Markets in Porto

This time I’d like to share with you my small knowledge and experience about supermarkets in Porto which I had chance to check till now.

At first – Pingo doce  (polska biedronka)

That chain has a huge amount of supermarkets and usually close to apartments. When I came here I was told that it’s the cheapest. It’s true but not in 100%. It’s like in Poland – you need to choose between quality and price. In pingo doce I usually buy vegetables, fruits, milk, corn flakes and others stuff which in that moment I wanna to eat (olives, ketchup, anything what’s  heavy).  The prices are similar to polish. Once I even bought an apple from Poland !(0,99 euro/kg) .
Don’t be scary at first day – you have to buy everything so the bill can be above 20-30 euro. It’s normal J I decided to save some money so here I’m usually making some soups, salads or buy ready pizza’s or frozen vegetables.

·         There’s no way that I can eat like I ate in Poland….in Porto I didn’t find any kind of cottage cheese! There’s a lack of natural and Greece yoghurts, it’s usually one type and not the cheapest. Yoghurts are here really expensive, like all  dairy products. Cheese like gouda costs here ~10 euro/kg (of course you can find more expensive).  Some cheese spreads are also expensive, at least 1,20 euro / 200g so for a small pack. (like Almette etc.)

·         Meat, sausages, hams are incredibly expensive (2 x polish price). I don’t like it so much, but I miss chicken…

·         What is more…. 1,5 l of water cost ~0,50 euro.
We’re using water from tap :) Honestly – it’s really good, for sure better than in Warsaw!

·         Chocolates and other sweets are also much more expensive as I noticed. I’ve choosen once a small pack of biscuits (really small) and paid 0,52 euro.  I also didn’t expect that spices are not cheap. I regret that I didn’t take it from Poland…
·         The price of diapers depends from article. I bought a shower gel (750 ml – 2 euro) but I’m going to wait for things to my hair ( I won’t spend 4 euro for the cheapest shampoo). Also “women” things are really expensive so better take with you a lot of tampons if you’re coming here!

I usually go to supermarkets  with my dictionary cause you always have to watch out on prices and what you buy. There’s a lot of canned sausages, fishes (the smell is in every supermarket brrr), ready take-away meals so showing by your fingers what you want is not enough.

The second: Continente.

It’s like Carrefour actually. The biggest which I’ve seen is in Norteshopping center. There’s everything what you need.  And you’re getting free saco plastic :D

Third: Lidl! (it's near to Campo 24 Agosto)

I was so excited when I saw it. Unfortunately it was the end of that. I found only Pao Integral leite (like WASA) for 1 euro – small pack, oatmeals (0,69 euro....in Poland about 2,20 zł) and lidl’s chocolates (0,36 euro!!!!!!!). I’m going to buy there these things   + cheese + maybe meat ;)

There are also many of less popular chains in Porto….. eg. Froiz (on the left side of Camara Municipal do Porto at Aliados)  has the best bread I’ve ever eaten abroad! Also I found there ecological eggs ( for 6 of them - 1,19 euro). I saw many of ecological things there which remaind me about polish natural food.

I need to add that in each of these chains the cheapest is……wine :)))))))))))))))))) I’m not surprised that polish people during these cold days started to act like addicted from wine.

All in all the prices here at not so big, relatively the same as in Poland. I cannot expect to have here such a promotions like in Carrefour sometimes cause of exchange rate. I stopped counting from euro to zloty - it doesn't have sens. In McDonald here you have also good prices, but the price is here 1 euro which is not equal to 3 zloty...nothing we can do, only use to.
 
Btw. Today we have only 12 degrees, but I took my high heals  and other girls are still wearing EMU ;O

one week ago during our school break ;)

PS. For 3 weeks we didn’t find any Cash4you or Euronet so Agnieszka had to change her bank in Poland. Mbank seems to have the best offer for our needs here.

Any questions? - >  feel free to ask :)
XOXO!