Theophilu's Bar in Vila Nova de Gaia

The garlic gambas were delicious, the service was horrendous.We spent half an hour trying to flag someone down. One of the staff looked right at us then looked away—then passed by us a few times and ignored us. We had never felt so disrespected at a restaurant and would absolutely not come here again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️We stopped here at about 16 oclock for a small cake and some wine tasting. The 20 year old port in the 6 set of wine tasting tasted surprisingly good! The cheese cake was very nice and fresh. The waiters didnt understand English but by pointing at certain items on the menu, we got what we wanted. The wine tasted had great service as they poured the wine into the glasses at the table. I would definitely recommend getting the 6 set wine tasting as the 5 euro difference to the 5 set, is just the 20 year old port wine. We did not try any food so I cannot confirm nor deny the other reviews.TL;DR: Wine tasting is okay, cakes are nice, service could be better.

Horrible Food, Horrible Experience. Inedible food was served and with extremely bad service. We had to leave the food as it is and spoil the whole lunch experience on a holiday.Bad.

Worst service in Porto. Slow, confused waiters.

The first culinary disappointment since our arrival in Portugal. The Francesinha was served cold. After having asked the staff to make it warm, I received my order...and it was cold again. The staff was absolutely disinterested regarding compensation of their poor service. Avoid this place while in Porto, there are so many really good restaurants there

The meal was good, so that is why there are two stars. Everything else was bad. Service bad, trying to charge for drinks double price. Very slow and bad, waiting for drinks for 20 minutes and meal even more. Would not recommend. For this location there should be a lot of better service.

We waited almost 2 hours, the food didnt arrive... We left hungry.

It is a nice place right next to the river, perfect to visit after a wine tasting 🙂. We shared the appetizers plate (I don’t remember what it was called, but there was some smoked salmon, sardine and bean salade, codfish cakes, hard boiled egg, dried ham, and a sardineand the garlic bread which stole the show as it was absolutely delicious - crunchy, with melted cheese on top, seasoned with basil and tomatoes.The service was quite good as well.

The staff is unfriendly and the food only acceptable. One mussel was already no longer edible.The food that is on the pictures does not correspond to what is brought. After the food is brought (exactly the dish that corresponded to another picture from the menuis only clarified that the map has changed.Very disappointing, too expensive, only the view is beautiful.

Terrible service, cold food, only take cash but don’t advertise this. Avoid.

Food is ok but service need to be improved. Wait a bit long between starter and main course.

We absolutely loved our lunch here!! The service was exceptional and the food was excellent. We thought since it was on the main strip of Gaia and right where all the tourists spots were that it would be meh, but it exceeded all our expectations!! This was honestly the best Portuguese food we had on the entire visit. We got the famous Francesinha & the seafood rice, which was superb! The older gentleman at the front of house that stands out front to drum up business, was also very kind and funny and not pushy in the slightest to get us to eat here which was a relief. Our waiter was also incredible and took good care of us.

Would give a 0 if I could. Food was terrible. Steak and fries were over cooked and vegetable lasagna was mush. Service was just as terrible. Server ignored us the whole time. Live music was also terrible, too loud as well. Weve been throughout Portugal for almost two weeks now and this was by far the worst experience of our trip.

The Service was greate and very friendly. But i have never eaten such a dry fish :( The food of the rest of the group was good.

super nice service!!!great vibe, good drinks, very chill and relax, nice food

I count myself fortunate to have met such lovely people on my travels and Leo here is no exception. His welcome and attention to detail has really made my evening here. I enjoyed the cabbage soup and prawns watching the sunset over the Douro River. I hope that you too will benefit from the same experience.

Lovely food. Decent price for location and enjoyed the ambiance

Friendly sraff, lovely steak with mushrooms, spaghetti bolognese very tasty but sautéed squid was a little overpowered by the sauce, however, generally very nice.

I got the steak with mushroom sauce which was really good! The service was fast, only thing I would change was the spinach "salad"

Its a very nice place with a friendly owner. I had the Bacalhau Frito dish which was really tasty. Has a nice view of the river too. Make sure to try the CRF aguardente which is the aged Portuguese brandy and goes beautifully with a coffee after your meal.

absolutely amazing taste for the calamari and very good wine.

