Cafe Porto
Yesterday Seven Streets posted their review of Cafe Porto on Rodney Street.
Together with Scottish partner, Mary Walker, Pedro works hard to ensure everything is right: with authentic ingredients sourced from a London-based Portuguese importer. Together, it’s evident the team works its collective ass off – you can see them toiling away in the open kitchen. And they’ve created a wonderfully idiosyncratic outpost at the top of the town.
I couldn’t agree more it’s an excellent restaurant, one of my favourites and would recommend it to anyone, it’s simple lovely food. However, I was really dismayed to hear this.
Owner Pedro Almeida admits his venture suffered a rocky start, and even considered selling up last year. But the Porto native has fallen in love with the city and, he says, “I’ve put everything into this, so I’m not going to give up that easily.”
Cafe Porto is one restaurant I would be really unhappy to loose, you should all go for a meal now, you wont be disappointed. In fairness I haven’t been in a little while and I intend to change that very soon. In our city local restaurants like this need support, because they are good, in many cases very good, better than anything you can get in a Pizza Express, Cafe Uno, Ask, GBK etc etc.
Update
I popped in recently for a spot of lunch and had some fantastic slat cod fishcakes, this was simple lovely food, as expected. Ok, service was a bit slow, however that is how this places works, all the complaining about the service is wrong, people don’t get what it’s about. If you want a fast business’s lunch or quick sandwich there are hundreds of places to go, if you want genuine quality go to cafe Porto.
Cheers S – and thanks, it was your tip off that made me go. Really enjoyed it, but hope he introduces full a la carte as soon as he can
I’m sure he used to open 6 nights a week as well, but I guess if its not working you have to change things. Full a la carte could work, but not sure it would work without another chef on board, so might be a tough financial decision.
Funnily enough, I can understand why this nearly closed. I went for lunch with a friend around 18 months ago and the food was terrible and seriously overpriced – I ordered a chicken salad sandwich and it was poor quality packet chicken drenched in cheap mayonnaise (which I’d asked to be left off) on stale bread, with not a lettuce leaf in sight. This, plus a little side of crisps and a drink put me back nearly £6. The waitresses and staff, however, were lovely and it was really nice inside so I’m glad he’s cleaned up his act!
Laura
Thanks for the comment, it’s interesting that the complaints I’ve heard about it centre around lunch time and sandwiches etc. He should probably stick to what he does best, the tapas, which I really think is excellent.