Restaurante Essência — Restaurant in Porto

Do not be put off by the district, or outside appearance of this restaurant. The interior is pleasant and tastefully furnished and decorated.

We were served by an excellent Italian waiter from Genoa who was nice to speak with as well as being very attentive.

The best part of our meal was the bread, starters and wine. Unfortunately, our main courses were disappointing.

My wife chose a mushroom lasagna. This was poorly seasoned and contained just two large slices of mushroom sat on a bed of Spinach. Very disappointing, buy the standards of the bread and starters.

I ordered the baked Cod, which looked fabulous, as served, but sadly every forkful contained lots of bones. No effort had been made to prepare it for cooking. About half way through, a second waiter asked if we were enjoying our meals. I explained my problem and he said “what a pity - enjoy your meals”. I persevered and ate all the fish without choking on the bones.

While clearing the plates, and ignoring my earlier comment, the same waiter asked if we had enjoyed the dishes. I pointed out that neither were satisfactory, especially, the bones in my fish. To which he replied “What do you expect when you eat fish?”. Perhaps this comment contains some humour in Portuguese, but, frankly, I thought it was the rudest comment ever made to us in a restaurant.

The owner tried to make amends, but I was extremely offended by this.

I think that vegetarian restaurants are the future of serious dining, but if the chef and waiter are offended when a customer choses a non-vegetarian meal, then the answer is simply not to offer them.

So, if you enjoy vegetarian food, we strongly recommend this restaurant. But suggest that you think twice, if you are thinking on a...

My husband and I went to Essencia for dinner tonight after reading several rave reviews on Trip Advisor about how it was the 'best vegan dinner' they've ever had. I was so excited. Unfortunately, we have different ideas about it. The restaurant wasn't bad, but I was unimpressed by the number of vegan options, service and value. Vegan/vegetarian options. Despite calling itself a vegetarian restaurant, this restaurant serves meat. I'm OK with that, but's it's very misleading to call itself a veg restaurant when it's only veg-friendly. Some veg-people may be turned off by this. Number of vegan options are limited. This restaurant has the most vegan appetizer options. Limited vegan main options (perhaps 2 or 3?) and includes a whole list of meat options and a tofu dish that wasn't vegan friendly. I didn't look over the dessert list too carefully, but there were some vegan options there as well. No vegan ice cream, just regular ice cream. We ordered the vegetable curry and the beetroot spaghetti for mains and the vegan phyllo sausage for our starter. Neither of us were in the mood for dessert. Value. Overall, I have gotten better value for a dinner at another restaurant in town (Black Mamba, O Burrito, I Love Bio) as our 1 app and 2 mains cost 30 Euro. We got complimentary water because I asked for tap water. They don't serve tap water (due to bad filtering?), so I was told I was given free water after I asked for a refill on my water. I appreciated the gesture, but it's weird they don't give customers anything to drink with a meal that isn't paid for. The food was good, but not the best food I've ever had. I have had better food at Elizabeth's Gone Raw and...

This restaurant looks and it is suposed to be upscale, you pay for that too. But in the case of our group lunch, that was not dilivered. If you charge around 30 Euros for a a 3 coarse meal, for a small group, I expect a good experience. The food is well presented and it is visually appealing, but that changes with the first bite. The looks is not delivered in flavour. Sevice is ok, not very friendly or smiley but vot the job done. The flavour is missing, my Prawns and Curry Risoto, was over cooked a just didnt taste like it should, just plain, if I didn't see the prawns i would not say they were there. . My first course was suposed to be brie inside a croasted dough with a tomato sauce and honey. For my surprise i get Tomato and honey filling and no sine or flavour of the Brie. Called the waiter, but no decent answer, just an assurance that it was some cheese inside, but we didn't find any evidence of it in the 3 first coarse that we order. 2 of us didnt eat any more and no reaction from the restaurant staff. For me, the main point is that if you state in the menu, that you serve a Brie inside a crusted dough with tomato and honey sauce, the expectation is, that cheese is not only there, but that cheese is the master flavour and the tomato sauce is the addictional flavour, not the other way around! Overall, my exlerience was not a good one. My advice would be to improve the service and the flavour...