Seafood soup, super salty. Tropical salad is ok at €9. The famous sandwich Francesinha €10, salty

Keep walking there are many other good restaurants nearby. Mediocre food at best and truly terrible service

Its a good place to go when youre visiting Ribera and want to stay close to it enjoying a tasty meal and the view at the same time 👌

Really disappointing. We waited for an hour and left the resto without eating, we were so hungry. Our food orders were not served and we needeed to leave about an hour after arriving, at 3pm. In the end, we just had water and wine. Horrible experience, waste of time and we were so hungry all afternoon.

We went there to grab a beer in the evening and there was live music. Very nice place with good views. The service is also good.

We had a very very nice evening there. By mistake we passed by the restaurant and we were very surprised. Good service, good food, good music and good recommendation.Best location to stay for the last evening in Porto. Many thanks for that great evening.

LONG LONG wait times for AWFUL food.We waited 1.5 hours for our starter which was GARLIC BREAD... our meal then didnt arrive for another 40 min, complete waste of time and money as when the food came out, it looked like something a child could make. Disgusting, this was at 3pm I cant imagine how service will be at peak times. Every time we asked how long they said ten more minutes.Please dont waste your precious time and money here

Staff was helpful and polite, waiting time was fine but the food was disgusting and not a good value for money. I had the seafood salad, the seafood was cold and I’m pretty sure it wasnt fresh. The tomatoes were taken straight from the freezer and they were entirely frozen, like little balls of ice 😫 No sauce, very little spices. The garlic prawns were pretty decent though.

Very long waiting time. Other guests were complaining as well. The place was not full so it was difficult to understand the waiting time. We also had to ask twice for our drinks.

We had a truly fantastic evening at Theophilu’s Bar! The food was great!We were served by Nelson, who was very friendly, hospitable and entertaining - and a polyglot. He advised us on the best dishes to order. We finished the meal with an incredible, wonderful bean cake.We were reluctant to leave the place.

It has a beautiful view on the opposite shore of the river, bridge and on the city. The waiter was very kind, and gave big portions. We had to wait a bit long, but it was its only downside. The Franchesilla (10 €was really good, and we got free Porto wine. The music was traditional, and gave a nice feeling. I definiatelly recommend checking out.

This was the worst food I’ve had in Portugal. I ordered the Fish SOUP 4.50€ it tasted like someone poured a can of Campbell’s tomato soup and thinned it out with water then threw 2 shrimp and 3 mussels in the pot and topped it with flat tasting dried bread chunks. The Chicken with a mustard sauce 10.00€ tasted like way too much plain old mustard with a dab of mayo to make it creamy, I had to scrape the sauce off, thank goodness the fries it came with were hot. SAVE YOU MONEY AND TIME

The service at this place was horrible! We ended up leaving without the simple appetizer we ordered after waiting for 45 minutes. The service staff were not friendly at all. This was a bad introduction to Porto. I would recommend staying away from this place.

If the other reviews havent convinced you, may god help you. The service here was atrocious, the staff do not smile nor make an attempt to look happy. If you are interested in tasting food cooked by a blind person, then I could recommend this place. If you want to waste your money and eat rubber, then I would recommend their steak. Awful. Horrible.

My wife and I decided to stop by Theophilu on our second night in Porto. Although the wait to be seated was short, we had to wait a little before we got a menu or our orders taken.That said, the food was good but not outstanding. It’s not the worst place by the river.

I forgot to put a review. I came here in february spontaneously after Oliver shouted to us to eat here. He is the most friendly waiter I ever met. A kind, funny and warmhearted man. The food was really good. When he heard it was my birthday, he let the live singer sing happy birthday for me, whole terrace was clapping and singing along! Was so great. On top of that, I got a free piece of cake for my birthday. So nice. One of the best restaurant experiences I had.

Really disappointed that we chose this restaurant for our last night here. We had to remind the waiter that no-one had even taken our order after 40 minutes. He begrudgingly took the order and after 1.5 hours we were still waiting for the starter. After chasing again we got a small portion of garlic bread after waiting 2 hours but it wasnt a full portion. By this time we were so hungry we couldnt be bothered to complain again. The waiter by this time was ignoring us when we were asking at what time could we expect the mains. I decided to pay for what we had and go but the waiter begged us to stay. Ten minutes later and after waiting nearly 3 hours we got our food and a small measure of port to say sorry. Apparently there had been a problem with the ovens which no-one had explained and they were even still encouraging people in. Other tables were just getting up and walking away. A really disappointing experience. The front of house guy was nice but the other staff were rude and dismissive. Would not recommend.

