Whenever I write a whole bunch of review drafts while I'm on vacation, the last couple are always…read morethe hardest to get around to finishing... so this is now a review from almost half a year ago. But given they opened in 1896, I have a feeling they haven't changed *too* much since late January...
Anyway, I got here a little after 11 AM, for lunch - it was already pretty busy, even that early. When you walk in, there's a bakery side with an astonishing array of grab and go pastries, both savory and sweet. I wished I could have tried way more of them than I had the chance to, only having so much room, and only being in Porto long enough to visit here once, and mainly for a sit-down meal, specifically, to try their francesinha (though I did get some to-go stuff for me and my wife to try later in the day as a snack, and for breakfast the following morning). I was a little nervous when I saw a sign that said the "restaurant" didn't open until noon, but it turns out while they have a slightly less chaotic upstairs for sit-down service that opens at noon, they also have sit-down service in the back half of the main downstairs space. Despite being quite busy, I had no issues ordering quickly after sitting down, nor getting said orders quickly after ordering. I also liked that, rather than having to wait for a check at the end, when you order, they hand you a card with your check balance, then you pay at the front before leaving, after adding any pastries you're getting from the bakery side.
So the francesinha I was most specifically there for, was... a gold standard drowned sandwich. The one I had here was the first version I'd tried, but having subsequently tried a couple others, I can say, at least of those I tried, this was definitely the most decadent, just oozing egg and cheesy goodness. Wonderful sauce, wonderfully perfectly over-medium egg, great meat and a ton of it... came with a bunch of great fries, too, which were great for dipping in the leftover francesinha sauce (especially after I added some tabasco to it.)
While I was eating, I also had several drinks to go with it - as seems much more common in Portugal than in the US, they had very fresh, delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice for not very much money. The OJ was great. Their house port was also quite cheap, and would also have been solid, but at least the day I was there, they really needed to have chilled it properly (yes, I did have port with my before-noon brunch... I was on vacation, and no other city is overflowing with such good, cheap port everywhere :p.) Their espresso was... just ok. Better than Starbucks, and again, like most places in Porto, much cheaper, but it was a bit light. I'd had a lot of amazing espresso around the city, less so here.
For later, I also left with: a pile of the typical seafood empanadas (the cod was a bit too salty, but the shrimp was *perfect*), a baked chorizo and cheese roll (omg excellent), a slice of fudge-y, rich chocolate (wonderful - got it specifically to bring with me to the next port tasting room I visited, as the absolutely perfect pairing, which it was), and a couple pastel de nata (I'd made it a goal to try as many different versions as I could. The one here, the custard was the perfect texture, and perfectly balanced sweetness, with a hint of baking spices I also enjoyed; their crust was a little crunchy to be perfect, though. Still, solid.)
For all of that, including a whole *pile* of the little empanadas and an extra to-go small container of the fresh OJ, at least as of now a few months ago, I paid under 40 euro. I would definitely make sure to be back here at *least* once if I ever made it back to Porto.
