Antunes — Restaurant in Porto

Updated: I retract my previous comment as I learned that charging for bread without telling you is a common, unspoken rule in Portugal. This happens anywhere in Portugal, it's just that some places tell you but the majority don't.

TL;DR: It is not a 5 stars restaurant, but easily a 4.5. The food is good, the service is great, but they I thought they were dishonest by giving you complimentary things and charging it afterwards.

I have mixed reviews about this one:

The good: Service is quick and offered in many languages (Vitor speaks French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, he is also polite, funny and nice! Ask him for recommendations if you go). Portions are quite generous Food tastes really good! I've been here many times, and everything I try is good. Some more than others, for example the soup was below average, the rice is not well done, but the rest is delicious. Desserts are also great at this place

The not so good: This is common practice in Portugal apparently, so I won't blame it on them but it's just for other tourists like my who visit: they will leave a complementary basket of bread of the table but if you eat it you pay. It's not complementary. You pay more than what you pay at other places in Porto. While the quality is superior to many restaurants, it's not that much far superior to pay the price of some of their dishes. But certainly tourists will find the price to be decent. And most fish dishes are decently priced. They don't put much effort on the atmosphere of the restaurant. It looks like any other restaurant, where everyone is crammed together.

I would recommend it for someone who is not looking for a bargain, and wants to enjoy good food and...

Feels like a typical tourist trap type of restaurant with basic Portuguese cuisine and lacklustre service.

Very disappointing experience here. We made a reservation well in advance. We were still made to wait at the door, and then once we were seated, we had an abnormally long wait for a waiter to even bring a menu, let alone take a drink order. The restaurant was maybe 1/4 full. The service was very curt and almost rude, and very, very slow.

We came here specifically for the tripe, which is a specialty of theirs and not available at a lot of Porto restaurants. Despite getting there not even 20 minutes after they opened for the evening, they were allegedly sold out. You mean, you didn't make it. That was a big problem for us. We would have understood if they had been open a few hours already as it is a popular dish. But it wasn't, and nobody else had it on their tables either. A large group of elderly Portuguese folks next to us tried ordering it as well and were told the same thing.

How you can be known as one of the best/only places for this regional dish, and then just not have it all the time, is very poor management. It's only tripe! Not a rare cut of meat.

We ordered the pork knuckle to share then. It was mid. I've had much better pork knuckle in Eastern Europe and in Philippines cuisine. This was swimming in oil and very fatty. The garlic bread was very delicious, but that is not a difficult thing to do.

Portion size was decent, however. I will say that...

There was a mixup with my online reservation, but they still seated us at a table for six for four people. We got there at the right time at 12:30 AM. Right after us people have to wait.

The host is retired and lived in Canada for a long time, so he helps out at the restaurant of his late sister. He was friendly and talkative. Our server was also speaking in English as he rushed around, serving all the tables and memorizing everybody’s orders.

We each had a main item. The English menu is just for reference like a dictionary. Then you can cross reference it with the Portuguese menu, which has the actual items available for the day.

We had wine and beer, four main dishes, three desserts and port wine and coffee. Nobody rushed us despite people waiting outside the door.

They have piri piri sauce upon request and they bring you a caddy with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.

You can pay by credit card at the table.

Fresh space with some old relics on the wall from previous incarnations. At the restaurant has been around for 60 years and looks like it. It’s popular with locals and increasingly...