José Avillez in Porto: Mini Bar and His Burger

No. José Avillez’s Mini Bar in Porto is closed. It opened at Rua da Picaria 12 in July 2018 and shut for good in 2020, a closure the press reported in June that year. The chef’s only Porto restaurant today is Cantinho do Avillez, at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira 166, and its current English menu has no burger. His burger, made with Barrosã PDO beef from northern Portugal, is on the menu at Mini Bar in Lisbon. Want a burger in Porto tonight? Go straight to our ranking of the best burgers in Porto.

José Avillez in Porto today: one restaurant, no burger

José Avillez runs one restaurant in Porto in November 2026: Cantinho do Avillez, and it does not serve a burger. The chef’s official restaurant list on joseavillez.pt shows Cantinho do Avillez as his only Porto address; Mini Bar appears only under Lisbon. I checked both the list and the Porto menu on 6 November 2026.

Why spell this out? Because old listings still mislead. Yelp, TripAdvisor and Lifecooler pages for Mini Bar Porto keep surfacing in search without a clear closure notice. Some aggregator snippets even describe a Barrosã burger with caramelised onion and foie gras at Cantinho do Avillez Porto. I found no trace of it on the current official Porto menu. Treat those listings as history.

Cantinho do Avillez Porto: address, hours and what to order

Cantinho do Avillez Porto is at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira 166, 4050-416 Porto, open daily from 12:30 to 23:00. You can book on +351 223 227 879. The official menu lists 90 seats and a €3.75 couvert. The interior is by designers Ana Anahory and Felipa Almeida.

Map of José Avillez’s Porto addresses: Cantinho do Avillez, Rua Mouzinho da Silveira 166 (open, marked), and the former Mini Bar Porto, Rua da Picaria 12 (closed in 2020), a ten-minute walk north (Map: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)

If you came for something burger-shaped, the menu offers three close cousins:

The francesinha is the Porto order here, and it is the one I would pick. It is the city’s signature sandwich, and Avillez works truffle into it three times (butter, mortadella, sauce) before finishing it with Serra da Estrela cheese. At €20.50, it is a splurge, not a snack. Our Porto burger city guide explains how the francesinha shapes the way Porto eats meat between bread.

A classic Porto francesinha, the city’s signature meat sandwich under melted cheese and sauce; illustrative photo, not taken at Cantinho do Avillez, whose truffle version costs €20.50 (Photo: Stuart Mudie, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesinha\_(Porto).jpg)

What happened to Mini Bar Porto?

Mini Bar Porto closed permanently in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, after less than two years in business. Time Out Porto reported the closure on 3 June 2020, noting that Mini Bar had disappeared from the chef’s website while Cantinho do Avillez Porto would reopen. Wikipedia dates the closure to May 2020. Nobody has confirmed the last day of service, so the safe answer is: closed in 2020, reported in June 2020.

Porto was not the only casualty. In the same round of closures, Time Out reported that Avillez also shut five Lisbon venues: Café Lisboa, Cantina Peruana, Rei da China, Casa dos Prazeres and Beco Cabaret Gourmet.

Where was Mini Bar Porto?

Mini Bar Porto stood at Rua da Picaria 12, 4050-477 Porto. I could not verify what occupies the address today, so I am not naming a successor. Don’t walk there expecting Mini Bar.

What Mini Bar Porto was like in 2018

Mini Bar Porto was a two-floor, 70-seat gastropub with red neon, velvet and mirrored ceilings, according to Observador’s pre-opening report of 3 July 2018. It opened at 19:00, served à la carte until 01:00 and kept the bar going until 02:00. From Thursday to Saturday, a DJ played from 22:00.

Chef Gonçalo Henriques ran the kitchen at opening, after four years at Cantinho do Avillez Porto; I could not confirm where he cooks today. The motto was “nem tudo o que parece é” (“not everything is as it seems”), and the house style followed it: playful small plates that look like one thing and taste like another.