This was an absolutely disgusting and disturbing experience. The person taking our order kept rolling his eyes every time we ordered an item. If you’re going to be in the hospitality industry and have a problem with serving people (even when they’re payingyou don’t deserve to be in the business. The prawns were not as described, and it mostly unfortunate to hear the owner defend himself by making a racist comment! We paid full price, even for the food we sent back untouched and the owner shamelessly let that happen. At some point we were just in a hurry to finish what we ordered, pay and just leave - as we felt so victimised.Half the vegetarian lasagne was burnt from being kept in the oven too long. The garlic bread was decent but still absolutely burnt around the edges.The food is average but the service is absolutely the worst. DO NOT RECOMMEND.

We waited over an hour for our food for 2 people. Although the waiter was OK towards us, someone else had been waiting for their food and to be waited on for about 45 min. When they walked out (without receiving their food), the same waiter chased them and told them to pay. They reasonably said no since they didnt get their food. The waiter yelled at them "This isnt McDonalds!!" And slammed the door in their face which ultimately made everyone inside visibly uncomfortable being there. If youre angry and dont like it, find another job dude.

Everytime I am in Porto I come here. Best food. Best people. Best service.For me, best Francesinha you can eat. Go there, the people know their stuff. You can eat a francesinha and a beverage for less than 13€. And the quality is over the roof.You should also ask for the walnut cake, is the best dessert I had in a while.To summarize it, it is simple.Youre in Porto?Come here!!

Very good restaurant! The guy who served us, Oliveira, was absolutely great. He was very nice and made us feel welcome. He speaks all languages you can imagine! Our carbonara spaghettis were great. We just had to add a little bit of salt, but everything was fine. Price is okay. Tourist area, so everything is a little bit more expensive than usual.

Food and service incredibly good here. Generous portions and the best seafood Ive ever eaten (and Im from Australia!). Great wine selection too. Oliver our waitperson was extremely helpful, friendly and very entertaining. Love this place and will go back without a doubt.

Awesome food!!! Try Grilled Octopus :I really loved it

Not a a great value for money but the food was good (codfish and italian saladand we had a fantastic view. Nothing to complain about the service but we noticed mistakes in the orders of the other patrons besides us. Also if you are in a hurry this restaurant is not for you.

Great service and great view. Waiter was extraordinarily attentive. Would go here again. Food was decent.

In contrast to other restaurants they still had free tables, so we went there on a sunny sunday afternoon to maybe have some drinks and tapas and watch people walking by.Even as the tables were cleaned from glasses and plates they were not clean at all, still sticky leftovers on the table.A couple of minutes after we sat finally one of the waiters came and we were able to order a menue. 10 minutes later another waiter came and asked if we wanted something to drink, after telling him that we still wait for the menues we finally got them.First we wanted to have some coffees and a tapas plate to share. But as we had to wait 10 more minutes to order (at an almost empty bar at this momentwe decided to only have some coffee and skip the food - afterwards we are happy not to have wasted our money there.The ordered cappuccino (€ 1,70was no cappuccino at all - cup was way too hot and coffee was burned as well, it was watery and didn´t taste. Pingo (€ 1,20was OK.When we ordered the bill one of the waiters just told from the table nearby it will be € 3,-. First it was not the prices from the menue nor we got any paper bill.If there wouldn´t be the location just next to the river and if it would be possible I would give 0 stars.

Warm welcome from the patron and a simply wonderful plate of seafood - flavours of the sea for two. You will not go hungry here! Great service and generous hosts - especially with their port!

Hi there.First of all the good things.The salesman (AlIready introduced aboveseems to be nice and works very well for the position that he was hired for.The first time we went there we had beer and cheese pork meet tapas. Its was ok. The service was kind and the man behind the bar really tried to keep up the mood by making funny jokes.But the second time it was a disaster. I really do not recommend the food especially the fish and vegatables. As allready said the fish is not fresh. The vegies were still cold almost frozen. The service was done by different people than the first time, but it seems like the student of jokes was taking over now...Conclusion : DRINKS OK FOOD NOT SERVICE FUNNY

We went to eat there seven persons and the attention was good, only the food was not very good. It was expensive, the chips were impossible to eat, they seemed to be recycled, the fish was not fresh and the waiters didnt mind we didnt like the chips that came with four of our dishes. Not recommended at all. There is a man that pick you up from the street to say marvellous things about the restaurant, but he is only a salesman, he will tell you anything to get you seated on the table! Only lies. Not recommended at all. We are from Spain.