REVIEW | Le Monument restaurant in Porto

As an annual habit my boyfriend and I gift each other a weekend getaway as a birthday present. The first year I gifted a trip to Le Sanglier des Ardennes in Durbuy in the Belgian Ardennes as in 2021 COVID restrictions still kept us inside of Belgium. In 2022 I took him to London as he hadn’t been there yet, followed by Paris in 2023 another city he hadn’t visited. For 2024 I started to lack inspiration, but as he was always very positive about his visit to Porto and I had never been there, I thought it would be a good place to travel to.

Last year during our stay in Paris I suffered from some food poisoning, forcing us to cancel our dinner in a typical Paris restaurant. As Sam kept nagging about being disappointed about this, I had to up my game this year and treat him with an exceptional dining experience on his birthday trip to Porto this year. After some looking around I stumbled on Le Monument, a one star Michelin restaurant by chef Julien Montbabut in the historic Maison Albar – Le Monumental Palace hotel in Porto. Providing us with a 14-course menu, taking us on a culinary trip across Portugal.

Just like our hotel the InterContinental Porto – Palacio dos Cardosas it was located alongside the big square formed by the Praca de Liberdade and Avenida dos Aliados. It was located in a beautiful building from 1923, decorated in the then modern Art-Deco style. They really managed to make the building into a roaring twenties time capsule, adding to the wonderful experience. Both the decoration of the bar and the restaurant made you feel like you were travelling first class aboard a luxury oceanliner.

Our visit started by being invited to wait in the beautiful bar until the restaurant was ready to welcome us. Once the maître d’hôtel come to fetch us he first took out coats before explaining us a bit about the evening. We first passed through the kitchen to meet the chef and enjoy a little appetizer before being shown to our table.

This is where our 14-course dinner truly started. They handed us a little booklet explaining all the dishes and showcasing from where in Portugal they came from.

The entire experience was fabulous, with delicious dishes and finishing up with a very showcase style of making tea. We loved the fact that there was also a non-alcoholic drinks pairing with the meal; usually the non-alcoholic option feels like a punishment, but they succeeded in making it so good that in fact it often was better than the wine option.

Because Sam tried the wine paring and I tried the non-alcoholic pairing we could both try both, which was a nice experience and comparison.

Also the service was excellent, even replacing our napkins with new ones every time we left the table to go to the toilet or catch some fresh air outside. Sam only had praise for the service, coming from him this means a lot as his experience working in the restaurant industry makes him very picky about it. If you ever visit Porto and look for a special dining experience we can only recommend Le Monument.