How to explore Portugal’s city of bridges on foot 🇵🇹

Porto, Portugal sits where the Douro River spills into the Atlantic Ocean. Above the river bed soar cliffs, and between them six prominent bridges connect the neighborhoods of Porto. It is through these neighborhoods that Rui Pedrosa takes us on his Filter guide.

Born and raised in Porto, Rui is responsible for quality control and training at SO Coffee Roasters and is winner of the 2022 Portugal Barista Championship.

*A Porto native, Rui Pedrosa is responsible for quality control and training at* *SO Coffee Roasters* *and is winner of the 2022 Portugal Barista Championship. Photos courtesy of SO Coffee Roasters*

Filter: What do you like to do for fun around Porto?

Porto is a very small city, walking around the historic center is one of my favourite activities, in spring/summer the weather is ideal to go to the beaches and either walk around the sidewalks or go for a swim. I have to remind everyone that the Atlantic Ocean is extremely cold so be ready for that.

Portugal has a huge football culture and it's only natural that I'm a little bit passionate about it. Going to the F.C. Porto games on the weekends is part of weekly plans—going to the stadium or just hanging out with some friends and watch the games with a couple of beers is a perfect Sunday plan for me.

Filter: What’s a good walking tour of Porto?

First of all, we will start by visiting Gaia, even though it's not "technically" in Porto, the best thing Gaia has to offer is the view of Porto. Visit Cais de Gaia where you can walk by the river and visit one of my favourite coffee shops 7g Roasters. Like us at SO, 7g Roasters put all their attention into sourcing outstanding coffees and making sure to show the best characteristics of the cultivar and origin. You can take a ride on the cableway and visit one of the many Port Wine cellars and taste one of this iconic drink. After that, walk to Serra do Pilar to have another point of view of Porto and I would strongly recommend crossing the upper tray of D. Luís bridge.

On the other side, visit the Bonfim neighbourhood. Here you can visit Fontainhas, a classic local spot to drink some beer/wine and just chill outdoors, it's the home of some of the most typical "portuenses". Here you should visit places like A Certain cafe with its natural wines and great food or Clube Guindalense and grab some Portuguese beer called Super Bock.

Walk in direction to the city center and you will find one of the most busy streets, Rua Santa Catarina, always full of life and street artists. Since you are there make sure to visit Mercado do Bolhão, a historic market that was renovated last year and has all of the good Portuguese food for you to try. Close by you will find some of the best restaurants to try. Francesinha—this is a heavy sandwich with different types of meat, cheese, and a delicious spicy sauce (it needs to be spicy otherwise it's not the OG one). You will also find C'alma Coffee, one of the best multi-roasters in the city located in another iconic building called Atneu.

Keep walking down and you will find Aliados, one of the biggest avenues of the city where you can find the most beautiful McDonald’s in the world (google it, it's true!). Make sure to visit the S. Bento train station and keep going down by Rua Mouzinho da Silveira until you reach Ribeira. Walk towards Rua das Flores and Lóios Plaza where you can visit SO’s first location in a small clothing shop called The Feeting Room.

Now we are in Cordoaria neighbourhood, here you will find Torre dos Clérigos with one of the best views of Porto. It's usually full of tourists but it's definitely worth your time. This is the best place to take a walk, you will find gardens like Passeio das Virtudes and small shops. Go to SO at Rua Sá de Noronha, in this shop you will find not only our amazing coffee selection but also some food options.

Close by we will find my favourite street/area, Cedofeita, here you have places like Protest Kitchen for a nice cafe and lunch, bars like Aduela for a quick beer, or Catraio if you are into craft beer. If you fancy a nice cocktail make sure to go to Torto. Close by you have streets like Miguel Bombarda or Rua do Rosário with a lot of art galleries, amazing secondhand shops, and places like Hakko bakehouse—this one is another multi-roaster that has an incredible food menu with seasonal products.

Now it's time for the last walk. Visit Palacio de Cristal, the amazing gardens surrounding it—inside you will find quiet areas where you can just chill and enjoy the moment. Something that is really worth it is to catch the old tram and go to the river side. Make sure to stop at SO Roastery, a new shop where I'm based. It's there that we source and roast all our coffees. Go to the end of the tram line and you will end up in Foz Velha, one of the most beautiful and unvisited places of the city. Go to the lighthouse and then just take a long walk by the coast. You can then walk back on the biggest avenue of the city, Avenida da Boavista and stop in the middle and visit Museu Serralves where you will find amazing art exhibitions and another beautiful garden.

Filter: What do you like to do to escape the city?

Porto is perfect for a quick 3-day trip since everything is so close. If you have more time or this is not your first time coming, I suggest to visit some of the closest cities like Braga—not only the city is small and super interesting and pretty, you have a very good multi roaster called Nordic Cafe. It’s close to one of my favorite getaways in Portugal—that is Peneda-Gerês National Park. It’s beautiful all year round, full of natural beauties.

Filter: What makes Porto feel like home to you?

I was born in Porto and spend almost all my life here, the best part about it is that it's not a big city and I think that is what makes its people to be very warm, always ready to host you to the best of their abilities, there is always room for one more person in a Porto house. Regardless who you are and where you're from you will always feel welcome, there is this unspoken sense of community where strangers will always be ready to help you whatever it is you might need. Plus the river and the coast are just great places to just hang out with friends and family.

Filter: How did you end up in the Porto coffee scene?

Like I said before, I was born and raised in Porto, even though I spent a couple of years in Berlin most of my life I lived here. The specialty coffee scene started around 2015 but only in 2018 it started to get attention from the Portuguese market. I was introduced to specialty back in 2017 in a no-longer-existing company called Café Progresso—back then coffee for me was the idea of community and working with a quality product. I moved to Berlin in late 2018 and stayed there till the end of 2020 working for Five Elephant. It was here that I learned how to work as a barista and that I fell in love with coffee.

When I came back to Porto I saw that the small coffee scene that existed when I left had grown a lot and the quality of coffee that you could find was a lot better. In 2022 I competed on the Portuguese Barista Champion and was lucky enough to win it and represent Portugal at worlds in Melbourne, Australia. The amazing thing about the national competition was that all of the top 3 baristas were from Porto—this was a huge "boom" for the city coffee scene: from that moment on Porto was the Portugal coffee city.

Filter: What is your role at SO?

What really excites me about working at SO is that we share the same core values towards coffee, quality of product, transparency, service, and community. At the moment I share the responsibility of quality control and staff training.

Filter: If you could move to any place in the world just for the coffee scene, where would you move?

I think that if I could go anywhere I would probably go to Japan—they have a very different coffee scene and the culture is completely different from our Western culture. Being able to explore both the Japanese coffee market and its culture would be an amazing thing to do for 2-3 years.

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SO Coffee Roasters operates 2 locations and a roastery in Porto, Portugal.

SO Coffee Roasters - Roastery

SO Coffee Roasters - The Feeting Room

SO Coffee Roasters - The Feeting Room, 1st floor

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