O Porto dos gatos — Restaurant in Porto

Today I visited the O porto dos gatos also known as "The Cat Cafe". My experience here has been filled with ups and downs.

For starters, and I didn't read about this anywhere, the Cafe opens at 12:30 PM by serving lunch instead of breakfast. If you wanna eat breakfast here you should come only after 3pm. Also, they didn't respond to the reservation I made online the day before.

When you sit down they give you the menu and a helpful little guide on how to treat the cats and to respect their boundaries. I thought that's quite nice. They are rather limited on the alcoholic beverages but have a lot of different coffes and chocolate drinks. Their lemonade is rather sour and not sparkly, just as a heads up.

What I really liked about this place, besides the cats of course, was that all their meals and drinks were vegan and that they had a lot of dishes which tradionally have meat in them and replaced them with vegan alternatives. Another thing I liked was the ambienece. The interior is rather cozy and spacious and it leads into a small exterior courtyard where all the cats were at my visit. You are allowed to go to them as soon as you have ordered something.

For my main dish I ordered the special hotdog and was negatively surprised to see that it looked and tasted more like a Francesinha instead of a hotdog. I was feeling a bit disappointed and felt a bit mislead since the 2 other hot dogs that you can order were actual hotdogs (with bread and so on) while the special one was something rather completely different. So yeah be aware of that when you want the special hotdog :,). Regardless of that the taste was still good for what it was, tho it was a bit too spicy for me personally.

Another thing I thought was rather odd was that they, when asked, would not serve you fries if you had the normal hotdog, but would serve it if you had the special hotdog. There also was no option on the menu to just have fries as a sidedish. Why are we gatekeeping the fries?

Ending our stay there, we had different slices of cake. We had the chocoate cake with strawberry icecream and a brigadeto carot cake. Both were incredibly good.

Besides that all in all I had an alright experience here. Couple of things threw me off and I thought they were a bit odd but other things made up for it well enough. I hadn't mentioned but the staff was pretty nice too. Initially I was gonna give it 3 stars, though I am still somewhat torn between 3 and 4 stars, I will give it 4. I am very sure other people will have different experiences than I have had and will not mind or encounter the things that I didn't like very well. You can come here, it's...

Very confused how this place got such great reviews. I understand that they do a lot of good work for rehoming cats which is obviously a very good thing and maybe a reason why people are more generous with their ratings but as an establishment it is pretty short.

I have been here twice now, once to try and the second time to give it another chance. Unfortunately there won't be a third time.

The first time I went, we ordered 2 burgers and they took so long to arrive (40 minutes!) We asked after 20 how long they were going to be as we needed to head back to work and was told it was just going to be a minute. After another 20, they turned up. No apology or explanations were given. The burgers were actually quite tasty to be fair and part of the reason I came back a second time when I was in the area.

The second time we got there at 4pm and they only had hot dogs left on the menu. This was a bit disappointing but it happens especially as we were a bit later than lunch.

However when the hot dog arrived the bread was rock hard and the 'sausage' tasted like rubber. We also ordered fries with it and a separate fries as I wasnt super hungry. We got given 2 small bowls of potato chips. When we questioned it we were told that fries are only served if you order a 'special hot dog'. This wasnt made clear when ordering and then when I questioned that got told it was 'just protocol'.

I'm still unsure what the real reason is behind this as they are clearly on the menu.

We eat vegan and vegetarian a lot so know how great the quality can be and feel this place could be great if the quality was better.

I would advise anyone who is planning on going here to leave plenty of time and maybe turn up before 1 so you aren't as...

The worst customer experience so far, went first time and never coming back. I came at around 2pm and took a table to meet my friend and have lunch. I was instantly approached and told if I dont want to lunch right now i need to leave and return at 3pm. I explained I am waiting for my friend with who we will place lunch order nevertheless I was pressured to leave (it was raining outside and the place was half empty, hence pure rudeness). My friend was late 5mins during which I had to explain a few times that I will order when my friend joins. I was given many side eyes and looks, maybe because I wasnt portuguese? I thought well, lets give these guys a shot anyway.☺️ As I saw many other people being kicked out to rain and rejected to get a table, my sadness increased (remember, cafe was half empty). My friend came and we decided what to order. While my friend was placing order I decided to check on cats (I am looking to adopt and was considering donating) - I was quicly kicked out from cats room and told I need to order first. I kindly explained my friend is placing order for me... The staff didnt bother and still told me to leave asap and order first. I felt very bad with this kind of treatment, being pushed around. The unpleasant staff gets to proves the real values of this place - I left with impression that this business is not functioning for philantrophical/humanitarian reasons but focus purely on profits with the...