Pinhais Cannery & Co. — Local services in Matosinhos

I love watching how things are made, and Pinhais’s cannery did not disappoint. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t dressed up. “Today, we are making Spiced sardines in olive oil. Yesterday was sardines in tomato”. It really did feel like an earnest, everyday experience at the fish canning factory.

Booking was super easy. Patricia was a wizard over email and was responsive in confirming a date and time in the short time we were visiting Portugal.

The tour itself was well paced and informative, yet always humble. We were sensibly regulated but with enough freedom to linger in spots we found particularly interesting. We gleefully fixated (for longer that what would be normal) watching the machine as it sealed lids over a number of open sardines. Olga, our guide, introduced us to a number of workers who were as curious and happy to interact with us as we were to watch them work.

Goods were inexpensive at their shopfront (compared to regular retails shops). Daniel, who managed their store on the day was super helpful in spending the time to research and advise us of what products could be taken over hand-carry / cabin luggage only.

At the tour’s completion, we ate sardines over bread served with complimenting wine. It was a wholesome and delicious experience and I could not have hoped for...

How is this not on every list of what to do in Porto?! Just awesome! We had a great tour with Marta. She was incredibly knowledgeable and a great guide. We started with a tour of the old offices, a video, and then the best part: seeing these amazing women in action as they make canned fish. The level of expertise is amazing to watch. It was also really fun to learn more about the process: from where the fish come from to the final packaging to send off. A nice touch is being able to wrap your own can. You can choose to keep it or not.

We also really enjoyed the tasting room. The staff was lovely there as well. We enjoyed the spicy fish options which were delicious. Our group has two people who weren’t huge fish people… and they ate their entire can! I definitely recommend getting the ticket with 1 glass of wine. The regional green wine with thjs fish is really refreshing. The fruitiness cuts the saltiness of the fish nicely. You can go to the tasting room without a tour as well.

We then walked 8 minutes to the ocean to enjoy the sea after our visit.

We booked the same mornjng for a 1pm but I’d definitely recommend booking more ahead of time to make sure there is a spot!

Easy to get an Uber to the cannery and back to Porto, either from the cannery...

I love everything about the factory, values, experience, people, and coffee. I would recommend reserving your ticket online ahead of time because for the tour in which language you prefer. Miguel the tour guide was very nice and he explained everything about the factory with a smile he even offered to take a photo. The factory value is family and I think it touched me to know that they have crèche for the children of the workers. They left their children there before so they could work. The ladies who were working in this factory were very friendly with nice smiles. They have old people working inside but they make sure that they are all well taken care of. In the factory, I saw how close they were and treated each other like a family from the reception to the coffee shop to the workers in the factory they knew everyone. I came early so I stayed in the coffee shop and the café was delicious even the tosta mista. At the end of the tour, you will have sardines tasting and it was delicious coming from me who doesn't like sardines it was surprisingly delicious, and they have wine as well to pair with if you prefer. I must say that the entire visit was excellent 👌. I would probably come back with my friends...