Around the world in 7 restaurants - Porto

Portugal offers no shortage of international restaurants—especially in Porto and Lisbon—reflecting the country’s long history of cultural exchange. I visited a small selection of them, and along the way, questions emerged: Does fusion really work? Does food travel well? And does a chef have to come from a country’s culinary tradition to cook it authentically? Let’s find out. Here are some of Porto’s most interesting international restaurants, ranging from humble neighbourhood spots to refined fine dining options.

Ondo Korean Kitchen

In Porto, South Korean restaurant Ondo Korean Kitchen is all the buzz at the moment. Tucked away from the somewhat flashy cafés of Bonfim, on a little cobblestone street, you’ll find Ondo. After moving to Portugal, Korean-born Lydia Lee opened the restaurant four years ago as one of the first Korean restaurants in Porto. The food is authentic, super fresh and has a distinct homemade quality, also known as “mammy food”.

Lee personally sources all the produce, sometimes visiting four different suppliers to get the quality she wants. In the down-to-earth restaurant, we encounter both locals and travellers, not least honeymooners from Korea. On the menu, you’ll find all the dishes you expect from this cuisine: bibimbap, Korean fried chicken, Korean barbecue, kimchi, and desserts with matcha and sesame.

“Korean food is very natural and very healthy. Grandmothers cook with what they have in the garden, and they care about the family’s health,” Lee explains and continues:

“Bibimbap is a mix of all the small dishes we make. We always have every cooking method in one meal—something fried, something boiled, and so on—so it was simply easier to mix it all together with rice.”
She makes all the kimchi herself in many different flavours, and you can even buy it to take away. “It’s a bit like bacalhau—every household makes it in its own way. I made 75 kg yesterday,” she laughs, explaining that in Korea every home has a special fridge for kimchi to keep it at the right temperature.

Lee is busy buzzing around the restaurant, greeting everyone and checking that everything is as it should be, so I let her get back to it while I enjoy a generous portion of bibimbap with tofu and homemade soy sauce. It’s fresh, spicy and full of different textures. Authentic, homemade and healthy, Ondo is a place that feels deeply personal.

Cusco

After dinner at Ondo, you should travel a little west for a Pisco Sour at the Hilton’s bar in Gaia. Its top-floor restaurant, Cusco, offers impressive views of the Douro River and the iconic Luís I Bridge. Cusco serves Peruvian cuisine combined with local ingredients and traditional Porto recipes, alongside Nikkei (the culinary tradition of Japanese migrants in Peru) influences. But I was more impressed by the cocktails, made with homemade liqueurs, than the food. On the menu, guests will find signature cocktails under the theme ‘Where Peru Meets Portugal’, including a Porto-style Pisco Sour, Chicha Morada—a classic of Peruvian culture—as well as juices, aperitifs, Peruvian beers and, of course, a selection of piscos, the traditional distilled spirit of Peru and Chile. There’s music and a relaxed yet festive atmosphere at Cusco. On Friday and Saturday nights, DJs and dancers add to the lively mood, making sure you put that pisco buzz to good use.

Terra

Well-established Terra, in Porto’s Foz district, has been serving “cuisine without borders” for 22 years, with a menu split between sushi and a broader selection of Asian dishes. Since opening in 2004, Terra has been one of the restaurants that introduced Porto diners to Asian cuisine, at a time when sushi was still in its infancy in Portugal. Terra’s cuisine is built around a contemporary fusion that draws on Japan, the rest of Asia, the Mediterranean and Portugal.

Located in a historic building, it’s a good spot for a date, and the view overlooking the sushi chefs at work is sure to impress. The food is, how can I put it... exactly as it should be. Nothing is mistreated, and the quality is good, but at this price point it could be more imaginative.

That may be about to change with the arrival of two new chefs and a reinvention of the menus. Executive chef André Fernandes joined in May, and chef Pedro Gomes will soon be leading the sushi bar, signalling a more contemporary direction. André Fernandes spent much of his career with the renowned José Avillez Group, working across several of its most acclaimed restaurants, including the two-Michelin-starred Belcanto. Pedro Gomes has specialised in sushi since 2012 and has worked at some of Scandinavia’s most respected Japanese restaurants, including Sabi Sushi in Stavanger and Ra Sushi in Oslo. By focusing on increasingly premium ingredients such as caviar, snow crab and wagyu beef, Terra aims to become one of Porto’s leading destinations for Asian cuisine. We’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Part 2, coming soon!