An hour north of Porto lies a small city with a fascinating culture of gold jewelry, embroidered love letters, and delicious local pastries.
Only 35,000 people live in Viana do Castelo so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that vegetarian and vegan food can be a bit hard to come by. Many things you might expect to be vegetarian, like soup or salads are often topped with Chorizo (sausage) or Bacon.
However, there is one vegetarian restaurant called Terra that’s about a 15 minute walk outside of town. Good brunch items, sandwiches, snacks, and drinks in a chill atmosphere.
Other than that, the menus of Viana are populated with seafood (it’s on the ocean, after all) and meat dishes. In fact, a lot of menus will feature only two sections for main courses, Peixe (fish) and Carne (meat). However, most traditional restaurants will have a nice salad on the menu. Unlike some other parts of Portugal, the salads are interesting with lots of veggies, not just some lettuce, onion, tomato and a stray slice of cucumber. In addition, if you don’t see anything on the menu, ask your server, most chefs are happy to prepare something for you.
Probably my favorite traditional restaurant in Viana is Casa de Pasto Maria de Perre. The staff is friendly and they have a fresh salad on the menu. There’s also “Sautéed Vegetable” on offer, which changes according to what’s in season. The wine list is good and I’m always glad to see half bottles available, especially when you’re having lunch and don’t want to end up napping back in your hotel the rest of the day.
There’s also several burger joints in town and most have a veggie burger on the menu. But, for my money, I like À Moda Antiga – Retro Market & Bistro, a hip place decorated with retro radios, cameras, and bikes. They also have a small market with local condiments and snacks. There’s a good wine list to go with their veggie burger.
Foz Viana has an ideal spot on the river. Their veg. options are limited but they have a decent wine list and the view can’t be beat.
Almost every city in Portugal has an Indian restaurant and many of them are very good. Portugal had a colony in Goa, India, so many immigrants have come to Portugal to live and work. In Viana, I like Indian Punjabi Restaurante. They have a dedicated vegetarian/vegan menu with lots of great dishes. Plus, the serving vessels are adorable!
Viana do Castelo is in the Minho province, the area where Portugal’s most famous soup, Caldo Verde was invented.
Caldo Verde is a simple soup made with potatoes, greens, onions, and olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic. The greens are normally a sort of Portuguese Collard called Couve-galega, though Mustard Greens and Turnip Greens are also used. The greens are julienned into ribbons, which is especially useful since they can sometimes be a little fibrous.