Tascö Porto Review - The Best Restaurants In Porto

Last Updated on 13th November 2022

This post about my Tascö Porto review contains affiliate links.

I was actually in the middle of writing my ultimate food guide to Porto when I realised that I’d written almost 1000 words just about Tascö alone, so I figured that I should probably give it a whole review post of its own.

Tascö.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I truly don’t think I will be able to write a raving review that explains just how much of an incredible place Tascö is.

It’s ranked NUMBER ONE out of 1,917 restaurants in Porto on TripAdvisor (and has been for the last 2+ years)!

A little bit of background for you before I begin to attempt my review – we’d wandered passed Tascö a fair few times during our first couple of days in Porto but we noticed that it was only open from 7 pm and we always seemed to go past way before it opened.

Once we’d checked out the menu online, however, we knew that we had to properly arrange to eat there, so towards the end of the week, we headed there for 7 pm sharp.

Even though we didn’t book a table beforehand, we were seated promptly and even though there are only 9 tables inside, we managed to get one before the whole restaurant filled up in less than half an hour.

The one thing I have to mention in particular about Tascö is that we received hands down the best service I’ve ever received in a restaurant before. Every member of staff was unbelievably attentive, thoughtful, helpful and remarkably friendly.

Once we were seated, we were provided with complimentary bread and olive oil, plus little seafood nibbles that were surprisingly yummy, despite neither of us being the biggest fans of seafood. We were also served welcome cocktails which were utterly divine and such a lovely gesture.

Tascö menu

I also want to note that as Tascö has recently refreshed their menu and given it a whole new vibe, we were lucky to eat there as they were rolling out the changes so we (along with everyone else in the restaurant) received a fair few complimentary dishes and drinks so they could gauge the reception of them!

The menu at Tascö Porto is truly phenomenal and I genuinely don’t think there are many things that I wouldn’t eat there. Everything from the seafood to the meat dishes to the vegan options and even the side dishes are truly exquisite!

Our initial waitress (I think she was called Patricia) talked us through all the dishes, recommended some of her favourites and explained what we could expect from the dining experience. The only teeny, tiny slight niggle I have to say is that Tascö says that their dishes are tapas-style which I would disagree with somewhat as the portions are a little too big to be tapas (in my opinion at least!).

However, we listened with intent to Patricia’s recommendations and even though it’s very unlike me to be overly ambitious with my food choices, after hearing her rave about how good the veal was, I decided to go for it.

The Vitela dish is a delightful concoction of veal, mashed potato and fried carrot chips. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life.

The veal was absolutely exquisite; Patricia told us before we ordered that it was so soft and tender, you could practically eat it with a spoon and my goodness, she wasn’t kidding. It was so light and tender with a wonderful flavour and combined with the indulgently creamy mashed potato, it was a recipe for absolute heaven.

One thing that stood out to me the most about my dish, however, was the fried carrot chips which have undoubtedly changed the carrot game for me. I’m not being dramatic when I say that they’re godly. I actually went on about how much I loved these to the waiter (João, who was by far the best waiter I’ve ever had) so much, that the chef cooked up a whole bowlful just so I could have extras!

As the premise of the restaurant is tapas, we took Patricia’s word for it and decided to share the dishes we ordered. Usually, with tapas, you can expect to order a good few dishes between you, but we just ordered one “main” each and a side dish and we felt that it was more than enough for us.

Matt ordered the Rojões which are a very popular dish in Portugal and we were both very excited to try them. Rojões is a dish consisting of traditional Portuguese pork stewed in wine, garlic and olive oil. It also came with pea sprouts and I think truffles on the top which I wasn’t actually a big fan of.

However, the pork itself was absolutely unreal; so juicy and flavoursome and the accompanying pork “scratchings” were glorious. For our side dish, we ordered the batata frita which are sticky and crispy french fries and these paired beautifully with both our meals.

For drinks, we were up in the air for the longest time about what to order as the barman (Bernardo, I think?) said he could make pretty much anything we wanted and after a long time deliberating, we just decided to go for a delicious white wine instead.

After our meal, João came over to us and we were chatting for ages. Once we said that we couldn’t really have any dessert as most of them contained nuts, he came back out of the kitchen and said that the chef had prepared two tiny chocolate brownies for us to sample. We were blown away by this kind gesture, especially when we were provided with two complimentary Espresso Martinis to wash it down with as well!

I can’t believe how long this recommendation of Tascö has gone on, but I really wanted to get across just how much of an amazing place it is to eat in Porto.

The food is indescribably divine, the staff are out of this world and the whole dining experience made it the best restaurant experience I’ve ever had.

If there’s just ONE place you need to eat in Porto, it has to be Tascö.

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