Description: I visit the Portuguese factory of the company for whom I work a few times each year and despite only being about 30 minutes from Porto, I hadn't previously managed to get into the city to eat or look around. Long days in the office and sheer laziness on my part meant that it always seemed easier to just settle for a beer in the bar and something from the hotel restaurant. On my most recent visit – which is unfortunately turning out to be much longer than planned thanks to the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, I've had the opportunity not only to get into Porto, but to eat rather a lot of local food. For most of these meals I've been with one or more of my German colleagues who are also now stuck in Portugal.

One of my colleagues, Dominik, had hired a car for his visit and due to the difficulties of getting from Porto back to Manchester (his nearest airport) even when there AREN'T air traffic control restrictions, his boss agreed that his wife Marita could fly out with him and their son Leonard and join him for his visit. On Tuesday evening we all hopped into his car and headed into the city, parking up in the Ribeira district and heading to the waterfront near the Dom Luis I bridge on the Cais da Ribeira. The riverside is lined with small traditional restaurants and after wandering up and down unable to tell much difference between them all, we plumped for one roughly in the middle of the row. It was a warm sunny evening but with a two year old child with us, we wanted to eat indoors.

The restaurant we chose was Mae Preta, a traditional old small restaurant with blue and white tiled interior. The staff helped us to get the baby buggy up the narrow stairs and then tried to give us a rather drab table in the main part of the upstairs dining room but we asked for a table by the window and somewhat grudgingly the 'Reserved' sign was removed and we got the table. I've noticed that often a reserved table is only reserved until someone actually asks for it. I guess if it had been just one or two people they wouldn't have let us have it.

Our table had a view out over the river and the bridge and was nicely positioned in the centre at the front of the restaurant. Whilst we looked at the menu, the waiter asked if we'd like to have a glass of white port and Marita and I said yes because she had never tried Port before. Poor Dominik was driving and saving himself for a small beer and had to say no. The arrival of the Port was quickly followed by several plates of nibbles. There a basket of assorted pieces of bread, a bowl of olives, a plate of individually wrapped cheeses and pats of butter, and a plate with about a dozen little fish rissoles. The waiter waited until we'd started nibbling before coming back to say "Oh, I forgot to say that with these things, you pay if you eat, if you don't eat, you don't pay". It was a little late to say so, but we figured the food wasn't probably all that expensive and just carried on, although we skipped the plate of cheese.

Marita and I both ordered hake fillets, one with chips and the other with bean rice. Dominik took a steak and chips and we ordered two large beers for the ladies and a small beer for the driver. The food arrived after only about five minutes so we were quite surprised at the speed. My hake consisted of two fillets fried in a light batter and the fish was juicy, firm and very tasty. It wasn't a particularly large quantity so I was glad of the bean rice to pad things out. The rice was delicious though possibly a little over-cooked but I hadn't expected it to come with little bits of meat in the juice and I had to pick them out one by one. I could have made a fuss because I don't know how I could have predicted the unwanted little extra but I suspected it would be pretty pointless and likely to just sour the evening.

The waiters were very attentive and spent a lot of time playing games with little Leonard who is very easily distracted and enjoyed the attention. The chatty waiter spent a lot of time hiding and playing peek-a-boo and chatting about where he'd lived in England and Germany and trying to be charming whilst leaving us feeling slightly uneasy. We weren't hassled to hurry up and let them have their best table back, but probably only because there were very few customers that evening. We checked the dessert menu and were somewhat mislead when I asked if one of the desserts was like a Pastel de Nata (the traditional and ultra-delicious Portuguese custard tart). The waiter said it was but what we received was nothing like we expected and was clearly a mass produced creamy dessert in a plastic tub.

Considering that the three main courses came to 29 Euros you might suppose with a beer each and two glasses of wine that it might come to somewhere round the 50 Euro mark. I kick myself for not paying better attention when the waiter brought the bill. I just handed over my credit card and even tipped the rotter in cash when he said that adding it to the total would mean he didn't get the money. When I checked the bill on returning to the hotel I felt totally conned. The drinks were – by local standards – very over priced. Two glasses of very poor white Port costs €7.50 and the beers were €4.50 each which is more than we pay in our 4 star hotel. The bread basket had been charged at €3 and the fish rissoles at a massive €6. I can accept that those were possibly just naïve mistakes on our part but what really annoyed me was that we were charged for three cheeses and two butters that we didn't even touch – in total nearly 6 extra euros. The total bill was almost €72 in total.

So if you are tempted by the waterfront bars and restaurants on the Ribeira waterfront, take care with the nibbles and make sure you double check the bill. The food was fine, the setting was pleasant but there's nothing like being cheated on the bill to leave a nasty taste in your mouth.
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