A Fishy Day in Matosinhos
From hand-packed sardines to the tastiest seafood lunch we've had in Portugal.
Our latest adventure took us about 30 minutes north of Porto to the coastal city of Matosinhos, a place that takes seafood very, very seriously.
Fishing boats fill the harbor and seafood restaurants line the streets.
Our first stop was Conservas Pinhais, one of Portugal’s oldest sardine canneries. If you’ve ever wondered how a humble sardine ends up in one of those beautifully designed tins that fill gourmet food shops, this is the place to find out. It’s also the origin story of Shawn’s favorite brand of sardines from back home, Nuri, so he was basically making a pilgrimage.
We started the tour in the original office building, which houses this beautiful staircase with a little surprise.
It was designed so that when you look up, it's shaped like a fish. Because apparently even the architecture here is committed to the seafood theme.
They still have some of their original office equipment on display. I felt a little older than I would have liked when that middle typewriter looked awfully familiar...
One of my favorite facts from the tour was that the factory had on-site childcare for employees until about 2020. Many of the babies in those old photographs have grown up and now work at the factory themselves. I love stories like that. In a world where companies seem to come and go overnight, this one has generations of families who have spent their lives here.
Before entering the production area, we suited up in the ever-so-flattering factory fashion collection: hairnets, lab coats, and shoe covers. I think we look very chic.
When we got inside, what surprised us most wasn’t the machinery, it was how little there actually was.
Nearly every step is still done by hand.
The fish are cleaned, trimmed, packed, and inspected by skilled workers using techniques that have barely changed in over a century. In an age where almost everything is automated, watching hundreds of people carefully prepare each tin felt like stepping back in time. Also, every worker we interacted with seemed genuinely happy to be there.
The original marble sinks are still used today to sort and prepare the fish before each batch.
This woman’s whole job is cutting up pickles, peppers and carrots for the spicy recipe sardines.
These women are trimming the fish and packing the tins, by hand, no machinery, to an exact weight.
And finally there are the women who spend all day wrapping tins in decorative paper.
Watching them was mesmerizing. Their hands moved so quickly they were practically a blur.
Naturally, we were invited to give it a try.
Let’s just say our future careers in artisanal sardine packaging are not taking off anytime soon.
The tour ended with a tasting. One tin of spicy and one tin of their secret recipe tomato sauce. Delicious!
It gave us a whole new appreciation for why good canned sardines are considered a delicacy rather than emergency pantry food.
After the tour, we did what seemed like the obvious next step: we went looking for more fish.
We stopped at one of the many seafood restaurants near the beach, A Peixaria. The smell of charcoal grills drifted down the street, making it nearly impossible to pick just one place. Fortunately, I have Shawn who had already done the research.
The grill master invited me over to photograph our dorado while it cooked over the open fire, and was very excited to hear how much we liked it afterwards.
This was easily the best, and least expensive, whole fish meal we have had in Portugal.
After lunch, we wandered through a nearby residential neighborhood to help burn off at least a few bites.
One house immediately caught my eye... and then I noticed the tiny little car parked out front. I think even I could parallel park that thing. Maybe.
And because no day is complete without “just looking,” we stopped at a neighborhood pastry shop before heading home.
Purely for research purposes, of course.
Matosinhos may not have the postcard fame of Porto’s historic center, but if you love seafood, or simply enjoy seeing how local traditions are preserved, it’s absolutely worth the trip.
We came home with a few tins of sardines and one more reminder that some of the best travel days aren’t about checking famous sights off a list.
They’re about learning something new, eating something wonderful, and discovering that even a humble sardine has quite a story to tell.
Oh... and when we got back to the apartment, our housekeeper had left us even more pillows.
At this rate, by the end of the month we’re going to have enough pillows to build a respectable fort.
