Portuguese Food Review | Eating a Francesinha in Porto, Portugal

Join us for a Portuguese Food Review as we try eating a Francesinha in Porto, Portugal at one of the most famous restaurants (Bufete Fase) in the city. This Portuguese sandwich (Francesinha meaning Little Frenchie) originates from Porto invented by Daniel da Silva attempting to adapt the croque-monsieur after spending time in France and Belgium. The classic or most famous interpretation of the Francesinha includes the sandwich surrounded on a bed of chips smothered in sauce containing beer and tomato. The Porto sandwich itself features bread with wet cured ham, fresh sausage, inguiça, roast meat (steak) and melted cheese. Locals almost always have a favorite spot to eat this sandwich. Have you tried if before? Where do you think is the best place to grab one?
Porto Restaurant Information:
Bufete Fase (Francesinha)
Fast Food Restaurant in Porto, Portugal
Address: Rua de Santa Catarina 1147, 4000-099 Porto, Portugal
Hours: Mon-Fri 12–4PM, 6:30–9:30PM & Sat-Sun (closed)
Phone: +351 22 205 2118
GEAR WE USE
Panasonic GH5:
Canon G7X ii:
Rode Video Micro:
Joby Gorilla Pod:
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro:
SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS
AUDREY:
blog:
instagram:
facebook:
twitter:
SAMUEL:
blog:
facebook:
twitter:
instagram:
Portuguese Food Review | Eating a Francesinha in Porto, Portugal Video Transcript:
if there is one meal that you have to eat when you come to Porto it is the famous Francesinha. We've been hearing about this sandwich forever. We're super excited to finally try it.
Basically this sandwich is said to have roots in Belgium and France. Apparently a Portuguese man had been living overseas and then when he returned back home to Portugal he was like I'm going to bring the Croque-monsieur to my country and kind of give it a little twist so the locals will enjoy it. And so the Francesinha was born. It is a massive sandwich we've seen them preparing it out front. It looks so so good. It looks so amazing. We're going to show you a few clips of that.
We're eating at the most famous restaurant of them all coming to Bufete Fase and they just specialize in the Francesinha. That is all they serve. There is no menu. You get this and you order a beer with it. You just come here for the sandwich and the beer. It is a must so that is what we're having.
Now we have two and these things are massive. Behemoths. I don't know how we're going to tackle this but let's talk about the ingredients.
Two slices of thick bread apparently the thicker the better and inside grilled bread too.
They grill it. It has got I believe sausage. Steak or roast beef. Look at all of that cheese. Copious amounts of cheese. Yeah, it is three different kinds of meat. Let's cut it down the middle. So you can see the inside. This is a dissection guys.
This is the dissection. It is covered in cheese all melted and the sauce that it is in it is a tomato and beer sauce. Look at how big that is.
I forgot to mention. I think it is Sagres is that how you say it? You've got to drink some beer with this. Sagres.
That seems to be the most popular beer that we've seen in Portugal so far.
What say you? Oh my gosh. Life changing?
There is no way I would want to share this with you. Now that I've tried it I'm glad I have my own. We're not going to be having much else today but we need our own. We asked for the sauce to be spicy and it is.
Anyways that was a gut bomb for the ages but in a good way. It is the kind of meal that you either have to really bring your appetite or share with a friend. It was a bit like a challenge sandwich. A little bit like a Gatsby we had in South Africa in Cape Town
But man it was good. And price point?
The sandwiches were 10 Euros each and the beer was only 1.50 That included the fries. Everything. In total for the meal for both of us plus two beers each it came to 23 Euros. I thought it was good value and my gosh we are stuffed. It is like the ultimate siesta time. I feel like we'll be skipping dinner tonight. We'll see you guys soon with more travel and food videos from Europe. Tata.
This is part of our Travel in Portugal video series showcasing Portuguese food, Portuguese culture and Portuguese cuisine.
Music by IKSON: