Porto’s Taberna Santo António: My Kind of Restaurant

I spend nearly every evening in Europe hunting...hunting for places like Porto’s Taberna Santo António. This impromptu clip gives a sense of the neighborhood energy of a great little eatery, with a local friend giving me what we agreed is a little bit of “heaven on a spoon.”

Looking for great new restaurants to recommend in the next edition of one of my guidebooks is also a lot like fishing: Sometimes you go home empty-handed, and sometimes you score. In Porto, I was a happy guidebook writer, having found several great new restaurants — some characteristic and rough like this one, others more romantic and elegant.

Here’s the write-up for the Rick Steves Portugal guidebook ():
[$$] Taberna Santo António is a convivial, hole-in-the-wall place — the quintessence of a family-run, neighborhood favorite. There’s a tight dining room and a few prime seats at the bar where eaters are choosing from six traditional stews, marveling at the homemade desserts, and having fun with the waitstaff (Rua das Virtudes 32, tel. 222-055-306).