Churrasqueira Moura — Restaurant in Porto

I don't know what other people are experiencing or eating, but I cannot share the same opinion. After looking around online on various sites, including Google, my partner and I saw this had good reviews and was was affordable with simple food (allegedly done well).

As tourists, we tried to speak Portuguese - the basic hello/thank you etc, but were largely ignored and despite the language barrier in other places, we felt very unwelcome here... We walked in on a weekday evening (around 7.30pm so it wasn't the peak dinner rush) - yes, without a reservation. However, it was not busy inside - in fact only 2 other tables were sat at the time. We weren't offered a welcome/greeting by any of the staff members stood near the entrance, table or menu. We stood around confused for a while, until a man reluctantly pointed to a table at the back of the restaurant, out of the way/by the toilets, without any offer of a menu or a smile. In the end, we went to get a menu ourselves.

Within 2 mins of sitting down and before opening the menu, the grumpy waiter demanded what we wanted when we had not even read it! I read fast but not that fast and the menu has lots of errors, so deciphering (even the English version) the menu was tricky as what is "bacon sky", or "camel drool" is beyond me!

The waiter seemed quite impatient with us when we were ready to order. He was quite unhappy and made us feel very unwelcome as he sighed and just frowned the whole evening. He eventually took our drinks order but ignored our request for food and he instead chatted at the bar for a while, and came back later.

We ordered 1 glass of house (white) wine and 1 glass of house (red) wine - we received a jug of red - first mistake. We also got what we thought were "complementary olives and snacks" since everywhere in Porto, we received these - mistake 2. I ordered the bacalhau and my partnered ordered the chicken. The chicken was quite bland and my bacalhau was too salty (I understand it's salt cod but I couldn't eat my meal!) I ended up having to drink far too much red wine on an empty stomach! Not good in hot weather and also, this gave me bad indigestion afterwards 😔

When we finished our meal - our waiter seemed quite annoyed to have to come back to our table and it felt like a chore for him just to offer us coffee/dessert. At that point, we just wanted to leave as we felt so unwelcome - we paid for more wine than we wanted (and the wrong wine), the olives/snacks were not complementary - 4 euros. Then, as we paid cash - around 32 euros and we paid 35 - no change was offered, so a "tip" for the (lack of) service was taken, which was cheeky - mistake 3.

On exit, the owner/man in the kitchen said thank you and goodbye but that was the only bit of hospitality that whole evening, which put a dampener on what was a mostly lovely trip to Porto. I would not recommend this...

We visited here on 27th July 2023.

My Reveiw followed by tourist notes:

I personally had to try the Caudo Verde served with a traditional slice of chorizo. Followed by the charcoal chicken with some rice and a side salad. My partner had the Cod fish. Both were tasty, salty as they should be. A traditional flan pudding for dessert and coffee to finish off. The service was friendly and fast, but if you're a tourist, be aware that these guys are fast-paced and their to make money, not chat about your holiday, so enjoy the experience, let them know you don't speak English and be clear how long you need to look at the menu to not waste their time. My only negative note is to avoid the cheap 'house wine', it's cheap and wasn't very enjoyable, but you get what you pay for, so this was our only mistake.

Message to the owners; you're all doing a great job. Thank you to the charcoal chicken cook who spared 60 seconds to explain the cooking process to me.

NOTES FOR TOURISTS: If you're a tourist and are after an "authentic Portuguese experience," open your mind before you go in because this is one of those experiences. Ignore the 1 star Google review from "A LY", they obviously didn't research and were having a bad day. This restaurant represents the type of hospitality styles most of Portugal delivery.

From the full glasses of wine, direct and fast-paced waiters, quality food with little presentation and great taste, and exact menu translations, which don't make sense. If you speak Portuguese and English, it's funny to watch English people struggling to understand 🤣 for example; Bába de Camelo translates to Camels Drool, which is basically a mousse made from biscuits, eggs and condensed milk.

Definitely recommend visiting here for an authentic experience, but please don't have any expectations. You will leave...

I wish we had read the reviews before eating here. We entered the restaurant and straight away a waiter signaled us to sit at the back even though there were plenty of empty tables at the front. As soon as we sit a waiter serves us fresh melon, bread, olives and fried fish cakes which I thought was really nice as we had experienced something similar in Spain.

We ordered a steak, small beer and a bottle of water which was around 15e. After we had finished we asked for the bill and noticed that they charged us for those extra items in the beginning even though we never asked for them and also we’re never told that if we ate them we had to pay for them, so the total bill came to 28e! I was in complete shock… we had just been robbed right in front of our eyes!!! As we were walking out I noticed that the front tables didn’t have any melon or olives etc which means that the waiters sit the tourists at the back and basically rob them.

We walked out stunned. In the end my partner went back and told them straight up that it wasn’t right what they have done and they gave us back our money. These guys are profiting at least 1,500e per week from tourists. It is quite disgusting that this is happening in a country such as Portugal and it left a real bitter taste in our mouth. If you choose to eat here send the starter dishes back or go and eat somewhere else where they...