"VOLTARIA" - Petisqueira Portuguesa — Restaurant in Porto

If you are ever missing comfort home cooked meals and happen to be in Porto, I would highly recommend paying a visit to the absolutely lovely home-cooks at Voltaria. We arrived at Voltaria on a slightly gloomy, rainy day in Porto and were psyched to try out their food, as we had heard such great things online. As the restaurant has limited seating, we waited outside for a few minutes, but were ushered in by a lovely lady the moment one of the tables cleared out. It was clear the women who run the restaurant put their heart and soul into everything they cook. We started our meal with the sausage filo pastry started and the stewed black pig cheek served with some bread. If our appetites weren't raging already these starters did the trick to make us want more of their cooking. The pork had been stewed in a wine sauce and fell apart at the touch of a fork. The filo pastry was crunchy and light and the sausage, spinach and garlic jam filling acted as a perfect blend of flavours to activate our taste buds. We followed it up with a francesinha (because when in Portugal) and a chicken rice. Both of these were extremely comforting and satiating. It was clear that good quality meat had been used in the francesinha. Moreover, the sauce was a lot more complex and well balanced, compared to my experiences in other cafe. Our winner of the day though was the chicken rice, which I think was also perfectly suited for a rainy day. The broth used to cook the rice was extremly flavourful and the right balance of chicken to chorizo had been added for the umami. By the end of our meal, me and my partner were left with a fuzzy, heart-warming feeling that only comes from a delicious home-cooked meal. Everyone at restaurant was attentive and engaged in really lively conversations with us, making us feel right at home. I would highly recommend Voltaria to anyone who ever plans to be in Porto. I can assure you the food is worth everty bit...

I really wanted to like this place but certain things took away from the experience. We went there around 2:00 pm on a Saturday, one couple was waiting in front of us. When I went inside to ask if I could put my name on a list or how long the wait was, the main waitress/host seemed almost annoyed at me, giving me an attitude. She said I should wait outside and that it would take 30 minutes. I ended up waiting for an hour and twenty minutes. Once I noticed a table was empty, I copied what the couple in front of us did and went inside, thinking I was supposed to do that. She proceeded to bark at me that I had to wait outside while she cleaned the table.

At one point, I thought she said we could go to a bigger table that just became available (that's what my boyfriend thought he heard too) and when I asked her that, she seemed to get upset. She told us that she just asked if we wanted to hang our coats.

The food itself was okay. I liked the pork cheek with rice but the franceshina tasted bland and salty, the sauce felt heavy, and the texture of the bread was off. The service during dining was okay/pretty nice but when I asked what the dessert was, she grumpily said, well do you want me to tell you or show you?

At that point, I just felt like leaving.

I noticed that she seemed nicer to certain guests when they came in asking for a table and what the dessert was, so I'm not sure what her issue was, if she has some kind of bias.

Note: some people got very lucky and only waited 10 minutes. If your time in Porto is limited, I...

Owing to the fact that this small family run restaurant only has a handful of tables, my wife and I had to wait for around half an hour outside whilst other guests finished their meals. It was cold - I was hungry - but something about the others that had been waiting so patiently before us, told me that I just had to wait! And we were really glad that we did - because this restaurant served up some superb Portuguese food! No fuss, no rush, really reasonable and packing flavour - everything we had was excellent. The owner was kind enough to bring us some “hot wine” to help us get over the chills whilst waiting outside. Once inside, even though there are a handful of tables - there is never a feeling that you’re being rushed, or that they want the table back. There’s banter, there’s genuine conversation and then there’s the food! Really great starters showing off the Portuguese sausage Farinha and of course the cod fish. For mains we enjoyed the Francesinha junior, basically the meal without the sandwich - which was great. And my favourite. The slow cooked beef with mashed potatoes - the beef fell apart at the merest touch of my fork and was so flavourful with the port it was cooked in. Cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough if...