie dough served on a spatula. Amusing, but Piers' delicate chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream was a masterpiece of classic elegance.

We tried twice to get into Avillez' second recommendation: Cantina 32. Booking ahead clearly required. Based on local votes on TripAdvisor (and tourists, as well) we tried Cozinha dos Loios nearby. This was my least favourite meal of the trip ... decent starter and dessert let down by a ploddingly heavy cream-based pasta with the local Farinheira sausage. My husband's main was good if not great. But the atmosphere is brilliant. You dine in an ancient, artfully lit, stone vaulted cellar that I suspect goes back to the Middle Ages. And, as if to make up for the unexceptional food, the waitresses were some of the best we met. Chatty, helpful, interested in us, at the end of the evening they opened a bottle of 40-year-old tawny port that Piers had his eye on, but wasn't on the by-the-glass menu. Based on service alone, I'd go back and try some alternative menu choices.

3. Let the waiter guide you
Of course, I could have just asked the waitress what to have. Good servers will always have a sense of what's best that day, and we found that to be particularly true in Porto where there's a big focus on fresh, local produce and the best stuff of the day may not even be on the menu. This is especially important at fish-heavy restaurants by the river or ocean.

We had lovely meals this way at waterfront restaurants Terreiro and Avo Maria. Both clearly charge a premium for the privilege of their views, but they're still value for money. (As opposed to the blatant rip offs that those picture-book-menu restaurants in high traffic tourist areas can often be.) Locals love octopus and I'd recommend it highly anywhere it's on the menu. It's tricky to cook but the Portuguese have a flair for it. Grilled, cooled, sliced like carpaccio and served beneath a salad with some vinaigrette, it was one of my go-to starters in Porto. The other was tuna tartare, on most menus and always delicious.

Our best seafood meal was at Mohle, on a terrace at the edge of the Atlantic in Foz. Like its Foz neighbour Pedro Lemos, there were as many locals as tourists here. Always a good sign. After a quick chat it was obvious we should just put ourselves entirely in the waiter's hands (see top photo). Out came pork croquettes, prawns hauled from the Atlantic the day before with a pungent garlic butter sauce, and then a noble sea bass, grilled whole and expertly filleted at the table. With matching wines, of course. And some fine port recommendations with dessert.

4. Look to the wineries
Porto's wine and port houses are clearly aware of the marketing potential of restaurants for raising margins and showing off their products.

Vinum at Grahams would be my recommended "splurge" restaurant here if you don't want to go the full Michelin star route (and price). The views are astonishing, the atmosphere elegant yet casual, the food excellent. Although I took issue with their steak tartare, which presented far too chunky a pile of raw meat for my taste. As you'd expect, the wine list is fantastic and the waiters are great at making recommendations. They also use a collection outrageous Reidel decanters that turn pouring wine into performance art. I thought the one called "the mamba" might make an excellent Christmas gift for my husband, until I discovered it retailed for £400. Sorry, darling.

We had another excellent meal deep in the Douro wine region at Quinta Nova's Conceitus.  You dine under a canopy of grape vines, looking out over those extraordinary stair-step vineyards. Choose from one of two four-course chef's menus, both at €42. Dishes include items like rabbit terrine with pistachio, cauliflower cream soup and a pork cheek slow cooked for eight hours. The highlight was a traditional cake called "Lo", a light sponge encased on three sides in crisp pastry, topped with fruit. A matching wine flight here costs €24 and is a good way to sample their range, but since we'd just done an extensive tasting we chose our own bottles.

A wine dinner at the Yeatman was a surprisingly reasonable choice. As part of its mission to promote local producers, Porto's most upscale hotel stages occasional dinners at which all the food is paired with the output of one winery. We started with sparkling wine and canapés in the hotel's main lounge (with its stunning views across the river to the historic centre) and then moved downstairs to a private room for the main event. We were the only non-Portuguese of the three large tables of guests, which demonstrates that the locals are serious about their wines, too. And probably explains the bargain pricing of €65 per person. I was worried about the language barrier, but shouldn't have been. The sommelier made sure we were seated with one of the wine makers, who could speak English and give us the insight into each vintage we sampled. Once we sat down, our menus were seamlessly swept away and replaced by English versions. These told us we were having a mixed variety of appetisers, john dory, pork with chorizo, and bilberries in different textures. Each served with a different wine from Lavradores de Feitoria, a small cooperative that produces limited batches of rigorous quality. If you're heading to Porto, it would be worth ringing ahead to see if any events like this are planned at the Yeatman during your stay.