Cachorrinho Gazela — Restaurant in Porto

I was super excited to visit here as I had seen many great reviews and it seems to be a very famous spot in Porto. Upon arriving, it was quite busy, and we were offered a seat inside at the bar. It was a hot day, so I thought to look outside for a seat, and managed to find one table free on the terrace. I asked the waiter if it was okay to sit here, and he nodded.

I ordered a steak and cheese sandwich, beer, and some fries. When the sandwich arrived, I noticed they had included ham as well as cheese. Even though I didn’t order ham, I don’t mind it, and as I could see the waiters were busy, I decided to eat it anyway. The sandwich was decent, not as great as I would have expected for the hype. The steak was a bit tough and the cheese made the sandwich quite oily. Overall, the sandwich was okay for 4 euros. The fries also were okay, mostly crispy but also very oily, so we only managed to finish half of them.

We saw that many other tables all ordered another type of sandwich, what we found out to be the Special Hot Dog. I asked the waiter if we could get one of these, and the hot dog arrived 5 minutes later. This is where our experience took a real downturn. We found a black hair sticking out of the hot dog. We are not fussy eaters, so I pulled the hair out and removed the part where the hair had been. As we proceeded to eat the hot dog, after my girlfriend took her first bite, we saw another hair sticking out of the bitten hot dog (picture attached).

Revolted at this point, we examined the remaining pieces of the hot dog to find another 3 hairs lurking in different parts of the hot dog. These were definitely human hairs, and at this point, we were completely disgusted and decided to call over the waiter. We pointed the hairs out to him and asked if he could remove the hot dog from our table and our bill. He shrugged, said yes, and walked off. He didn’t acknowledge the hairs or offer any form of apology. We promptly paid for the rest of our meal and left. When paying, no apology was offered by the manager, although the hot dog had been removed from the bill as asked. Behind the counter, I could see that the cook had no hair net on and also had a large black beard with no covering, so it explained the hairs in the hot dog.

Overall, very disappointed by the lack of hygiene on display and the lack of customer service. I didn’t complain or make a scene, but I would’ve expected an apology for the poor experience, but they didn’t seem interested in any form of apology. We won’t be going back again.

If you visit, I would urge you to check your sandwich or hot dog for hairs...

We came here for the hot dog and it was on point! This traditional speciality has a Portuguese sausage in more of a baguette type bread (one with a crust and crunch, as opposed to being a soft brioche bun). It was so outstanding we had a second one. They're not actually as big as you might think. You could easily have one each.

We also tried the pica pau simple, which was many different bits of meat under melted cheese. It was nice, rich and not at all healthy.

This was all accompanied by a side of french fries (small). It's not too small a serving and if you're getting a few other things this should be ok.

The portion sizes of everything we had were on the smaller side (especially compared to American portions for comparison), but it's not a problem if you just want a snack/aren't overly hungry. Otherwise if you are needing a full on meal get a few different dishes.

You can try their version of a franceshina here, if you like. People seemed to also be going for the prego (steak sandwich). There are a number of other bocadillos.

There's the usual drinks. Most people like to have a cold super bock beer with their cachorrinho (the traditional hot dog) .

It's quite busy and popular. No doubt the late Anthony Bourdain's mention of it still carries a lot of weight. A celebrity endorsement will get people coming, but the food has to be better than ok to merit a high rating. This certainly was on the money and lived up to expectations. All together by the end it can feel like it's a little too salty, so it's not perfect but I liked it!

We didn't have to queue when we came around 1.40pm on a Wednesday in September. We were happy to sit on the bar stools by the window. If we'd wanted a table, we would have had to wait. People who came a few minutes after us did need to queue outside. They are quite efficient at turning tables around though, so no one was waiting an outrageous amount of time.

Paid €24,30 for 2 of us. This included 2 iced teas as well as the food.

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Gazela was on Anthony Bourdain’s list for cacchorinhos, or Portuguese hot dogs, so we knew we had to try it during our visit to Porto. My family and I (party of 6) stopped in for dinner on a Tuesday, close to 8 pm. There are two locations near each other - one has no seating and meant for a quick bite, and the other is a sit down, which is the one we went to.

We had the caldo verde (soup), steak with French fries, eggs, ham and cheese, original cacchorinhos, and I think the special steak sandwich - whichever one that was covered in a blanket of cheese and gravy, very similar to the francesinha. The soup was fine, steak was okay but French fries were a bit sad. I also found it a bit odd they just top it with slices of cold ham and cheese. I didn’t care for the steak sandwich because I don’t like sandwiches smothered in sauce. Plus, I didn’t like the taste of that cheese, maybe because it wasn’t melted? But the cacchorinhos were amazing. I regret not ordering more because I probably could have finished another one of these on my own.

So the four stars are really just for the cacchorinhos. Don’t order anything else. Just order a few of those with a cold beer, and you have the...