LIVE TO EAT: "7 steps to try before resorting to a bad review on Yelp."

A satisfied customer (Catania 2016).

While staying in Porto in February, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a family-operated eatery called Taberna Stº. António. It's near the university quarter, and seems to be successfully keeping both locals and tourists fed and satisfied.

Except an American who wrote a one-star review on social media. Now, it helps to know that just about every source of information about the Taberna Stº. António concurs that reservations are a good idea owing to the small size. There are only 10, maybe 12 tables, and for dinner service, the establishment is geared to turn them once, then clean up and go home.

We walked past at about 6:00 p.m., an hour before the restaurant begins evening seating, and thought it might be expeditious to make a reservation. It took all of a minute for the friendly bartender to record our names in the old-school notebook. It was a wonderful meal.

Another satisfied customer (Porto 2018) 

Accordingly, the reason for the one-star take-down from the clueless American, which occurred a few weeks before our excellent experience, was that he came to the Taberna Stº. António without a reservation, it was fully booked with no available tables, and so BOOM, a negative review: how dare they not have space to seat us?

How can you give a bad review to a place you haven't even entered? It still annoys me. Click through for the details of how better outcomes result from communication between real people.

7 steps to try before resorting to a bad review on Yelp, by Neil Swidey (Boston Globe Magazine)

We don’t always have to air our grievances about a business with the entire world before telling the business.

1. Be timely.
2. Be resourceful.
3. Be firm but respectful.
4. Be honest.
5. Be succinct.
6. Be clear that you are interested in having management restore your faith in the business.
7. Be generous with feedback.

Portugal Trip 2018 (6): Sunday at the beach, then some fine eating (Taberna Stº. António) and a solid craft beer bar (As 7 Maravilhas).

I've prefaced the travel narrative of our visit to Portugal (which has been backdated) with a series called Focus on Portugal, which provides background on a European destination that's scandalously little known to Americans. Previously: "FC Porto versus SC Lusitania in Portuguese professional basketball."

Sunday (February 18) was going to be warm and sunny, and so it was time to head to the ocean. This we achieved via Porto's handy public transportation grid.

Our terminus was somewhere in the vicinity of Praia da Madalena (Madalena beach), just south of the Douro's meeting point with the Atlantic, and 3-4 miles west of the city proper.

Well, I suppose we have beach volleyball in the States. Why not beach soccer in Porto? Actually, these people were walking their dogs.

By lunchtime we'd navigated back to central Porto, opting to split a local eatery's Francesinha sandwich ... with an itinerant busker's floor show.

Breaking for a nap at the hotel, I had fun with window details from the building across the street.

For dinner, it was our aim to patronize the the Taberna Stº. António, less than a ten-minute walk along narrow, often single lane streets, uphill, toward the park called Jardim da Cordoaria. It was nearing dusk, and while the streets were quiet ...

 ... the little pocket park-with-a-view at the top of the hill was thriving.

A big crowd of what appeared to be students from the nearby university was enjoying the stellar view and their own company. A succession of plastic-clad drinks emerged from two bars across the street -- one of which was our destination.

We were fortunate to have peeked inside and reserved a table roughly an hour before the doors opened at 7:00 p.m., because when the dining lamp was lit, the joint was filled within minutes. The guests were tourist and local alike; Taberna Stº. António is family-run and by no means fancy, just traditional and down to earth, with big portions of Portuguese home cooking.

Diana had bacalao (salted cod) and my meal was pork belly. Delish.

Both to and from dinner, we paused for adult libations at As 7 Maravilhas, or the Seven Wonders of the World, a wonderful eatery and craft beer bar.

The beer list included selections from all of Portugal's craft brewers (7 or 8 in all), and staff recommendations were spot on.

We decided to return to As 7 Maravilhas for our final meal in Porto on Wednesday evening.

Next: A pleasant walk to São Pedro da Afurada -- and another round of Port in Gaia.