For a celebration dinner we chose good seafood and one or another option, the choice went to O Gaveto. Opened by Manuel Pinheiro more than 30 years ago, O Gaveto is one of the symbols of the restaurant scene in Matosinhos, for the quality of the products and the mastery with which it imposed itself among the competition. Today it is a case to say tradition is still what it used to be, with the sons of the founder at the helm, the space remains with the original lines, with a cozy and familiar environment like a restaurant of this type should be.
The kitchen also maintains that tradition and remembering the great cooking masters of the old days, it is in the hands of Humberto Alonso since the opening of the restaurant.
Well set and already accompanied by the usual toasts of the seafood restaurants in the region, the first choice had to be À Bulhão Pato Clams (much has been read here about clams).
“À Bulhão Pato” Clams (18,5€)
Great quality bivalve, cooked on spot and with present flavor, without being superimposed by the garlic or the coriander. The Sauce, rich in olive oil was a delicate sin. Excellent start.
Stuffed Crab (35€/kg) and Giant Prawn (55€ /kg)
Continuing with seafood, a well advantaged stuffed crab. Cooked on spot with moist meat and good filling, where just the excess of pepper overlapped a bit the other ingredients. As to the prawn: flawless texture, cooking and flavor. Very, very good.
“Churrasquinho” on Bread (Prego em pão) (7€)
After a satiating dose of seafood, the crab had more than a kg, we ended with the classic Prego em Pão (Barbecued steak on bread), here well represented with a nice tenderloin steak, on point and with good flavor. The bread could be of better quality. Highlight to the indispensable hot sauce of the house.
Pão de Ló de Ovar (a typical sponge cake from the Ovar region) (4,5€) Trouxa de ovos (a conventual sweet) (2,5€)
Because evil never comes alone, we were forced to join 3, two convent sweets and a Port wine to combine perfectly. The sponge cake, Ovar like, even of industrial making was of great quality, creamy enough and just enough sweet (I dare to stay it is the same that another company sells as the Best in the Universe). The Trouxa de ovos was also of good quality, but left no big memory.
One of the standing points that distinguish O Gaveto from the other seafood restaurants around is the Wine list, no doubt one of the best and nicely cataloged in town, and probably with the best cost-benefit ratio. We accompanied the seafood with an Alvarinho Contacto of Anselmo Mendes (15,25€), which served its purpose very well. The sweets were accompanied with a Tawny Niepoort 10 years (5,75€). All the wine service is of extreme quality, with care and the right attention to the temperatures and cups for every wine.
The Service, classic and traditional, is of an unpaired sympathy and genuineness that no longer exists. They made me feel at home, without trivializing the act of serving and eating, and that’s very hard.
Final Remarks
O Gaveto is one of those restaurants that should please everyone, not by the juggling food, fierce techniques or the service of a starred restaurant, but because of its ingredients and the easy way they’re treated. An historical place that knows how to keep the traditions of the Portuguese food and at the same time accompanies the most actual trends and that is noticeable in the care with the menu and the wine service. It is not a cheap restaurant, but it is a space where certainly you won’t leave disappointed, because of the quality of the ingredients and the accurate hand that commands them almost with folded eyes. In a next visit we’ll leave the seafood aside (or at least try) and test the most traditional and famous dishes of rice and fish.
O Gaveto
Rua Roberto Ivens, 826, Matosinhos – Porto
229 378 796