Restaurante O Valentim — Restaurant in Matosinhos

We booked this hotel partly because of the only high reviews and partly for the way that the hotel is presenting itself image wise on platforms such as booking.com and tripadvisor etc.||||Hotel looks much brighter, newer and larger than what you find in reality, both the actual bedroom as well as the bathroom. Making a good presentation is of course always normal but in some cases you have to be careful not to make it seem to be more than what it really is.||||The hotel is not living up to the photos, the area of the bed is very small, the toilet is in between the bedroom area and a sitting area. The rooms seem large but that is mainly because it has a lot of useless space. In my opinion not really a clever way in terms of construction. ||||The bed itself is fair to say that it is really really comfortable and this is a huge plus for the hotel and what really saves it from a really overall score.||||We had one room the first night with windows, we opened them but had to close them immediately again because it was facing directly down to the road of restaurants and the grilling was done just under the window, this was the air we would get straight into our room. Furthermore our room this first night had a massive problem with the shower. The water cloaked and started flooding the entire bathroom. We had to put towels all over the bathroom in order to avoid the water from entering the room. ||||All our towels were used and they were soaked and we had to ask to more towels that evening. ||||We ended up asking for a new room, so they gave us another room the day after on the top floor but it was still facing the road where they would be grilling all day and night so no chance to open the windows for fresh air. Bathroom in the new room did not have the problem with the water but in general the bathrooms are not very comfortable, the sink area is tiny and not really functioning on a long term. ||||The sitting room in my opinion is needless, serves no purpose and is rather sad actually.||||The breakfast was very poor and so was the service from breakfast staff. Very small selection of items, coffee was really poor and in general the standard was low but you can ask for a dish of fruit of your choice which was the only good thing.||||This hotel is doable for 1 overnight but...

We booked this hotel partly because of the only high reviews and partly for the way that the hotel is presenting itself image wise on platforms such as booking.com and tripadvisor etc.||||Hotel looks much brighter, newer and larger than what you find in reality, both the actual bedroom as well as the bathroom. Making a good presentation is of course always normal but in some cases you have to be careful not to make it seem to be more than what it really is.||||The hotel is not living up to the photos, the area of the bed is very small, the toilet is in between the bedroom area and a sitting area. The rooms seem large but that is mainly because it has a lot of useless space. In my opinion not really a clever way in terms of construction. ||||The bed itself is fair to say that it is really really comfortable and this is a huge plus for the hotel and what really saves it from a really overall score.||||We had one room the first night with windows, we opened them but had to close them immediately again because it was facing directly down to the road of restaurants and the grilling was done just under the window, this was the air we would get straight into our room. Furthermore our room this first night had a massive problem with the shower. The water cloaked and started flooding the entire bathroom. We had to put towels all over the bathroom in order to avoid the water from entering the room. ||||All our towels were used and they were soaked and we had to ask to more towels that evening. ||||We ended up asking for a new room, so they gave us another room the day after on the top floor but it was still facing the road where they would be grilling all day and night so no chance to open the windows for fresh air. Bathroom in the new room did not have the problem with the water but in general the bathrooms are not very comfortable, the sink area is tiny and not really functioning on a long term. ||||The sitting room in my opinion is needless, serves no purpose and is rather sad actually.||||The breakfast was very poor and so was the service from breakfast staff. Very small selection of items, coffee was really poor and in general the standard was low but you can ask for a dish of fruit of your choice which was the only good thing.||||This hotel is doable for 1 overnight but...

A "must go to" section of this amazing area of "Fish and Seafood" restaurants opposite the Fish Docks and port of Matosinhos not too far of a drive from the beautiful city centre of Porto on the Douro river. The fusion of charcoal grilled food and seafood smells is appetising, intoxicating as most of the fish and seafood is prepared and grilled outside on the wide pavements! Most of these amazing restaurants all have covered dining areas outside on the pavement with your fish or seafood freshly cleaned, prepared and grilled over the charcoal just behind your outside dining area. The outdoors barbecue grill area does all the cooking for the inside dining rooms too. Fantastic Portuguese wines and beers and great selection of spirits too. We ate inside, ordered the Squid for all three of us although I asked for chips with mine, as us British do. The grilled squid was so delicious, my green salad was fresh and well seasoned and the Portuguese white wine was outstanding...wow! To finish I had the local "Abade/Monk's - Prisco pudding which was divine and took cream Caramel puddings to another level. The staff were welcoming and relatively friendly, must have been down to a very busy, packed restaurant. The reason for the 4 stars is due to the quite long wait for our meals and also my chips were rather soggy and oily which was disappointing as Portuguese chips are so good in general. Will definitely be back next time I'm back in Portugal and Porto and do recommend this "O Valentim" restaurant here in...