Capa Negra II — Restaurant in Porto

October 12, 2023. Thursday. Dinner.

Our first night in Porto and we decided to visit this joint. It was directly across from our hotel and seemed to be packed with locals. We waited about 10 minutes to be seated and every table looked to be full. Even the dining counters were full. This place reminded me of an American diner. Every waiter bustled to and fro and I think all of them were guys.

Our waiter recommended a red wine blend (17 euros) called Quinta Crasto which turned out to be exceptionally delicious. The only problem was that the wine did NOT pair well with the heavy food. I ate a caldo verde (5 euros) a hearty, thick Portuguese soup with kale, chorizo, and potatoes. The soup tasted good, though I wished they included more chorizo. My wife ordered with the traditional Francesinha with egg and fries (14 euros). It looked like most people in the restaurant were ordering this. Her dish had lots of fries and was piled high. They are very generous with the food here and she left a few fries on her plate. I couldn't help her because I barely finished my bacalhau braga (23 euros). My dish came with fried cod buried in brown gravy, carrots and cauliflower, and lots of potato chips on the side. Basically a Portuguese take on fish and chips. The cod tasted light and amazing but the very filling, heavy food and wine didn't go well. I think a light, carbonated drink would go well with this food.

Service was fast, food piled high and very generous, and the other diners were very comforting to see. Prices were low, so we visited here once more before...

Bad service.

We were received by a very rude waiter who did not allow us to choose our table and forced us to squeeze in an uncomfortable space in the corner. His reason was that we had two babies with us and our push chairs occupied too much space. The crazy thing is that it was before 6pm and the restaurant room was completely empty (and it was still mostly empty by the time we left around 7pm). We kindly asked to sit in another table and told them that we would gladly move if more people arrived and they needed the space, but it was pointless. At some point I got tired of arguing with them and told the manager that the waiter was extremely rude, fortunately he replaced him with another gentleman who was kind and polite - therefore the two stars...

I came here at around 16:30 and there were a lot of people so I had to wait for seats. The outside terrace isn’t open for some reasons. Once I was seated I tried several times to order but the waiter kept telling me to wait a moment. They speak no English whatsoever. I do noticed that it’s not just me who’s experiencing this problem. Many call the waiters and they’re just too busy to come right away. I ordered tagliatelle for dine in and steak for take away, waited half an hr for them to tell me there’s no more steak and no more tagliatelle, so I had to order something else. It took another 20 mins for that to arrive. The food is great and the waiters are friendly. Just everything is moving way too slow. Even my coke isn’t sparkly when the...