La Merceria

Frommer's Review

This is an appealingly affordable middle-bracket restaurant set directly on the port. It's authentic enough to attract locals and has a long history of coping with the annual midwinter floods from the nearby Douro. Look for signs of water damage, including warped wine racks and paint peeling from the ground-floor doors. There's a cozy upstairs dining room that's accessible via a very steep wooden staircase, and the decor includes hanging hams and turn-of-the-20th-century accessories. The food is fresh and well prepared, although hardly imaginative: the restaurant's patrons come for the tried-and-true recipes familiar to them from their mothers' kitchen, including grilled octopus, several different preparations of codfish, and steaks.

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