Casa Machado is a beautiful place to have lunch in Afurada. If you are in Porto, you must visit Afurada, the fishing village on the other side of the Douro. The restaurants grill fresh fish outside for your meal.
During my visit, I chose to eat at Casa Machado, on the recommendation of a friend. It's beautiful and looks exactly as you would expect. However, they had both the TV on as well as some fado in the back, I would recommend that they ditch the TV and just go with the fado.
The prices are reasonable and the portions are huge. I ordered way too much, but they had a takeaway container, which is appreciated. I ordered bread, oil, olives, a half portion of sardines, a half portion of cod, a small salad, and wine. I looked at the fish before choosing and it was a hard choice! Everything was fresh and beautiful. But I'd never had sardines before and I love cod, so went with those two options. Also, was dying for vegetables, hence the salad. And of course, you need bread with every Portuguese meal.
The fish is simply grilled. Lemon, salt, oil and that's really all that was needed. Even the half portions are huge and they come with potatoes, which makes for a good amount of food. It was amazing. As were the bread, salad, and olives.
As much as I love this restaurant, I had two issues. I arrived just after they opened on a Saturday and they were not quite ready. The staff was yelling at each other and was clearly unhappy. But after they worked out their issues out, they were great. Then, I was overcharged by about €20, but the owner/manager caught it and fixed the mistake.
Overall, I highly recommend Casa Machado. It's beautiful and delicious and you will have a fantastic experience. read more