Hi, Portia,
I have eaten several really good meals in Porto. Here are a few suggestions:
DOP is an expensive and wonderful restaurant with modern presentations of traditional food from the Douro River area. A popular restaurant serving less fancy but also regional food near the train station is Casa Aleixo, with great “filetes de polvo” and “filetes de pescada”. The restaurant at Casa da Música (a modern music venue, a bit far from the center, but right on many bus lines) is a modern and good restaurant, and has very reasonably priced menus . And finally, there is a restaurant just open for lunch, which sits in a building that looks like a glass trailer, right on the river, across on the Gaia side. The views are spectacular, Porto's river view from Gaia is one of the most beautiful anywhere. This restaurant has good food and is connected with a restaurant on the river on the Porto side, right near the bridge.
In general, I would say avoid the restaurants that are right on the river on the Porto side. Lots of touristy places, not much in the way of good food, except for this one place whose name I forget and is on the edge of the riverside close to the bridge over to Gaia.
Hope this helps a bit. Laurie
