Theophilu's Bar — Restaurant in Vila Nova de Gaia

We loved this place. In reading the reviews, we have to often wonder what expectations people have when dealing with a service, especially during peak seasons or a different culture than their own.

We had a great experience at this place, to the point we went back multiple times, primarily because of the attitude of the manager, Nelson, and his crew, who made us feel very comfortable. Did we end up waiting once for the check a little longer than what we would have wanted if we were back home, Yes... but we were on vacation and instead of grousing about it, we took the opportunity to talk with others around us and enjoy the beautiful view and the musician, Marcelo, that was often there when we stopped.

One of the meal's my spouse had, which included prawns, was one of her top three from our trip to Portugal.

Going back to Nelson, he kindly connected us to a local 'tuk tuk' driver, Ani. It was really an old fashioned looking car, not a conventional tuk tuk. That turned out to be a great adventure in itself.

At one point we had picked on Nelson about needing to sing some Fado for us, and he obliged. Which I felt was not something he normally did, since members of his waitstaff were taking some videos.

Since our hotel was near the restaurant we'd pass by on a regular basis, and at times he'd invite us in just to sit and visit after we had told him we had already had dinner and or dessert.

The food was good, and in some instances, great. But it was the people that made our...

In contrast to other restaurants they still had free tables, so we went there on a sunny sunday afternoon to maybe have some drinks and tapas and watch people walking by. Even as the tables were cleaned from glasses and plates they were not clean at all, still sticky leftovers on the table. A couple of minutes after we sat finally one of the waiters came and we were able to order a menue. 10 minutes later another waiter came and asked if we wanted something to drink, after telling him that we still wait for the menues we finally got them. First we wanted to have some coffees and a tapas plate to share. But as we had to wait 10 more minutes to order (at an almost empty bar at this moment) we decided to only have some coffee and skip the food - afterwards we are happy not to have wasted our money there. The ordered cappuccino (€ 1,70) was no cappuccino at all - cup was way too hot and coffee was burned as well, it was watery and didn´t taste. Pingo (€ 1,20) was OK. When we ordered the bill one of the waiters just told from the table nearby it will be € 3,-. First it was not the prices from the menue nor we got any paper bill. If there wouldn´t be the location just next to the river and if it would be possible I would...

Really disappointed that we chose this restaurant for our last night here. We had to remind the waiter that no-one had even taken our order after 40 minutes. He begrudgingly took the order and after 1.5 hours we were still waiting for the starter. After chasing again we got a small portion of garlic bread after waiting 2 hours but it wasn't a full portion. By this time we were so hungry we couldn't be bothered to complain again. The waiter by this time was ignoring us when we were asking at what time could we expect the mains. I decided to pay for what we had and go but the waiter begged us to stay. Ten minutes later and after waiting nearly 3 hours we got our food and a small measure of port to say sorry. Apparently there had been a problem with the ovens which no-one had explained and they were even still encouraging people in. Other tables were just getting up and walking away. A really disappointing experience. The front of house guy was nice but the other staff were rude and dismissive. Would...