Visão Se7e listed two tasting menus in July 2018: “Em Cartaz” at €45 and “Épico” at €55. À la carte plates included an Algarve prawn ceviche at €8.60 and fish and chips with kimchi yogurt at €8.50.

José Avillez’s burger: the JA Burger and Barrosã PDO beef

José Avillez’s burger is the JA Burger, made with Barrosã PDO beef, a protected beef from a native cattle breed of northern Portugal. It started as a mini plate on the Mini Bar menu. Today the official Lisbon menu calls it the “Barrosã PDO Burger”.

What is Barrosã PDO beef?

Carne Barrosã is a PDO (DOP in Portuguese) beef from the Barrosã breed. The cattle must be born, raised and fed on natural pastures, called lameiros, and on forage within a delimited area of Minho and Barroso in northern Portugal. Each animal must be registered in the breed’s herd book. The rules are set out in a 2018 notice in Portugal’s official gazette, the Diário da República.

Barrosã cow, the native northern Portuguese breed behind the Barrosã PDO beef in José Avillez’s JA Burger; the herds graze freely on mountain pastures around their villages (May 2019) (Photo: João Manuel Lemos Lima, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barros%C3%A3\_cow\_PT\_(cropped).jpg)

That geography is the strongest link between Avillez’s burger and Porto. The Barrosã pastures lie north and north-east of the city, in Minho and the Barroso highlands, so the beef in a Lisbon burger comes from Porto’s own hinterland.

Map of northern Portugal: the Barrosã PDO beef area covers Minho and Barroso, between Porto, Braga and the Spanish border, roughly 100 km (60 miles) north-east of Porto (Map: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)

The burger at Mini Bar Porto (2018)

Mini Bar Porto’s 2018 menu listed a “JAburguer DOP” at €6.80 and a “Big JAburguer DOP” at €18.50. The first was a mini burger in the meat “act” of the menu; the second was a full main course. Both prices come from a single source, the travel blog Viaje Comigo, which published the menu on 29 August 2018. The menu said “DOP” but did not name the breed, so I cannot confirm that the Porto version used Barrosã beef.

JA Burger price history at Mini Bar Lisbon

The JA Burger costs €29 with fries at Mini Bar Lisbon, and €31 as a cheeseburger, on the official English menu as of 6 November 2026. The menu PDF on minibar.pt is undated, so confirm the price at the table.

Chart: José Avillez’s burger price, 2018 to 2026. Mini Bar Porto, Aug 2018: JAburguer mini €6.80, Big JAburguer €18.50 (Viaje Comigo); Mini Bar Lisbon, Sep 2020: JA burger €8 (menu PDF); Mini Bar Lisbon, listed 6 Nov 2026: Barrosã PDO Burger €29, Cheese Burger €31 (minibar.pt, undated) (Chart: Burger Breton (original), CC BY 4.0, data from Viaje Comigo (29 Aug 2018), Mini Bar menu (9 Sep 2020, https://portugalconfidential.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MINI\_BAR\_A3\_09SET20.pdf) and minibar.pt menu (checked 6 Nov 2026))

The jump says a lot about the dish. In 2020 the JA burger was an €8 mini plate in a sequence of “acts”. Today it sits in a “Hamburgers & Sandos” section as a full plate with fries, at €29. That is steep for Portugal: in our Porto ranking, Santo Burga’s Two Saints cost €9.50 in 2024. You pay for Chiado, the Avillez name and a beef whose origin is legally traceable. In my view the beef earns a premium. It does not earn triple the price.

Where to eat the Avillez burger: Mini Bar Lisbon

Mini Bar Lisbon is at Rua António Maria Cardoso 58, in Chiado. It belongs to Bairro do Avillez, the chef’s cluster of venues with Taberna, Páteo and Pizzaria Lisboa. The menu lists 80 seats, and the phone number is +351 211 305 393. For more burgers in the capital, see our Lisbon burger city guide.

