The unique charm, the port wine industry, gateway to the Douro River are just some of the reasons for visiting Porto, it’s where history and modernity collide. Cristiano Ronaldo and J K Rowling have called it home and, in many ways, I wish I lived there, especially after my visit to Palacete Serero. Well, I did, for four days at least.
It’s an exquisite jewel east of Musica in the Bohemian Cedofeirta district. Away from the tourist crowds this young, trendy part of town has plenty to offer; art, restaurants and the world renown Casa Du Música – only a 10-minute walk away.
Palacete Servero, Porto
Revelling in its own secluded gardens of camellia trees, the Palacete (‘small palace’) was built in 1904 by the celebrated Portuguese architect Ricardo Severo as a luxurious family home. With much of the original look intact – think marble floors, carved wood ceilings and blue hand painted tiles (azulejos, that Porto is famous for) – this is truly an outstanding building. Accessed by a private drive where you will be greeted by one of the many charming staff you see half the beautiful building and the gardens on the way in. With only 20 bedrooms, outdoor saltwater swimming pool and a spa in a sympathetic building in the grounds you can totally lose yourself in the sheer serenity of it all.
Built as a house to live in it doesn’t disappoint as a opulent hotel either. A lot of five-star hotels while being luxurious are a little stuffy and pleased with themselves, not here. The staff are among the best I’ve ever encountered in the many years I’ve spent wandering the planet. They remember your name, what you like to drink and where you like to sit. These unsaid rules are the icing on the very rich cake served here at Palacete Servero.
There’s a covered courtyard restaurant area that takes care of breakfast as well, a plush cosy cocktail bar/lounge (the barman knocks up a wonderful Old Fashioned), a seriously brilliant restaurant Éon run by Tiago Bonito (more on this later), who is no stranger to Michelin Stars, and then upstairs (there is a lift) a room known as the library. It has many books, but it feels more like another lounge but without the traffic, quieter, calmer; wood-panelled walls, a giant fireplace and much art.
The hotel is a gallery too with a link to the Parisian Perspective Galerie, who curate all the hotel’s art. It’s everywhere without it being in your face. The collection changes regularly, if you see something you like then you’re welcome to buy it. I found time to take an hour or two to paint a couple of watercolours myself in the library, such is the relaxed atmosphere of the palacete that nobody bothered me, I was left free with my thoughts and brushes.
Spa Severo
There is a raft of treatments available at the Spa Severo, a Turkish bath and Himalayan salt room to explore and the treatments use plant-based Olivier Claire products. The excellent staff provided a thoughtful and thorough cranial massage which also included a lot of my upper body, it was so relaxing and rejuvenating I felt in a cloud afterwards. The outside pool is a good size and totally private and discrete, but being November, I passed on a dip, I’ll leave that to another visit in warmer times.
The bedrooms and suites are large luxe, high ceilings, high count cotton sheets, coffee/tea facilities, plush dressing gowns, slippers, windows with original shutters and marbled bathrooms. The private spaces here are just as important as the public ones. Knowing you have a cosy and serene ‘own’ room adds to the sense of hotel as home empowerment vibe that this place creates.
Pottering around Porto
Porto offers the wanderer a cornucopia of distracting options to fill your days and nights. Museums, galleries, restaurants and bookshops, well one in particular grabs a lot of attention.
Livaria Lello Bookshop, it’s where JK Rowling was inspired to create the look and feel of Professor Albus Dumbledore’s study in the Harry Potter stories. It’s beautiful Art Nouveau exterior and incredible double winding staircase are things of wonder. It’s worth a visit, but be warned, you must pay (€10) to enter, such is its popularity, but think of it as a deposit as you will get that refunded if you buy a book.
Porto is a café culture build on hills, and there’s a great variety to suit all tastes, vegan, dark, bright, secluded and noisy but for me one stands out, The Majestic Café. Established in the 1920s it was (and probably still is) the epicentre of the cultural intelligentsia of Porto. All the great and good would convene here for coffee and cake. In modern times it is mostly occupied by interlopers like me having a spot of lunch or sipping a glass. It has a busy bustling Viennese eatery feel about it. Livered staff take your order and deliver using trays, there’s a grand piano, aged mirrors on the wall and complex plaster mouldings to the tall ceiling. But above all it’s simple the best place to find a corner and people watch.
Éon Restaurant, Palacete Severo
Back at the Palacete Severo I entered the world of ‘moments’ as chef Tiago Bonito calls them on his origami envelope enclosed menu in Éon, the hotel’s restaurant extraordinaire.
Either 14 or 9 moments (courses) are on offer here, they represent taste experiences. The early part of the meal is smaller offerings then they become larger. The cost for 14 is €150 plus wine pairings at €80 or nine for €100 plus wine pairings at €50. The food is astonishingly good. The wine is superb. This is one of the finest meals I have eaten in quite some time. Visually everything is a delight but when tasted it becomes apparent that Tiago is a master of subtlety. Every flavour you would and should expect is present, but nothing is fighting for attention, it is an even, balanced experience, somehow making all that’s gone before rather crude in execution. I feel genuinely deprived I’ve not had this food before. The peri-peri chicken were tiny sandwiches made of crisped skin. Bluefin Tuna with oyster, cucumber and apple with wasabi was a masterclass in fresh seafood cooked with love, attention and restraint, just a hint of wasabi lifted the fish while the cucumber had its role in balancing the big hit.
After a few courses from the kitchen emerged a large loaf of bread and three quenelles of silky-smooth butter, all different, a sort of cleanser in fact. Others came and went, all good then Portuguese steer with aubergine, Bearnaise sauce and truffle, simple, subtle and melt in the mouth beautiful. I could have eaten five plates of this dish it was so good. Childhood Memories, popcorn and caramel, it was accompanied by a candyfloss tree.
The wines were impeccable, and well matched, everything came with a valid description by the server, no hyperbole or exaggerated wistfulness, just good honest this is what it is and what Tiago intended it to taste like.
Porto is a place that can bring joy to the art lover the explorer and those seeking history. Then then there are those that seek all the above wrapped up in a cosy, homely, luxuriously comfortable hotel, then Palacete Severo is for you. Look nowhere else, you won’t find better.
Palacete Servero
Rua de Ricardo Severo 21, Cedofeita, Porto, Portugal