Set your course for Portugal with Bifanas Vovo and its lively street food. Tuck into the famous Bifana pork sandwich and Prego beef sandwich, the hearty Francesinha, plus house creations like the Bacalhau waffle and the Gulosa, a warm vegan sandwich. Save room for something sweet: pastel de nata, salame de chocolate and the doce da casa. Bom apetite!
3 questions, 3 answers
How it started
The truck has been on the road since 2024. What set me off was a disagreement.
You can find bifanas in Brussels. But not mine. In Portugal there are as many recipes as there are regions: every corner of the country has its marinade, its cooking, its bread. I make the Algarve ones, the ones from my childhood. The pork simmers in garlic — it is never grilled, and that is the whole difference.
A qualified cook is on board at every service.
The hard part at the beginning is not the one you would imagine. It is judging quantities: we closed several times in the middle of the day, out of stock, with people still waiting. You learn to count fast.
On the bifana itself I change nothing. It is around it that I invent — the sauces, the waffles, the desserts.
Where their produce comes from
The pork comes from a Portuguese butcher. It is not a question of origin but of know-how: he knows the pieces and the cuts a bifana calls for. A bad piece does not forgive — the meat simmers a long time, everything shows.
The rest of the Portuguese side comes from a Portuguese supplier based in Belgium: chouriço, cheeses, charcuterie, salt cod. He is an importer, not a local producer, but that is what lets us work with the real products rather than near equivalents.
The bread goes through a wholesaler, and that is a choice. It arrives part-baked and we finish it in the oven on board as the service goes: the bread comes out hot all day long. No baker's delivery keeps that rhythm over three festival days. It is also the hardest piece to get right — a bifana roll has to soak up the meat juices without falling apart in your hand.
Everything else we make ourselves: marinades, sauces, waffle batter, desserts. In small quantities, for each event, cooked on site to order. Two exceptions, and we say so: the bread and the pastéis de nata. The rest comes out of our kitchen.
What they suggest you try first
Start with the bifana. It is the dish that gives the truck its name. Pork simmered a long time in garlic — not grilled, simmered — in a soft roll, baked during the service, that soaks up the juices. In Portugal you eat it standing at the counter, with a line of yellow mustard. And if you have already had one somewhere else: this is the Algarve recipe, it is not the same.
Take a topping with it. Diced cooked chouriço, hot cheese sauce, or a vegan pepper and tomato sauce. Those are our own additions, there is nothing Portuguese about them, and that is how we serve it here.
Then the bacalhau waffle. Our creation: salt cod, potato and herbs in a savoury Belgian waffle. You will not find it anywhere else. Cooked to order, allow three minutes. That is where Portugal really meets Belgium.
If you are hungry and have time to sit down, the francesinha — the monument of Porto, hot sauce ladled out in front of you, in limited quantity each day.
And to finish, the doce da casa. A Portuguese dessert nobody here serves you. Our version.
Translated from their original answer.
On the menu
Hot pork sandwich
Hot beef sandwich
Hot sandwich of meats and sauce served on a plate.
Hot aubergine sandwich
In pictures