Teatro São Luiz on Rua António Maria Cardoso in Lisbon’s Chiado, the street where Mini Bar Lisbon now serves José Avillez’s Barrosã PDO burger (photo March 2018) (Photo: Hipersyl, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teatro\_S%C3%A3o\_Luiz.jpg)

José Avillez in Porto: timeline from 2014 to 2026

Avillez’s Porto story runs from Cantinho in 2014 to the closure of Mini Bar in 2020, with a big acquisition in between.

I have not verified whether the Cafeína group restaurants still belong to Avillez’s group today. Read the 2018 deal as a dated event, not a current ownership map.

Who is José Avillez? A two-Michelin-star chef from Lisbon

José Avillez is a Portuguese chef whose flagship, Belcanto in Lisbon’s Chiado, holds two Michelin stars. He trained with Alain Ducasse and Éric Fréchon in France and, in 2006, interned in the creativity department of El Bulli. Belcanto opened in January 2012, earned its first star that year and its second in 2014. In 2019 it ranked 42nd in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

The Cantinho Porto menu also cites Belcanto’s two stars. I leave out his birth date and birthplace: the sources I found disagree on both.

Mini Bar was Avillez’s playful side, with Belcanto’s kitchen ideas served as small plates in a bar. The burger was the easiest way in, and Barrosã beef gave it a northern Portuguese passport. Porto, of all cities, was the natural home for that burger. That it survives only in Lisbon is the oddest twist in this story.

Where to eat a good burger in Porto instead

For a burger in Porto today, skip the Avillez addresses and go to a dedicated burger restaurant. My colleague Alex ranks ten of them, with dated prices and checked addresses, in our guide to the best burgers in Porto. For more Portuguese chef portraits, read my profile of chef Vítor Dias at Arcadas in Coimbra, or browse every city on the Burger Breton restaurants hub.

How I researched this article

I did not visit Mini Bar Porto, which is closed, and I give no rating. This profile is built from official sources checked on 6 November 2026: José Avillez’s restaurant list, the Cantinho do Avillez Porto page and menu, and the Mini Bar Lisbon menu. Historical facts come from dated Portuguese press: Observador (3 July 2018), Visão Se7e (28 July 2018), Viaje Comigo (29 August 2018), ECO (5 June 2018) and Time Out Porto (3 June 2020), plus a Mini Bar Lisbon menu from September 2020 and Wikipedia. Where only one source supports a fact, I say so.

FAQ: José Avillez and Mini Bar Porto

Is José Avillez’s Mini Bar in Porto still open?

No. Mini Bar Porto closed permanently in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Time Out Porto reported the closure on 3 June 2020.

When did Mini Bar Porto close, and why?

It closed in 2020; Wikipedia says May 2020 and Time Out reported it on 3 June 2020. It was one of several Avillez venues shut during the pandemic, alongside five in Lisbon.

Which José Avillez restaurant is open in Porto today?

Cantinho do Avillez, at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira 166, 4050-416 Porto. It is open daily from 12:30 to 23:00 (phone +351 223 227 879).

Does Cantinho do Avillez in Porto serve a burger?

No. Its current English menu has no burger. The closest dishes are the Prego steak sandwich (€15.75) and the Cantinho-style francesinha (€20.50).

What is in José Avillez’s JA Burger?

The JA Burger is made with Barrosã PDO beef, from a native cattle breed raised on natural pastures in Minho and Barroso, northern Portugal. Mini Bar Lisbon serves it with fries, and as a cheeseburger.

How much does the Avillez burger cost at Mini Bar Lisbon?

The official menu lists the Barrosã PDO Burger with fries at €29 and the Barrosã PDO Cheese Burger with fries at €31, as of 6 November 2026. The menu is undated, so check the price on site.

How many Michelin stars does José Avillez have?

His flagship, Belcanto in Lisbon, holds two Michelin stars: the first won in 2012, the second in 2014.

Where was Mini Bar Porto located?

At Rua da Picaria 12, 4050-477 Porto. It was a two-floor, 70-seat gastropub.