When I was a teenager, I had a band (a crappy one), and I used to rehearse in a small room, called Chapim Azul. In front of it lay a “tasco”, actually pretty decent for the standard quality of those places. Well, that place closed, and the following owners didn’t make it either. Now, in the very same spot, a hamburger restaurant was born: Real Hamburgaria Portuguesa. And…yep, these burgers are made for kings!
Since Burgo rose from the streets of Porto, it opened the door for other burger restaurants to enter the scene. These are never ordinary burgers, like those you might find in a fast-food parlor or in a “tasco”: these ones are made with out-of-the-box ingredients and carefully mix the burger paradigm with Portuguese gastronomy.
There are so many good things about this place that it’s pretty hard to know where to start. First, the decoration: It is traditional enough to feel “Portuguese”, but it breathes contemporaneity. It is cosy, the menu is written on gigantic chalkboards, you can see the chefs cooking, there is a working fireplace just there, and if that’s not enough, there are blankets on the chairs as a reinforcement!
The hamburgers are delicious, the fried potatoes are just amazing (and they are fried with the skin, which is a really nice touch) and there is even the possibility of eating the dessert from a shot glass, ideal if you want to eat something sweet but your stomach says “no!”.
