Bota & Bira — Restaurant in Porto

Bota & Bira 名字的意思是：“书和啤酒”。 牛排屋。 优质牛肉。 完美陈年。 做饭很好。 非常多的葡萄酒选择。 友好的服务员。 好价格。 重要提示：餐厅很小，因此您必须提前预订。

The specialty of this small restaurant is high-quality aged beef. We ordered the least expensive piece on the menu, a Black Angus (aged) steak for two (40-Euro). Cooked perfectly; medium rare. Bota & Bira (Eng.: "Boot and Beer") serves wine from the Douro Valley, a large selection exclusively from artisan local vintners (wine producers). Waiter: perfectly polite and accommodating in our selection of the perfect wine. Bottle prices, reasonable. To accompany the steak, we tried the "Chorizo Rice". Served in a small cast iron pot (it stayed warm the entire meal). Very tasty, not greasy at all, the rice long-grain and light. Four types of chorizo mixed in, very small pieces, accented the flavor without overwhelming the dish. These were (1) Black; (2) Regular Chorizo; (3) Alheira caca; and (4) bacon. Another excellent side was the mushroom and and black truffle croquet. Not greasy, light on the outside, then warm, soft, and very, very good on the inside. A pleasure to accompany the meal. The steak comes pre-sliced for you, and the waiter serves you three pieces to start, and leave the giant serving plate on the table. Twigs of fresh rosemary around the steak, but it does not overwhelm the flavor. Comes with a small thimble-cup of high quality sea salt, which accompanies the steak perfectly. This restaurant is very small. It seats only 10 persons or so, so you must reserve in advance. Basically, the entire meal was perfect. What a gem of...

The lunch special for under €8 ea came with beverage ( I had vino tinto, my husband had beer) also came with delicious vegetable soup in a very charming cast iron pot and we chose the meat option which was roasted pork with potatoes and rice.... for anyone staying in Portugal for any length of time you become accustomed to French fries and white rice.... so imagine how delightful it was to see a variation on this theme with roasted seasoned baby potatoes and carrots and delicious flavorful rice.... when I tried my first bite of the pork though, I nearly swooned, it was fork tender and perfectly seasoned... to say that the flavors of this meal nearly brought me to tears is not an understatement, I literally felt it feeding my heart and my soul...not sure if it was the perfect comfort food for the day that had me in such rapture or that it reminded me so much of my mom’s cooking ( although no disrespect to my mom, this pork and this meal was in a class by itself) . Finished off with a great cup of coffee and I know this is a meal that I will remember as a highlight of my time here...

You could tell from all of the other patrons the care that they take with their food, it is more than a plate of the day, it is an experience to be enjoyed, more than once if you are able.... the place is tiny so get there early or make reservations, you won’t be disappointed and I can’t wait to go back for dinner!

My sincere compliments to the chef and staff, they have set a new bar for me in Porto!...

We've been to Bota&Bira due to its good reviews on TripAdvisor and Google maps and were not disappointed. We've made a reservation via TripAdvisor that included a 30% discount on all food items. That's a pretty good deal!

Food and service were really good and great value (even without the discount). We had 3 tapas as a starter - scrambled eggs and chorizo, Padron chilis and gratin meat & sausage. The chilis and the gratin were our favorites and really good.

For the main dish we chose the Tomahawk and Salmon sauté - the steak came with deliciously flavored spinach and the salmon with potato wedges (you can chose which side dish you want - we liked the spinach better). Both dishes were very tasty and to the point. Meat was more on the rare side which I like und the salmon was crunchy on the outside and medium on the inside - perfect!

Since we were pretty full after that (portion sizes are generous, especially considering the price) we skipped dessert and just had a coffee which was ok, but you don't come here for the coffee anyway.

The service was super friendly and attentive.

One thing we'd improve would be the salt which came in little paper packages on request. Some raw sea salt or a proper salt grinder would have suited the excellent food well better.

All in all definitely a place...