I am told (and I can think of no evidence to contradict the claim) that Lisbon has the rare distinction of being the only capital city in Europe from which you can watch the sun set over the ocean. It's an interesting but rather irrelevant factoid since we were not on this occasion in Portugal's capital but the same can be said for its second city Porto, which sits on the Atlantic coast in the north of the country. When I was invited to go for dinner on the beach a few weeks ago I was quite glad that my colleagues booked at an unfashionably early time for Portugal which meant that we were in situ to make the most of the sunset.
Our destination for the evening was Bar Fuzelhas which sits on the Fuzelahas Beach in Leca da Palmeira, a northern part of Porto. If you drive north from the city along the gorgeous coastline, Leca da Palmeira sits just beyond Matosinhas. If like us you drive in from the easterly direction from Santo Tirso, you could be forgiven for thinking that it sits rather too close to one of the biggest and smelliest oil or petrochemical refineries in Europe. As we passed the Petrogal refinery, breathing through our noses, I did wonder why on earth anyone would choose to dine so close to something so unpleasant. And as I looked at the massive ugly Soviet-style tower blocks I wondered why anyone with any sense of smell would choose to live there. We parked up on the sea front and thankfully the wind was in the right direction and all we could smell was the salty, slightly fishy aroma of the sea.
Looks Aren't Everything
Bar Fuzelhas is a strange looking place. Viewed from the promenade, it has all the charm of a row of shipping containers and even looks a bit rusty. It’s a long narrow building with one long arm that sticks out across the beach and this has floor to ceiling windows along three sides. In the space created between the sticky-outy bit and the main length of the restaurant, there’s a long deck that’s covered in deck chairs, tables and recliners which is probably very lively during the day time but was pretty much empty by the time we arrived. Our table was at the end of the glass wing, right in the middle so there was nobody and nothing to get between us and our view of the sea. I particularly enjoyed watching the seagulls strutting around on the spit of sand that separated us from the rocks at the water’s edge.
We arrived at about 8.15 pm, so early that the only people eating in the restaurant were the staff. They offered us a choice of all the tables but suggested we take the best one - a round table at the end of the dining room closest to the beach and with the best views. One of the waiters called it the "wedding table". We didn’t put up a fight!
Introductions
We were a party of six - one local and five visitors - and even though we’d booked a table for eight (two were stuck in Lisbon with a flight delay) the restaurant were still happy to give us their best table. We agreed to share a mix of starters and each just choose a main course which made life much easier by cutting down on the decision making.
The menu was available in English as well as Portuguese (or as my Brazilian colleague calls her language - Pork and Cheese) and everything was very clear and we didn’t need to interrogate the waiters about any of the dishes.
The Important Stuff - the food
The starters we ordered were Peppers ‘Padron’, Portobello mushrooms with goat cheese and ham and some Galician octopus. I think there may also have been a plate of air-cured ham but since I don’t eat meat, I wouldn’t have given it much attention. A basket of assorted breads was also brought along with the starters. The peppers were long green ones that seemed to have been cooked on a griddle and were blackened on the outside. I expected them to possibly be a bit spicy but they weren’t - in short, they weren’t really much of anything. It was quite noticeable that the dish of peppers was the least popular of the options. My colleague sitting nearest the mushrooms carefully hid the ham from me and picked me some nice pieces that had been furthest away on the plate. I adore Portobello mushrooms and the contrast with the dry astringency of the goat cheese was excellent. As for the octopus, there’s little you can do to an octopus that I won’t love and this dish was no exception - chewy, juicy chunks in a rich tomato based sauce.When we had chosen main courses, my Brazilian colleague and I had decided to share a seafood risotto so we had switched seats with some other people in the group to ensure we were sitting next to each other. We had assumed that they’d plonk the dish between us so this seemed to be a wise move. This had worked strongly in my favour as I found myself with the best position in the room for watching the sun set. As the sky darkened and the sun lit the sea in shades of pink and orange, I had one of my not infrequent moments of realising just how lucky I am sometimes and ludicrous amount of time I spend on planes and in airports seemed momentarily worth it.
With only six diners, two of whom were driving and all of whom were exhausted with the task of getting to Porto (it’s not the most accessible of places from anywhere bar London) we didn’t hit the booze in a big way. We’d had beers before leaving the hotel, another on arrival at the restaurant so nobody was in the mood to have much to drink. I ordered a glass of white wine and a couple of people shared a jug of sangria (a bit weird perhaps, but why not) and a couple of bottles of fizzy water did the rounds.
By the time we got to main courses, the restaurant was almost full with diners, many of them eyeing our lovely table with some jealousy. It was quite a loud place to be because of the wooden floors and large glass windows.
Several of our group had ordered steaks which were apparently delicious and were served with a variety of different sauces and I’m sure I saw (and smelled) a big basket of fries heading to that side of the table. Thankfully it was a big table and I couldn't scrounge any. Our risotto was the last dish to arrive and the waiter set it up on a small table to the other side of the table so we didn’t realise at first just how big the dish was.
Two portions were served up and brought to the table and the balance of rice and fish was very good. The risotto contained Grouper, prawns, monkfish, clams and mussels, all cooked to just the right degree. I’m fearless about seafood and even order it in stupid places where I should know better (I’m thinking of the time I had sushi in Karachi which was akin to playing Russian roulette) but I could tell that this was perfectly fresh, juicy and of excellent quality. After we’d ploughed through a plateful each, my colleague couldn’t get the attention of the waiter so she went to help herself (and me) to a second serving. Apparently there was still almost half of the dish left even after that. We tried to persuade the other to give it a try but everyone had such large portions that we couldn’t find any takers.
We skipped desserts and had coffees instead before paying and heading off into the night. My German colleague picked up the bill so I am not sure how much it all came to but based on the prices on the menu, nothing was expensive by northern European standards - for example I think our risotto was around €25 for the two of us.
Recommendation?
If you find yourself in Porto, it’s probably quite unlikely that you’d head quite so far out of the centre in search of food, but based on how full it was on a mid-week evening, plenty of the locals know and love this place. It would be advisable to turn up early (around 8.30 to 9 pm if you don’t have a booking) or better still to ring ahead and reserve a table. The food was of a very high standard but nothing could beat the view of the sunset.
Sunset, Seagulls and Staring at the Sea 
