The Porto area is Portugal's second largest metropolitan area. I was staying on the south shore in Vila Nova de Gaia, which is considered Porto's "twin" city. Their populations are roughly equal, but that's about where it stops.
In VNG, there are cafes where you can go in and sit down with coffee or tea, a sandwich or a salad, and/or something sweet. Most of these cafes are busier at breakfast and at lunch. I tend to go visit coffehouses later in the evening. (Perhaps that's because it takes longer for me to get my act together!) That said, I knew it would be going to a Starbucks branch.
Most American chain places in Europe tilt toward being obnoxious. They park their chain locations near major touristic sites so that they don't go unnoticed. A perfect example of this would be the McDonald's that shares the piazza with the Pantheon in Rome. In Porto, they've wedged in a Starbucks near Torre dos Clerigos. That turns me off.
Starbucks in Vila Nova de Gaia is a very good Starbucks. It is located on the main level of El Corte Ingles, a major Spanish department store chain that has a few branches in Portugal.
I've been to this Starbucks on numerous occasions. Because I can't get drip coffee, I'll get a cup of hot tea and something like a cookie or a donut. The prices are fair.
I've gotten consistently reliable service here. However, in the past, there were some very outgoing employees who must have turned over.
With the store being located on the ground level of El Corte Ingles, it is accessible from either inside that store or from the large plaza that it shares with a big hotel across the way. (It's interesting to see the major highway that diagonally cuts across VNG from the edge of the plaza disappear under it ... and then reappear quite a ways to the west.) There is also some outdoor seating.
The interior seems to feature a scheme that is seen elsewhere in Portugal, meaning a woodsy one with wooden or dark green upholstered chairs. While there is no center island here, there is a very large communal table out by the windows that sits up on a slightly raised floor. That's where I tend to sit.
You can just take Metro do Porto to the exact same stop on Avenida da Republica as El Corte Ingles, a massive 6-story green glass enclosed structure that takes up a city block. If doing the coffeehouse laptop and "to do list" thing, I'd rather do it in newer and less dense Vila Nova de Gaia than in a Starbucks store shoehorned in next to a major historic site in Porto. This is my "go to" Starbucks in this metropolitan area. read more