Restaurante Tito I in Matosinhos, Portugal

Ask any Porto local where to eat along the Atlantic coast of the city and they will most likely direct you to one of the “Tito” restaurants, a series of neighboring eateries that specialize in northern Portugal’s sought-after seafood.

The journey from Porto to Tito begins with a bus ride from the hilly riverside city to the small fishing village of Matosinhos, approximately 30 minutes west of Porto. Bus 500 takes passengers from Porto’s São Bento train station to the sleepy Atlantic town, where arriving before 7 p.m. will present you with few open businesses but a breathtaking sunset.

As 7 p.m. approaches, restaurants along Rua Heróis de França start shuffling their open-air grills onto the street and switching on their lights for dinner service. The fresh catches of the day are tossed onto the grills and the scent of roasting seafood quickly fills the air. Among these is Restaurante Tito I, the casual brother restaurant of Tito II.

Inside, the lower half of the walls are adorned with the characteristic Portuguese blue-and-white tiles, while the top half is splashed in a spicy brown mustard hue. Starters on the multipage, full-sized menu included grilled calamari bathed in what tastes like a red pepper-infused olive oil. Fish selections are taken from the day’s batch of catches and carried out to the streetside grills where it is flipped and turned and dashed lightly with some herbs and spices. Skip the appetizer because a fish entrée comes with sides of roasted cabbage and a more-than-healthy serving of oven-boiled potatoes drenched in olive oil and herbs. As far as seafood dinners are concerned, it doesn’t get fresher than Tito’s.