Jardineiro - Vegan Kitchen — Restaurant in Porto

As usual, when you evaluate a restaurant all depends by the expectations you had. And...our expectations were very high considering the hype surrouding this place since it has been open and the reviews we've been reading here. We were four people, ordered four mains: wellington, rice, noodles and spaghetti. Plus, we got the couvert (olives, oil, bread, mushroom paste) and two entree (tomatoes with toasted bread and beetroot carpaccio). The couvert was ok, nothing "wow" but nice. Tomatoes and carpaccio were both truly amazing, both the presentation and the taste of it. Mains were...problematic. Wellington was great, probably one of the best vegan dish we ever tried, but spaghetti, noodles and rice all had the same problem: they were basically drowning in very bland sauces, something not particularly appealing, nor tasty or elegant. The taste and texture, besides, wasn't special. The presentation, on the other side, was fantastic. We finally ordered two dessert: a "chocolate garden" and an "american cheesecake". Nothing to say, good desserts, but, again, we expected more. The service was...a bit strange. The girl that served us was nice but clearly not used to fine dining experiences. For four times she interrupted us while we were talking for asking something not very important. In general, you can still feel a distance between the service they would like to offer and the service they do offer, I suppose because it is not very easy to find true professionals in this business right now. Price...we paid 150 euro (we also got a 21 euro bottle of wine), which is a bit overpriced to be honest for the experience we had right now. I'm sure that in a few months this price will be the right one, but at the moment it is not proportional to the whole...

We had a reservation for 19:30 and arrived a little early at 19:00 on a Friday night - a time when the restaurant was completely empty. We asked if it was ok to have a drink first and whether it was ok to enter with our little 7kg dog on a leash, before even entering. They said of course it’s fine and ushered us in. Because the kitchen wasn’t open yet, we opted to have the drink first and their beautiful roof terrace was perfection, with real grass for our little pup to lie on. We then asked for the food menu and were told they do not serve food on the terrace. We said that’s no problem, as we have a table reservation, but could we have a look at the menu already, so we could order as soon as we were sat at our table. They brought us the menus and we started looking at all the delicious sounding options, getting very excited, as we were hungry after a day of meetings throughout Porto. 5 minutes later, the waiter came back up to us and stated we cannot eat in the restaurant with our dog. We were shocked. They had allowed us in, sat us on the terrace outside, but refused to serve us dinner neither on the terrace, nor inside. We had our pup’s backpack with us, which she is super happy and completely invisible in, which we offered to keep her in, but that was still not enough. We had to leave, very hungry, with a 1 hour journey back to our hotel, where luckily they accommodated us with a last minute dinner. We shall not return, even without our dog - a restaurant should clearly state upon arrival if they have a no dog policy, but also, a true vegan place (not just vegan following a trend) should have a license for dogs. Super disappointing, considering I had recommended the place to four friends before ever trying it and they all said it had...

After having sampled all the major vegan restaurants in Lisbon (around 8 places) and having lived in London and Dubai (both vegan hotspots) - this place honestly is one of the best vegan restaurants we’ve ever been to!

We stumbled in here on our first night in Porto as it was close to our hotel, not knowing what to expect but craving some good quality food with vegetables and not too much fake meat (after having had a lot of mock meats in Lisbon).

We were surprised and delighted by the ambience and decor - it is a beautiful very tastefully decorated place and the mood is calm but upmarket.

It’s a bit on the pricier side for Portugal but well worth it for the quality of food and atmosphere!

The service was impeccable - very friendly, professional and made us feel really special!

We ordered the pesto linguine and wellington for our mains and the flavours were fantastic! Very fresh and well balanced, perfectly flavoured. The only slight thing is the filling for the wellington is not as firm as you might expect but it was still tasty and enjoyable nonetheless!

Even the couvert was really good - and appreciated the fact we could order as much as we wanted within the cost!

The highlight of our meal was definitely the cheesecake - it honestly was out of this world and one of the best vegan cheesecakes we’ve ever tried!

We’ll definitely be going back to the restaurant, saving it for our last night in Porto...