In general, I found very little about specific gluten free restaurants in Porto or restaurants with gluten free menus. For this trip, I focused on the restaurant card and explaining what I could not eat, which was fine with the Mediterranean influenced and heavy seafood diet in Portugal.

These weekend trips are getting a little expensive, so I tried to keep costs low by booking Jualis Guest House. Our supposed room was overbooked, so we ended up being placed in what seemed like a studio apartment from the owners that faced the street and was pretty noisy, but at 30€ a night, we were not complaining. The staff were all really helpful and nice as well.

Mainly though, I booked because I had read a review that they could give you gluten free bread at breakfast and that is the one meal that I do not want to worry about on a trip. After some confusion asking them to confirm this via email beforehand, they did say they could provide gluten free bread and sure enough, I received special gluten free rolls heated up just for me in the morning. They would even ask what time we would come for breakfast so that I didn’t have to wait. Kay was a little jealous because his bread was cold and it was hard to warm ourselves up eating on the patio in the cooler weather.Still wanting a nicer coffee, we stopped at Café Moustache, where I ordered gluten free cake along with my cappucino just because they had it.For lunch, I was adventurous and agreed to eat at a local diner at Largo São Domingos 23, which I couldn’t get a picture of the restaurant name, but we dropped down that dark scaffolding area in the photo below and went to the restaurant with the red door.It had a 100% Portuguese menu and we decided to order some wine with lunch before our port winery tour. Not the best place for wine though unfortunately…I was really enjoying starting to read and understand things in Portuguese. There is still a ton to learn, but I already feel like I can communicate a tiny, tiny bit better. While Kay ordered a typical Francesinha dish, I ordered fish, which they just battered in egg instead of flour as well.We had to scramble a bit to get to Ferreira cellars on time. The tour of the cellars was very brief and then it was time for the degustation. Most of the 50 person group were only trying the 2 ports included in the standard price.

Only our table with two other couples were trying 5 different kinds.It was a bit of a disappointing degustation because all the port was too quickly explained and then the guide took the bottles away with the labels and left, so we had no reference besides our quick retention skills to talk about what we were supposed to be tasting.It was a shame because they even had the glasses set up on sheets with space for writing, so they could have easily written down what we were drinking.

Lastly, there was no water or anything to snack on to clear your palette between sips. All in all, not the best degustation we’d ever been to, but we still enjoyed the port with our limited introduction. 🙂We did get to sample a 20 year old tawny (if I have that right) as well as another LBV. I of course liked the most expensive one the best. 🙂After the port, we were a little tipsy and tried to wake ourselves up with a coffee on the walk back to the bridge. Mine had a wonderful sweet cinnamon touch.After coffee we wandered around aimlessly wondering what to do. Museums were closed, but it was not yet time for dinner and without my usual gluten free selection guide, we were again lost as we normally were on city trips pre-celiac disease.

Finally we decided to stop at the seemingly super touristy Majestic Cafe, because we were tired and a little hungry and just did not care about the extra price. Like the Livraria Lello & Irmão bookstore, apparently Cafe Majestic is said to be where JK Rowling started one of her first drafts of Harry Potter.It ended up being a pretty nice restaurant. Sure, the prices were a little more expensive than other places, but Kay thought the melon above was to die for and the restaurant was knowledgeable enough about gluten to make a special gluten free port sauce for my duck.We also decided to sample another brand of port to help us with our decision of what to purchase at the end. Knowing we liked both the 20 year tawny and LBV from Ferreira, we tried the same from Graham’s and decided we liked both of them much more than the Ferreira stuff. The 20 year tawny was the better of the two and had a nice long and complex finish.The next day we got up for breakfast again before checking out and finding that the sun was starting to peek out. We stopped for a fresh juice and coffee before tackling our day.I had actually asked, albeit with very short notice, if there was room for dinner reservations for two at The Yeatman’s Michelin-starred restaurant for Saturday evening and unfortunately there were not, so I was excited when I asked about Sunday lunch and they confirmed my reservation.

Kay, on the other hand, almost wanted to cancel the lunch reservations because he didn’t feel like “dressing up” in his business shirt and getting all sweaty the next morning climbing the tower certainly didn’t help.

But shortly after sprucing ourselves up and being seated with a port aperitif and the view below from our table, Kay was sure that this was the absolute best decision of the weekend.And it was. This meal made up for all the missed anniversaries this year. We hadn’t gotten around to eating somewhere amazing and this place really spoiled us. They altered everything to be gluten free for me if necessary.Chef’s greetings with lobster and caviar on a macaroon base and avocado cream on what I think was a shrimp kind of cracker for me and a corn tortilla cracker for Kay.

Below, micro carrots.Next was a refreshing gazpacho and molecular mozzarella to the right, paired with a white wine. I was terrible and forgot to get any of the wine names.Below was a crispy salmon fillet sandwich with wasabi mayonnaise.Sea bass, crustaceans & coconut served in a halved coconut.Below then codfish swim bladder and bean stew, codfish fillet and codfish sauce. This one tasted nice and hearty, like preparing for winter.The main was grilled and glazed sirloin, chanterelle mushrooms and barbecue sauce & oxtail stew. I think below is the oxtail stew and the next photo is the sirloin with mushrooms.Ah, heaven!!They also served Kay seaweed bread and another kind, while I enjoyed a nice light and fluffy gluten free bread with soft butter and olive oil.The “pre dessert” was some kind of chocolate mousse over nuts. Kay’s probably had some gluten cookie underneath which they just replaced with nuts for me.Actual dessert was green tea cream with lime merengue, tonka bean ice cream and iced tea.Here was the iced tea. Funny serving. We were marveling at the interesting dishes for presenting food. Some of the plates were quite large and voluminous.After dinner we received a selection of macaroons and chocolates. I left the crackery bits to Kay.After dessert, we decided to try some more port again, so we splurged a bit and chose an LBV from 2010 and a 1976 vintage from Krohn.I am not sure we could decide which one of these we liked better, but we made sure to look for something similar in the duty free section at the airport. Of course everything is more mainstream in the airport, but we had carry-on only and didn’t want to invest in shipping something home.In the end we settled on Graham’s 20 year tawny, a white port from Graham’s, a 1998 Krohn vintage, and a Borges Porto 2010 LBV.Now that we know more about port from our tour, we also know that it’s also important to drink a bottle in a timely fashion. Kay and I were both under the impression that you can leave port open like liquor and it will taste fine, but after a quick test at home, Kay feels that our old standby tastes like vinegar compared to the ones above.

We were happy to get a nice little collection to enjoy and savour properly based on our tastings. Overall, we had a very enjoyable food and dining experience in Porto. I highly recommend The Yeatman’s restaurant if you are in town!