Oporto

If you’re trying to compete against more established Fast Food chains then you better deliver food better than them. Oporto doesn’t. The fries were massively over-​salted and pretty much inedible. The burger was offered with pineapple as an extra, which I took. All I can say is chicken and pineapple really do not belong together, especially not between two slices of bread. While I was waiting for my food to come the staff shouted over the counter to passers-​by to try and drum up trade. This is really the lowest common denominator of Fast Food.

I love their rappas. Bit expensive but yummy: D

I literally nearly jumped in joy when I came across Oportos at this food court. I was hungry, didn’t fancy supermarket sandwiches, Café Rouge or McDonalds. Walked around… And I saw this place! I thought there were no Oporto’s in London. I called my friend to inform her of this ‘news’ but her reply was simply ‘Yeah, didn’t you know?’
*Shrugs*. Fine for not telling me. Back to Oporto’s, my sister loved this so much she requested me to bring them over whenever I went to Indonesia. They were my favourite fast-​food item. KFC came a close 2^nd.
Unfortunately, the version I had here was quite thrifty on the delicious sauce. The chicken strip is quite thin compared to what I remember. Recession? They serve bondi burgers in three sizes (= one strip of chicken, two strips and three strips). Next time I’ll get the large size! Good chips as usual.
3.5 stars.

Oporto is a Portugese/​Austrialian fast food outlet (apparently they’re really big in Australia and NZ) and they serve a selection of grilled chicken, chicken burgers and salads. I was in the food hall in Victoria Place for lunch and thought hey this is new why not give it a go. The service was ok, it’s your usual fast food type set-​up but I was really dissapointed with the food. I went for the double bondi burger meal which came with chips and a drink. The burger consisted of two really small strips of grilled chicken, some lettuce, a slice of processed cheese and a bit of chilli sauce all served in a smallish sized bun. I thought it was very stingy and despite the chilli sauce (which did give it a bit of kick) it was dry, bland and tasteless. The chips were quite thick cut, slightly overdone and again tasted very dry and bland. At around £6 it wasn’t cheap and I thought the amount of chicken in the burger was really stingy. That was a ‘double’ so I dread to think what the single would be like. Overall I was unimpressed and I definately won’t be eating there again.

An already successful chain in Australia with over 100 branches Oporto is clearly making small steps into the UK market with a branch here and one in Dudley.
Pretty handy location in the food court of Victoria Place and, to be honest, it doesn’t have a great deal of delicious competition surrounded by the Stone Cold Pizza Company, a McDonalds and the over-​priced Café Rouge. It shares a seating area with the rest of the chains and it’s pretty standard in terms of how miserable it is. They seem to be utterly intent on playing a PA that invites you to «Grab a bit in our food court» when you are already doing so and it repeats it over and over again every five seconds. You do want to stab yourself in the face.
Now with that aside Oporto really is very good for fast-​food. Imagine, if you will, Nando’s but without the fuss. I got a chicken burger, chips and a bottle of coke for around £5 (standard fast-​food price) and I was very impressed. The burger came with really lovely chilli sauce, a well done bun, lots of nice salad and the chips were really very nice.
I’d certainly recommend this place if you were stuck in Victoria Station because it sticks it’s head above the terrible parapet of fast-​food restaurants in the area. However, if you’re going for a meal out it really should go without saying that you should be looking harder for somewhere nice to eat than Victoria Place Food Court.

I gathered that Oporto is a franchised chain of Portugese style flame grilled chicken burger fastfood restaurants from Australia; though I was a bit baffled by the name which is obviously a connection to Oporto in Portugal and their main burger attraction is a «Bondi» burger. A tiny spot of brand identity confusion? I suppose this would not be the case back in Australia but it is a little confusing when placed within the context of the UK market.
Upon checking Oporto’s website, it transpired that there are 2 branches established currently in the UK at Victoria station and Dudley. I guess these two are pilot franchises possibly operated by the franchisor company before rolling out a UK wide franchise programme.
Mr Penguin and I had lunch at the Victoria Oporto today and our overall view was that it just doesn’t stand out. I had a chicken salad which consisted of pieces of flame grilled chicken breast (well executed in terms of grilling but lacking any distinct taste) on a plain bed of iceberg lettuce, sliced beef tomato and black pitted olives embellished with some mayonnaise. It wasn’t that special. Mr Penguin had a chilli chicken burger which was okay but again, nothing special.
So we are afraid to report that we failed to find Oporto’s USP. Pity.