Rui Paula DOP

An high end restaurant to well finish out stay in Porto. We took the memory menu with the assorted wine — a great journey into Portuguese traditions revised by the master cook. The wine were nicely matching the meal.
One little point potentially coming from the Portuguese culture: I had strong feeling that the wine presentation were addressed only to the man at the table and not to both persons — matcho power :)

This place is one of the best high end restaurants in Portugal. It’s true portuguese cuisine with a twist of modern elements. Wine selection is fantastic and this restaurant is located at the heart of Porto old soul side of the city. Really had a great experience with my portuguese friends that took me here!

I walked into DOP on a friday night around 9pm and was seated right away. I ordered the Molra a transmontana, a blood sausage rendition and the beef tartar as my starters. My entre was the Pork Neck cooked for 12 hours.
The Blood Sausage dish was creative yet not overly wow´ing. At the bottom is a bread layer that was nice and crispy, however it was very oily as the same time. The middle layer is quite unique as it was thinly sliced apples, sauteed to make tender and lastly topped with blood sausage. Different. In a Good way.
Next dish that came out was the Beef Tartar. The sides/​condiments that came out with the tartar was essentially crap. Bread was horrible, I didnt eat most of it. The green sauce was somewhat like relish which was alright with the tartar. The red I swear tasted like ketchup, maybe it was, maybe it wasnt but… no, it did not belong there. The yellow dabs seemed to be Dijon mustard but there was so little of it there it was almost insignificant. Main focus however was the tartar and it was Fabulous! I probably liked this even more than the entrée dish. It was one of the best tartar I have had in a very long time.
Last, was the Pork neck cooked for 12 hours in 72 deg C with a celery purée and asparagus. The pork meat was very tender and fell apart with the light pressure of my fork. The inside was juicy and had a good amount of fat to keep the meat moist. The outside was very slightly dry however it didnt really matter since the inside was so juicy and tender. The celery purée worked well with the dish as did the asparagus.
Note: They give you a basket of bread at the beginning but you are billed for it, 3 Euros at the end of your meal. I expected it to be free at the level of restaurant DOP was. The water is also «bottled» water but I swear it looked like they just filled the bottle in house, so I didn´t expect the 3.5 Euro charge for that.

This was our best meal in Portugal.