Estrela do Oriente — Restaurant in Porto

We’ve been visiting in Porto for a few days and would always walk past this place as we head out from around the corner. The place looked clean and nice looking treats in the display case but hardly see any customers inside. So we kept going to another place down the road. However, tonight is our last night in Porto and we decided to have dinner here after seeing what’s on the menu. We were greeted warmly by a gentleman and an attractive woman as we looked over the menu. They gave us the English language version of the menu and we decided to give it a shot. She was very attentive and explained some of the dishes we were interested in. We ordered Sangria which came loaded with fruits and was enough to fill four glasses. The taste was very good and made us smile. Being from Hawaii, I asked about the sausages as a starter and the name was similar to what we have back home. The sausages were prepared at the counter. Saw her pouring some liquid atop and around the sausages and she lit them on fire. Flames were burning and cooking the sausages as they continued to be rotated until they were done. She served them up, already sliced and we all had pieces. The taste was fantastic with a little char that added a welcome crunch. Get these as a pupu (starter) that goes well with Sangria and beer. We only ordered two main dishes. The stew and octopus rice. The serving size was huge and if you were still hungry afterwards you must be an animal. The stew was so delicious and filling, it had many ingredients that added to the flavor. I can imagine having this dish on a cold night as it will definitely warm you up from the inside. I had the octopus rice dish. That too was a huge portion, didn’t think I would finish it. The first bite was an explosion of the ocean. The rice was infused with the octopuses flavor. The chunks of octopus were a plenty. The octopus was full of flavor even after infusing the rice. The other night at a fancier more expensive restaurant I had the baked octopus and it didn’t have any flavor. It was tender but the taste was baked out. Now back to my review of this place. I ate it all. Then there’s dessert. We still had just enough room to sweet treats. Five of us split the chocolate cake, the almond pie/cake and the banana, chocolate, hazelnut, cake. We cleaned off the plate in short order. While we were there, another small group arrived and then a single person arrived. We were enjoying ourselves and was the last ones to leave. This place is a must go to more than once. It’s hidden right in front of our faces as we passed every day. So don’t make the mistake we did. Go to this “hidden” place now. They will make you feel like family and they truly appreciate your presence and will feed you with great food and warmth. When you feel welcomed the food and drink tastes even better. They are No Ka Oi (da...

Let's start with the good...

My partner liked his dish, the only problem was his mushroom sauce felt like it wasn't fresh at all, like it was old and just microwaved. It did taste good tho! Also, he found quite a sizeable bone in his chicken steaks.

My mom ordered only a soup, and she enjoyed it.

I had chicken stomachs as a starter, and that wasn't that good. Some bits were okay, but some were hard as rocks, or even felt old and not fresh, and, microwaved.

As for my main course, well, somewhat a let down too. The meat was okay, the taste was good, but parts of the meat were quite hard, I couldn't bite through. And again, it felt quite microwaved. The fries, rice and sauce were all quite good tho!

My mom had a pudding for desert and she loved it!

The service from the person cooking and who came to get our orders was actually quite nice, smiley and quite friendly too. The other guy was also nice maybe a bit too pushy at times.

The restaurant itself and it's atmosphere are nothing special, quite dull to be honest.

Prices are okay, but not

Can't recommend this place as there are way...

This restaurant was absolutely amazing. The food was delicious! I had the Stew of Beans Porto style which reminded me of the best Portuguese Bean Soup you can find back home in Hawaii. The Sangria and various desserts we shared were also all amazing! The owners/staff were super friendly, and the family atmosphere was phenomenal. I don’t do reviews often - but our dinner tonight was worth sharing with the world. The prices are very reasonable; you’ll get very tasty food, with more than enough to satisfy your hunger; and you’ll leave feeling like (as my brother-in-law said) you just ate a home cooked meal that your grandma used to make. I highly recommend this restaurant! Wish we hadn’t waited until our last night...