Porto Food Tours
Porto is Portugal’s greediest city: the Francesinha, a sandwich drowned in a beer-and-tomato sauce, the tripas that gave the locals their nickname, bifanas and broa bread from the Bolhão market, and, across the river, the port lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia. This is our Porto food hub. Below are the top-rated food experiences, then our port page.
Top-rated food experiences in Porto
Market and tuk-tuk tastings
Why Porto for food? Because it is a compact, characterful food city where a restored grand market, a monster sandwich and the world’s port lodges sit within a walk of each other along the Douro.
Formats: food tours of the Ribeira and the Bolhão market with tastings and wine; Francesinha tastings; tuk-tuk food tours of the hills; port lodge visits in Gaia (see its own page).
What to eat: Francesinha, tripas à moda do Porto, bifana, bacalhau, broa and queijo, pastel de nata, and a glass of port or a Vinho Verde.
The Bolhão and the Ribeira
The heart of eating in Porto is the Mercado do Bolhão, the century-old market now handsomely restored, full of fish, smoked meats, cheeses and the dense broa corn bread; most food tours begin here. From it the lanes tumble down to the Cais da Ribeira, the UNESCO waterfront under the Dom Luís I bridge, where you eat looking across at the port lodges. A tour connects the market, the tascas and the riverside in one greedy walk.
The Francesinha and the rest
Porto’s signature is the Francesinha: layers of cured meats and steak between bread, blanketed in melted cheese and a hot sauce of beer and tomato, often crowned with a fried egg — invented here in the 1950s and defended fiercely. The city’s older nickname, tripeiros (tripe-eaters), comes from tripas à moda do Porto, the white-bean-and-tripe stew tied to a patriotic legend. Lighter relief: the bifana pork sandwich, fresh sardines, and the northern bacalhau dishes.
How to do it, and the port
Food tours run three to four hours, market to river, with a Francesinha usually on the itinerary. Set aside separate time for the port lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia across the bridge, and for the Douro Valley day trip where the wine is actually grown — best of all now, in the harvest.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Francesinha?
Porto’s own sandwich: cured meats and steak under melted cheese and a spicy beer-and-tomato sauce, usually with an egg on top and fries. Rich, and unmissable here.
Is the Bolhão market worth visiting?
Yes; the restored Mercado do Bolhão is the city’s larder and the natural start of a food tour, for fish, smoked meats, cheese and broa bread.
Are the port lodges in Porto itself?
Just across the river in Vila Nova de Gaia; see our Porto port lodges page. The vineyards are up the Douro.
Read next: What is Vinho Verde? Portugal’s fresh green wine
How we choose
We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.