Ora Viva — Restaurant in Porto

This is a very small family run restaurant with terrific quality seafood. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I find the 1-star reviews (and, especially, those that say 'I would give it 0-stars if I could') disheartening. Guys, the place is tiny and there's only room for a couple of staff doing everything from seating, to serving, to bussing, etc. Therefore some aspects of your experience might be imperfect given the circumstances of the moment. You don't need to give them 5-stars. But to give 1-star because you had to wait longer than you would like (which seems to be common these reviews) is overkill. It's a small family business. Be kind. You'll more than likely get what you give. As a side note - restaurant staff should not be expected to be professional ass-kissers at all times. Try walking in their shoes before review bombing a business which is essentially harmless, even if your experience is imperfect or frustrating. They're not engaging in wrong-doing. There are options for 2 or 3 stars available for those instances where the experience doesn't fully meet your expectations. I think this place is great but even so I haven't given 5-stars across the board because our statements should be balanced if we're going to share them. Save the 1-star reviews for those businesses that are intentionally trying to wrong you in some way. Encountering a small business on an 'off day' isn't that. Likely they're doing their best under difficult circumstances and didn't mean to offend or let you down. The staff, management, and owners probably aren't making bucketloads of cash or have any incentive to wrong you. Go easy, guys. Also - the seafood really was very darn good. And, for me at least, the service...

Staff are lovely and the interior was pretty unique, cosy and nice. The food was just "OK". The wine the staff recommended was fantastic. Not an expensive place. For a bottle of wine, a few starters, 2 mains and 2 desserts it cost approx 50€ which was good. For the food... The starters were alrighg, but nothing to rave about. The baked octopus which I was told was their specialty was cooked to a good texture but there was soo much butter. It really needed a side dish not cooked in the butter to offset it. My husband got a "sausage" dish from their mains. It wasn't really what we would call a sausage but rather a crumbed and fried patty shaped thing with strange tasting and textured meat inside. My husband rarely doesn't finish his plate, but the dish churned his stomach, so he did not finish it. Despite this we still chose to try a dessert and both go the "drunk pear". It was yummy and very sweet. A scoop of vanilla icecream with the pear would have made it ...

If you are travelling to Porto, do not go here. Avoid at all costs. This place was absolutely abhorrently awful, the behaviour of the staff was the worst I have experienced in my entire life, in the world, without exaggeration. They did not welcome us very nicely at all, basically ignored us and clearly did not want us in their restaurant. They were cold, rude and unbelievably arrogant. We were waiting to order our food and tried to move table because it was literally 40 degrees inside the restaurant. The owner / waiter was extremely rude and told us “we had chosen the table”: notwithstanding that there was literally only one other table in the restaurant. These people are riding off good reviews they’ve gotten but are arrogant and rude, if it’s quite when you go, there’s a reason why. I’d rather eat from the sewer. There is an amazing place directly across and I suggest you go there instead. If I could give it minus stars I would. You...