Since Porto is an ocean front city, we couldn't just stay in the center eating grilled chicken everyday. We had to visit the water front near the docks where fresh seafood is brought in each day for the local restaurants to serve. We decided to visit the area of Matosinhos and Leca de Palmeira to find a good seafood place to eat. There had been a popular buffet restaurant in Gaia called Trombarija that we had heard was relocated to the Matosinhos region, but we couldn't find it. And so the next recommendation was the Casarao do Castelo restaurant.
This was certainly a 5 star restaurant and well worth it for the fresh seafood and portion sizes. A tank full of fresh, live seafood greets you at the door where you can choose your "Plate of the Day". In the states I had usually only seen these type of tanks with lobster, but here there were at least 10 different type of seafood alive and kicking there in, from lobsters and crabs to fish and eel.
One of the things my wife had wanted was a salty appetizer called "percebes" - the closest translation I could find is barnacles - and fried sardines. Not especially to my liking but she certainly snapped them down like popcorn. I stuck with the bread and cheese. But I did have the Cream of Seafood soup, full of crab and shrimp in a cream broth. While my wife got her fill of seafood, I asked for a half order of the Veal Cutlets with Mushroom sauce.
However, what arrived at our table was enough to serve 4 people. We had to verify that this really was a half order and we were assured that it was. The veal was tender, the cream sauce delectable and the potatoes fried and seasoned to a perfect golden brown.
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