The Mercado do Bolhão is Porto's main traditional food market and one of the city's most atmospheric spaces. The reopening after a lengthy renovation brought back the produce stalls, the flower sellers, the cheese and charcuterie vendors, the dried fish merchants, and the coffee stalls that make a Portuguese market useful rather than merely picturesque. The building — two levels of iron-railed galleries around a sun-drenched central courtyard — shows well after the restoration.
Go in the morning, when the market is at its busiest. The ground floor has fresh fish, meat, vegetables, and fruit; the upper gallery has more prepared foods and specialty products. The flower sellers outside on Rua de Fernandes Tomás are as much a part of the experience as the indoor stalls. Bolhão is the right place to buy queijo da Serra, presunto, tinned sardines, and local wine to take home, or simply to eat a pastel de nata at the counter of one of the small cafés inside and absorb the noise.