Farol da Boa Nova

Overall we were very disappointed with the experience here. Everything we ordered came out either wrong or deficient. This place is a blatant tourist trap that gives Portuguese food a bad name. For starters, we had ordered water that never came. We also ordered red sangria, which may or may not have contained much wine but certainly tasted like grenadine and cinnamon. Our “fresh” soft cheese appetizer (meant to spread on stale bread) was clearly out of a plastic cup that they unceremoniously flipped upside down onto the plate (you could see the indentations and divots from the shape of said plastic container). Our bacalhau pataniscas (traditional fried cod patties) were cold and oily. That’s just drinks and appetizers. Our main dish was supposed to be single serving of atlenjana - a traditional dish that’s comprised of seared pork and fresh clams with the Portuguese equivalent of home fries (chunky French fries). Rather than a single plate as we had ordered we got two, resulting in us paying double for the disaster I’m about to describe: First, the pork was not seared. It’s texture was that of something that had been boiled, it was grey like boiled meat rather than golden, and it tasted as though it had been boiled in salt water. The clams were clearly from a can, and, to add further insult, there were empty clam shells scattered throughout the dish for show. The fries were ok. But we’re soggy from the porks’s juices, water, and what appeared to be olive oil (you could see these three fluids pooling up at the center of the plate as we dug for the tiny, canned clams). We didn’t finish these plates, after sparingly picking on the pork. The coup de grace came when we tried to pay. Our waiter had disappeared and we waited approximately 10 minutes for the busboy to bring us the bill. Neither he nor our original waiter reappeared with a card reader despite having made eye contact with us on several occasions. We felt as though we were being held captive as our time in Porto wasted away. We eventually left cash on the table and walked out. The lone bright spot was a solid chuckle we got out of watching the bus boy shoo away persistent, vocal sea gulls. Never again. There are a variety of other restaurants in the immediate vicinity that are more deserving of your time, money, and appetite. Typically I take pictures of my meals when I travel to share with friends and family, but I didn’t bother with this place - except for a very friendly sea gull. I don’t usually type up reviews but I found this place offensive enough that I was compelled to speak up.

The food was nice and the price was not too expensive. However the service was poor and waiters showed an almost complete lack of interest in serving us.

The service was awful! We were kicked out of the restaurant for no reason. Very very bad!!! So many good places around, skip this one!

Wonderful location and view + reasonable price + friendly staff

Really great location and views with friendly staff...but for god sake sack the chef!!! Food awful. The leather on my boot was thicker than the steak and smothered in terrible sauce.

Nice restaurant with an amazing view of the river. The staff was quick and friendly. I had food on the table within 20 minutes of sitting down. Not the best food I had but it is good none the less. The prices are ok, not cheap but definitely not as expensive as other restaurants in this part of town.

wonderful view and food … friendly service ???

Paid 16€ for a 0,5cm thin 100g steak with 30% chewy unedible parts. Fries where so thin and hard you cant put them on a fork. Peppersauce was good but useless with nothing to eat it with. Also came with mushy rice, strange. Wine was on the lowside and waiter forgot one glass of it. View was really great but not worth the horrible experience. Do not come here!