N'o Mercado — Restaurant in Porto

I'm a half Portuguese & also American. I came to the restaurant with high expectations of the food to be substantial. When we arrived, the waitress took a long time to come to us & we had to call the 3 times. And they were laughing and talking when we need their service. There was only one man in the kitchen. Four waitresses & VERY FEW CLIENTS. We waited more than 15 mins to get our food. And we saw the man that was in the kitchen rubbed his nose all over the glove to grill the meat..( which is disgusting). So, of course we decided tell the waitress we wanted to leave & pay for our drinks & we wouldn't pay for the food because it didn't even arrived yet. The women continued to harass my friend about not paying for the food that HAD NOT ARRIVED. I told the woman that she was being rude & disrespectful to my friend. And, she said who the hell are you? This is my home..go back to your country..and then, I told her you really don't want to do that to me. And, she continued act totally unprofessional & rude. She continued to be respectful towards me because I am from America. And, she said that all Americans are rude and that I was spoiled etc. SHE GOT EXTREMELY ANGRY GOT IN MY FRIENDS FACE THAT WAS QUITE & THREATEN US TO PAY THE BILL FOR THE FOOD otherwise she would have called the police. And, she was making a scene. We asked for the complain book & for the manger. And she wouldn't not give to us because I am not from Portugal & apparently I don't have a right here in Portugal (when I am dual citizen- (she can't refuse the complain book - Decreto-Lei n. 156/2005 de 5 de September, com as alterações, introduzidas pelo Decreto-Lei n. 371/2007, de 6 de November). And, she said hahaha guess what? I am the manager. My friend talked to her for 15 mins trying to calm her down. In the conversation that she had with my friend she said: "I am wasting my time with you, I have other clients to attend!" "I don't like foreigners in my restaurant" "I don't get my money from foreigners, only Portuguese people" "I thought about spitting in your friend's food" "Who is going to pay for the food? Who is going to pay for the food?" My friend told her that according to the Direitos do Consumidor you can send the food back to the kitchen if it hasn't arrived yet and if you are unhappy with the service. It is not the nicest thing to the the restaurant but it your right (and you have the right to be in a good environment & not to be discriminated based on race or nationality and have your food in good conditions -- Código de Boas Práticas de Higiene e Segurança Alimentar. And not only that since you are paying you should have good quality food, be respected, not screamed and you shouldn't have to spend 15 minutes trying to call the "manager" down. The manager should be a calm person and listen to the complains not throw a fight like child. WE ARE CLIENTS we are paying our hard earn money & more than that we should NEVER BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST OVER ANYTHING! We ended up paying 24 euros just to be able to LEAVE the restaurant (the interesting thing is that we have seen other reviews and they could get their money back and they could write in the complain book. Was the manager acting towards us like this because we are two girls? Are...

Oh Gosh!! So terrible!!!😡😡😡😡😡 Wish to put a minus 10⭐️ No one speaks English at first. Second, we were waiting around 10 months ms to get any attention, few waitress were looking at us and our empty table without menu and what? IGNORE!! So we needed to wait more to finally get someone who could bring a menu!! Third, waitress was trying to explain what they have and what they dont. Ok, well, after few mins explaining ( looked that she is dying btw)we got that it is written in the menu, food is not available from ()-() time.

Their drinks in the can, nothing home made. Just saying …

All the time was a new waiter, restaurant wasnt full at all, so we expected a fast service… oh well… we were wrong.

When we got food-Kale Soup with ONE slice of chorizo … and soup looked like mashed potato blended with a huge amount of water thats why they put starch!! Was exactly this feeling. Fish cakes were fine, but fish Pate weird. Also, we ordered two portions of the cheese skewers and we got one… deep fried cheese was warm and hard inside, so you cant enjoy it… When we gor second portion after complain was frozen inside … I went to the waiter and asked who is speaking English in this environment, she told me no one. Then I asked for a manager and she gave me a menu with a silly smile, so I needed to say BOSS and someone( Im not sure that person has a power) was called by her. And of course, this person didn't speak English, so we needed to find a waiter who does. Behind my back I've heard laughing waiter, wasn't nice at all.

I brought both of them to my table, explained situation and said that we would like to finish our meal right now and leave this place.

Luckily we weren't charged...

Visited on 10/4/24.

Thought this was an ideal last stop for a quick drink before heading to the waterfront which is not far beyond. Wish I had not bothered. Appeared to be only two staff for the entire place. One covering tables and one bar tender. Tried to get served at bar but bar tender was very deliberately not making eye contact with anyone and clearly only interested in making back orders, so I took a seat to wait for table service. Needless to say wait at table was worse. Waiter did not venture anywhere near the side of terrace I was at. So again I tried the bar with the tender still not making eye contact with anyone. This time he did manage to serve three different people who arrived after I did. Clearly whoever pushes to front to get his attention was all that mattered and no concept of serving people in order.

Honestly the worst bar I've visited while here in Porto. I do not recommend at all. Head to the front. Better views and better service. In fact any service is...