Casa do Pescador — Restaurant in Vila Nova de Gaia

Service top tier, atmosphere amazing, there is a lot of locals, family gathering, friends birthday gathering... it's very buzzing. A lot of FC Porto decoration, which is nice. When I was there, coincidentally a Porto match was playing on TV, so everyone in the restaurants are really hooked on the match and cheering / yelling whenever something happens, which I really love. However a big problem is, the seafood isn't really up to my standard. Maybe it is the way they cook it. I ordered seafood rice. I believe the ingredients are fresh, but the clams and mussels were small, prawns were not "bouncy" in texture (not sure how to say it in English), and idk what to do with the small crab. I'm a big seafood lover, and at home I have high standards and quality of seafood, so maybe just a personal preference. A lot of customers love to come, so maybe they love the...

Unfortunately, this is just another classic restaurant that turned into a touristic spot. I asked if the sardines were good (we are now in high season for this fish in Portugal) and the owner (it seemed to be the owner) said that they were amazing. At the end, we ate frozen sardines (unacceptable always, much more on high season), dry and very, very salty to undercover the quality. When I complained at the end to another waiter, he admitted that the sardines were frozen.I never saw the first one (the owner), only on our way out and he pretended all was good. To finish the cherry on top, when my father was paying they said to a tourist that he couldn't pay with a card. My father complained and said that he was going to pay with a card and the waiter said: "the tourist had money, so no problem". Conclusion: to be avoided for locals and also...

By chance, we sat next to a very nice and helpful couple, who helped us with the translation. Indeed, the people in the restaurant did not speak a word of either English nor French (a lot of Portuguese people do speak French very well). This is also true that there were some mistakes on the bill, which anyhow was impossible to read (on purpose?). They also brought us a big plate of appetizers that we did not order, but we were told by this nice couple that we just can say no and they took it back, without addiying it on the bill. This is for the negative part. The fish and the dishes we had were very good and fresh (so, nobody was sick) and I could not define this place as as tourist trap, since we were the...