Odete Vegan Bakery — Restaurant in Porto

After 8 or 9 visits, it's time to share my opinion. My relationship with Odete did not start well, has been a roller coaster and has now come to an end.

On my second visit I made the obviously cardinal sin of asking for a "normal" loaf. The owner snapped back in an abrupt manner, "What do you mean by normal?". I explained I didn't want spelt or caramelised onion or whatever, just a plain loaf. When I asked what I should ask for he said "pão de trigo" I almost never came back as he was unnecessarily rude but relented as I was desperate for decent bread one day. The owner's manner afterwards was polite so I gave him a second chance. I even made an effort to chat to him a couple of times but I always felt his "smile" and chat was a bit disingenuous and he'd prefer to be doing other things.

On another occasion the owner had two "normal" loaves left and opted to give me one that was overly charred which I only discovered after getting home. It wasn't inedible but when I made toast with it I had to cut off the crust as it was already black and would smoke out the house! It definitely belonged in the "ugly bread" section where he sells the misshapen or day old baguettes. Speaking of "ugly bread" I did buy two "day old" baguettes once as they were half price and they weren't enjoyable, and could only be eaten when toasted. I did have my suspicions how old they actually were, they seemed more like two days old to me.

Another poor experience was buying a shitake tart. The pastry was fine but the shitake filling was a mushroom and cream mess with no obvious care or attention paid to the filling, it wasn't enjoyable. I only ever bought bread after that.

Today was the final straw. I asked for a pão de trigo and he asked me if I wanted "normal bread" - I think because there seemed to be a lot of speciality breads left. I mentally forgave him because I'm pretty laid back generally. I also asked for a baguette so he brought a batch from the back and proceeded to give me the skinniest of the lot. I'm not joking it looked more like a bread stick than a baguette, it was ridiculous - not much wider than the thumb on my big hands. There was no way you could have made a sandwich with it, so I asked for it to be changed to a normal shaped one. This was the third time he'd sold or tried to sell me a substandard product. Perhaps because I'm a foreigner, perhaps because it is a low budget operation & he's looking not to waste his substandard bakes - who knows? All I know is I'm never going back there after having multiple disappointing experiences and not really wanting to be careful all the time I'm being sold something substandard.

During these bad experiences I also had some perfectly decent loaves, not to mention a very good but overpriced small bread roll (€1) and their baguettes are genuinely great - tasty, good texture and a crispy crust. The bread on the whole is actually pretty good. It's not the best sourdough in town, I personally prefer Masseira & Ogi, but it is certainly miles better than the average Portuguese bread and so it should be at €3.50 for a small loaf. The 1* review is not about the bread, which is probably 3/3.5*, but just about my multiple bad experiences there. Good HONEST service with a genuine smile goes a long way.

In future I will make more of an effort and go to Masseira and Ogi which will take me longer but which actually have better bread, a more consistent product (or just better quality control/better ethics?), are friendlier and with...

We walked in, and there was no one to greet us. A lady behind the counter was sluggishly preparing sandwiches. It's a tiny café with only 5-6 tables in total. Assuming it was just one person and she was busy, we sat down, but no one said hello for about 5 minutes. Another person came out from the kitchen, but they didn't attend to the customers either.

A woman at another table stood up to pay her bill, but she also waited. The lady making sandwiches didn't even bother to look up at the café... We watched this absurd situation for a while, and time passed. The woman was still standing, waiting to pay at the counter, and we were waiting for someone says hello to us. It had been a total of 10 minutes.

We grabbed our bags, put on our coats, and deliberately made noise, trying to get attention as we stood up, but the lady remained indifferent as if she was in another world. We exchanged looks with other customers who were aware of the absurdity as we left.

In short, it seems like one of those absurd cafes famous for exaggerated positive reviews online but lacking in service quality. I definitely wouldn't recommend...

I thought I had reviewed this place following my visit in March but doesn't look like I did and I need people to know how lush this place was! My boyfriend and I were in Porto for our anniversary in March and we were also newly veggie (him) & vegan (me). It was our time on holiday with our new eating choices so we were unsure how we would fare but Porto had it all and Odete especially! Lots of articles had raved about it and so I actually picked our accommodation (Trait House) based on it's proximity to this cafe and so glad we did! It was the first place we ate when we arrived and we ate here every day, even getting some takeaway sandwiches for the flight home! The cafe is compact but actually has about 5 tables. It's hard to spot off the street but so welcoming when you enter. Everyone who served us was lovely and friendly. We had the pastries, pasta del natas, sandwiches, so many different things and they were all delicious. The faux salmon was especially mind-blowing, how can it taste so similar! So happy they've opened another location and they are doing well, now if only they could come...