Ristorante Toscano — Restaurant in Porto

It was on the last 20 years my favourite place for Italian food, use to go there for special occasions like Valentines and some more intimate moments, it was the only place In Porto where you could feel the Italian atmosphere, the food was amazing honestly sometimes not the best but the atmosphere and the employees were simply divine. Unfortunately went in there last night, eard they had some refurbishments and wanted to check the differences, and what a change, the Italian old smell was gone everything was clean and looking posh, a completely new dimension, didn't feel like the same anymore, the old vinyl menu was gone, the old tables with Italian bottles in the middle with Italian tablecloths gone, the Italian breadsticks disappeared, just remained the piano and awful deep Italian music on the background, not one decent old Italian music I eard all night...and use to be one of best things, but honestly doesn't match anymore with the new decor. After checking the menu I was told they removed most of the 72 dishes, only had 4 or 5 different choices for pizza and some major differences on Pastas, Meat and fish options it's more a Risotto place like Gordon Ramsey loves. But even worst was the wine options everything really expensive and not a lot to choose from, and no Lambrusco on those options ?!!! Probably because it's not posh enough for this new atmosphere. Instead of wine had a white sangria, the flavour was nothing special and was more red than white probably a leftover or a new mix....about the food my girlfriend had a Carbonara and I had a some sort of pasta with meat inside, everything very gourmet on the size of, but flavour wise not even close on the Carbonara, mine was OK the sauce was very decent...then i was surprised cause when I was still chewing my last peace of food suddenly I was amazed with a really super fast service, the dishes were gone and after 20 seconds was surprised again with suggestions for dessert , come on... if you want to be posh at least let me eat quietly and with time , my some sort of sangria was halfway, almost had the feeling that I was being rushed off the place, I replied I didn't want it straight away and immediately they took all the cutlery like I was not getting anything else, wrong....after a while I asked for a dessert and was the best of the experience, an ice-cream with liquid hot chocolate and Ferrero perfect for two to share. To finish i asked for the bill and for the first time after 20 years I was not offered the good bye single shot drink that I used to, instead I had a fancy credit card machine where I was invited to pay an extra 10% for tip 😅 after being charged like never before in this place they wanted an extra 10% , wt@ . I recommend this place for 20 years to dozens of close friends, unfortunately I will not do it anymore, very very expensive the food and drinks not wort it, now the decoration is just another fancy restaurant made for tourists to pay with their big pockets and even those because we witnessed they sitted on a table and after checking the menu they run away, I thought the same when I first saw the menu but I really wanted to give them a chance to prove myself that the place didn't change that much, but unfortunately they did...the old fashion and cosy Toscano is gone and is just a bunch of beautiful memories in mine and my girlfriend souls. Thank you for the last 20 years under the old Management we missed them a lot yesterday, but like you guys decided to change that much a tremendous and fantastic place to be on, I'm on my right to do the same. Despite everything I wish you guys the best and all the luck...

A large group of us reserved the entire (very small) space for the night. There were about 14 of us and we filled the space entirely.

So here's the deal. It's not a restaurant. It's a wine (especially Port) experience with tastings of olive oil, jam, died ham, cheese, and chorizo. It was plenty of food to make up for a light dinner but not of you're very hungry.

The staff planned a number of wine tastings and paired them with appropriate food tastings as well. All of the wine and food is from Portugal and they explain where each ingredient came from (using a map), why the tastes are different for the wine (grape variety, soil type, aging) as well as the food (location, cut, process, producer, etc.).

The staff are extremely passionate about their business and it shines through. We could not have asked for a better authentic Portuguese experience.

Highly recommend you make a reservation and give this...

Not as expected at all. We went there based on the rating we saw on the web which was rather good. Arriving the waiter was really sympathetic which was a 1st good point but unfortunately the only positive point. My husband being Italian, we are always looking to finding some good typical Italian food. I took some pasta with seafood, my husband a pizza and my daughter spaghetti alla carbonara. My pasta were tasteless and really too much cooked ( not al dente at all). The pizza was with almost no cheese. And carbonara were very standard but ok. I would not go again for sure. But you can test by your own and make your own experience. But in case you ask me, I would not suggest you to spend your money there... at least not for the food. You can go for the ambiance which is somehow nice as there is a pianist playing each evening. The decoration is close to Italian typical, not modern but not...