O António — Restaurant in Matosinhos

It was a sunny mid-April day and we decided to go to Matosinhos for a walk at the beach and a bite of lunch. There are hundreds of restaurants in Matosinhos and close to 3 dozen on Rua Herois de Franca, where many restaurants have outdoor seating and a grill outside where they grill the fish.

So, we came upon O Antonio and the fact that they serve other dishes beside fish attracted us since one of us doesn't eat fish. O Antonio has about 20-24 tables outside but they are set attached to each other in 4 rows, so literally there is no space between the tables.

As we sat down at one of the outside tables, Jose approached with bread, olives and pate and took our drink order. We did not care for the olives and the pate and asked him to take it back. We ordered grilled sea bass (12.50€) and side potatoes (2.50€); steak with egg on top, french fries and side salad (11.00€). The small sea bass was perfectly grilled and the steak and fries was good. By the time our entrees arrived all the tables outside as well as several tables inside were occupied. I can imagine this restaurant being packed every day during the high season.

A homemade & delicious white wine sangria (4.50€) and a glass of vinho verde (3.50€) was perfect match for the meals.

Jose speaks fluent English and provided prompt and friendly service. When the check came we were charged for the olives and pate, which Jose promptly removed from the bill and apologized for it multiple times. We accepted that as an honest mistake since most tables keep...

Service and ambience: We stopped here because my cousin didn't want to keep looking for a place. Not a great first impression though - the first waitress just ignored us, walking back and forth, even though the restaurant wasn't busy. I then approached another unfriendly male server who had left us standing there waiting too Thankfully, after being seated, another server looked after us, who was pleasant. We sat outside but the atmosphere was not great, no ambience, and not very friendly. It felt quite amateur in terms of presentation and service.

Food: Robalo (seabass) was around 12/12.50 euros on the menu board but it wasn't available at this price on the menu. Everything cost a lot more on the menu. We ordered the robalo but it didn't come with any sides or the usual green dressing; the sides had to be ordered separately. At the end, we found a piece of plastic tubing in the legumes (vegetables). Aside from this, the food was tasty enough. However, it was incredibly overpriced for what we got - a tourist trap. 50 euros for two seabass, two sides of boiled potatoes, one side of vegetables, two ice teas and two expressos. I could get the same in Porto for half that!

I definitely will not...

Racist, awful staff - my family (Asian) was treated abysmally. Waited an hour for a table, many people that arrived quite a bit after us were seated before us even though there was a ticketing system. All tables were laid with table covers but not ours. All drinks on every table served with ice and lemon slice but not ours. All tables were offered bread and entrees on a tray by the biggish head waiter, passed on our table without a word. We were completely ignored for an hour while people who had just showed up were seated and served food even before someone deigned to take our order. We had to ask them to take our order about five times. They didn’t bother writing down the order and came back to check what the order was half an hour later. You could think they just don’t like tourists but the two white girls speaking English at the table next to us were served and treated the same as the locals. This did just feel like blatant racism.

We had had such a nice time in Porto but this right at the end of the trip was heartbreaking for my older parents for whom this is a retirement trip. What a horrible shame. Don’t give these people...