Anthony Bourdain in Porto: where he ate, and which places are still open

Tripe, francesinha, cachorrinho and seafood: the restaurants and the port lodge from Bourdain's two Porto episodes, and which of them are still open.

Porto was one of the first places Anthony Bourdain ever made television. By his own account he had no idea what he was doing, so he asked José Meirelles for help, his former boss at Les Halles, the New York brasserie. Meirelles grew up in the area and has family there, and together they took Bourdain into the countryside for a traditional pig slaughter followed by a shared meal.

In his notes on the 2017 Porto episode, Bourdain wrote that he learned a lot about José and his family on that trip, and that for the first time in nearly three decades as a cook he really learned where his food came from. He had never seen an animal die before. In February 2017 he returned with Meirelles for Parts Unknown, and the pig slaughter was part of the story again.

In between came tripe, francesinha, cachorrinho and seafood in Matosinhos. Below are the restaurants and the port lodge from both episodes, in the order of the map, each with what Bourdain ordered and what to know before you go.

The two Porto episodes

• A Cook's Tour, episode "Cod Crazy", aired in 2002: Bourdain's first visit to Porto, with José Meirelles, built around bacalhau. Two restaurants from this episode are known; one of them is still open.
• Parts Unknown, season 9, episode "Porto, Portugal", filmed in February 2017 and aired in July 2017: tripe, francesinha, cachorrinho, seafood in Matosinhos and port in Vila Nova de Gaia. All five public places can still be visited.

1 · A Cozinha do Martinho

The restaurant is on Rua de Costa Cabral in the north of the city, in a residential neighbourhood. It was founded by Martinho, who started cooking at the age of eleven; in 2018 his daughter Branca Pereira was running it. Here Bourdain and Meirelles ate tripas à moda do Porto, the tripe stew that earned Porto's residents the nickname "tripeiros". Before it came fried petinga, small sardines, and black-pork paio, and rabanadas afterwards. Branca Pereira later said he had asked about the history, the seasoning and how the tripe was made.

Visiting: Rua de Costa Cabral 2598, phone +351 919 595 316. Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch only, closed Mondays. Call ahead to ask whether tripe is on that day.

2 · Café O Afonso

O Afonso on Rua da Torrinha is where Bourdain went for francesinha, Porto's sandwich of bread, steak, sausage and linguiça under melted cheese and sauce. Expect a queue at the door.

Visiting: Rua da Torrinha 219, phone +351 22 200 0395. Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner, closed Mondays.

3 · Cervejaria Gazela

Gazela is a small cervejaria known for its cachorrinhos, open since 1962 and listed in Portugal's "Comércio com História" programme for long-established shops. The crew filmed at the original bar on Travessa Cimo de Vila, near Praça da Batalha. Bourdain ordered the house classic: the cachorrinho, a roll filled with sausage, cheese and a spicy sauce, with chips on the side. Speaking to Diário de Notícias in 2018, Américo Pinto from Gazela recalled that Bourdain chatted with the whole team and loved the cachorro.

Visiting: Travessa Cimo de Vila 4 (the bar from the show), plus Rua de Entreparedes 34 and Rua Alexandre Herculano 396. Monday to Saturday, noon to 10.30pm. According to NiT, a cachorrinho with chips came to just over five euros in 2017.

4 · Esplanada Marisqueira A Antiga

A Antiga in Matosinhos, the harbour town just north of Porto, has been serving fish and seafood since 1957. Bourdain's table got a tower of prawns, oysters, crab, sea urchin, langoustine, goose barnacles, whelks and clams, followed by a salt-baked sea bass.

Visiting: Rua Roberto Ivens 628, Matosinhos. Daily, noon to midnight; book on the website or on +351 229 380 660. Seafood is charged by weight; according to NiT, Bourdain's selection cost around 50 euros in 2017. Take metro line A from the centre to Matosinhos Sul, then walk about 5 minutes.

5 · Real Companhia Velha

The port house is on the other side of the Douro, in Vila Nova de Gaia, and was founded by royal charter in 1756. In its cellar Bourdain tasted tawny and vintage port with cheese, bread and pumpkin jam, guided by André Apolinário, food guide and co-founder of Taste Porto. That tasting was put together for the show; as the magazine NiT noted back in 2017, you can't book that exact one.

Visiting: Rua Azevedo Magalhães 314, Vila Nova de Gaia. Cellar tours Monday to Saturday, book online. The shortest tour, with four wines, takes 45 minutes and costs €20; longer tours pair port with chocolate, old tawnies or vintage port.

Not open to the public: lamprey and the pig slaughter

Not every location in the 2017 episode is open to the public. The lamprey, a winter dish in Porto, was cooked by a family at home. According to Diário de Notícias, the pig slaughter took place in Celorico de Basto, in the countryside north-east of Porto, just as it had in 2002.

6 · Rogério do Redondo

Rogério do Redondo is the place from the 2002 episode that is still open. It has served traditional Porto cooking since the 1980s. It closed in 2015 and reopened after a renovation in 2019, with, it says, the same cook as in the old days. The menu includes tripe, cozido, rojões and cabidela; tripe is the dish of the day on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Visiting: Rua de Joaquim António de Aguiar 19. Lunch noon to 2.30pm, dinner 7.30pm to 10pm. Call ahead to check which day it closes.

7 · Casa Aleixo (closed)

At Casa Aleixo near Campanhã station, Bourdain was served fried octopus fillets with octopus rice in 2002. The restaurant closed in 2020 after 72 years as a family business.

A suggestion for two days

The places are far apart and not all of them open every day. This is one possible selection, not a checklist. Seafood for lunch and tripe for dinner is a lot for most people; if so, give the tripe a lunch of its own.

• Day one in town: a cachorrinho at Gazela in Batalha for lunch. From there, walk across the upper deck of the Dom Luís I bridge to Gaia for the cellar tour, about 30 minutes and partly steep; book the tour for the afternoon in advance. Francesinha at O Afonso in the evening, about 15 minutes by taxi from Gaia.
• Day two on the coast: take metro line A to Matosinhos for lunch at A Antiga, about 25 minutes from the centre. Tripe at A Cozinha do Martinho for dinner, about 20 to 25 minutes by taxi from Matosinhos; call ahead to check tripe is on.
• If you're in Porto on a Thursday or Saturday, you can have your tripe at Rogério do Redondo instead, where it's on the menu those days.
• O Afonso and A Cozinha do Martinho close on Mondays; Gazela and the cellar tours close on Sundays.

We checked opening status and visiting details against the sources linked below on 11 October 2026. Hours change, so it's worth a quick call before you go.

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