The 10 best cheap restaurants in Porto

Imagine the following: a thin toasted bun with a filling of sausage and melted cheese, sprinkled with butter and a spicy sauce and then cut up into little pieces. That’s what you’ll find when you sit at the counter at the Cervejaria Gazela, in the Batalha neighbourhood (and then some). 

As you may have guessed, everything at Oficina dos Rissóis revolves around rissoles (deep-fried pastries filled with fish or meat). The best part? The rissoles here are all handmade, from the dough to the fillings. Prepared with organic flour and baked in the oven, these are stuffed with everything from roast country chicken with onions to black pork sausage with cheese and wild prawns from Mozambique. The other best part? They're all priced between €1.50 and €3. Grab chips, salad, pickles and rice for the side (between €2 and €5.50). Take a seat at the counter and repeat several times, ‘it's just one more, it's just one more,’ until you fall to the ground.

The queues out the door make clear that something good is happening inside Casa Guedes. That something is a delicious pork-leg sandwich with ‘mountain’ cheese. The pork is swimming in sauce, the cheese is creamy and the bread lightly toasted.

On Sundays, Maus Hábitos’ restaurant turns into a brunch mecca, offering three different menus: the mini-brunch, the brunch for one and the brunch for two (to share). Eggs – scrambled or fried – and bacon, green salad, pancakes with lemon curd and house ricotta, and bottomless filter coffee and lemonade integrate all three. You can also try other specialties like the quesadillas, homemade granola with yoghurt and berries or the dark chocolate mousse. You can choose to order à la carte.

Preliminary note: the Expresso referred to here is the Casa Expresso and not the Expresso Restaurant next door, with a connection inside. What you're reading right now is an ode to Casa Expresso and its incredible, bulging rojões sandwiches, the pork and liver onion panado ones, and the very good chocolate mousse. For lunch there are dishes like feijoada (a black bean and pork steq), alheiras (Portuguese sausage) with egg, roast chicken, grilled turkey steaks and loads more traditional grub. Some better than others, but all are under 5€.

Porto's first vegan bar was opened in 2018 by vegan author and blogger Natacha Meunier. ‘I decided to take a risk and create something a little different that I could identify with,’ she said of the inspiration behind Apuro at the time. The menu is full of tapas, toasts, burritos, burgers and bowls, all 100 percent plant-based and local. There's craft beer and natural wines to go with it, everything is super affordable and dogs are more than welcome. What could be better? 

In a nutshell, O Diplomata is a paradise for pancake lovers. Pancakes feature on all four brunch menus here (from €6), served with butter and honey. As well as the house special, you can order scrambled eggs with bacon, açaí cups, beans with tomato and mushrooms and great coffee. 

Juicy rojões (fried pork), dipped in a glutinous sauce flavoured with cumin, thin slices of Cinfães salpicão, melty cubes of Celorico da Beira cheese and a well-stuffed meatball. All delicious and all for less than €15 for two people. At Casa de Presuntos you'll also find breaded sandwiches, plates of sarrabulho, meat rissoles, codfish cakes, morcelas and a multitude of well-served snacks. Oh, and the kind of warm service it can sometimes be hard to come by. 

You’ll probably have to wait at this traditional restaurant: both upstairs and downstairs rooms are usually full, particularly at lunchtime. Home-style dishes are the speciality: one of their most famous, veal pie, is difficult to find elsewhere in the city. And there’s more: hake rissoles, fried sardines with rice and beans, ‘rojões’ diced pork, duck rice and tripe stew, Porto-style. Everything is very affordable.