Originally posted in 2011, Eating the Algarve had a major rewrite in 2022 and since has been updated yearly.
Eating in the Algarve
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| Portugal |
We first visited the Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region, in 1982, returned several times in the 1990s and have not missed a year this century (except
2020, the Baleful Year of Covid). Since 2005 we have based ourselves at Carvoeiro, one of the smaller seaside resorts. I admire the way the locals accept that, for a part of the year at least, they are a minority in their own town, yet deal calmly and honestly with the invading hordes. I love the October warmth, the sunshine sparkling on the sea, the colours of the bougainvillea trailing across freshly
painted white villas, but most of all I love the food.
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| The Algarve (Carvoeiro underlined) and its position in the Iberian Peninsula (shaded red in inset) |
Portugal is often thought of as a Mediterranean country. Portuguese is a Latin language, the climate, particularly in the Algarve is
Mediterranean as is the food. Tomatoes, garlic and peppers are important while olive oil is the essential cooking medium, condiment and salad dressing. All it lacks is a Mediterranean coast.
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| Warm(ish) and blue, but definitely the Atlantic Ocean, not the Mediterranean Sea |
The Algarve is a tourist region and thus prey to foreign influences - tapas and sangria from Spain, salmon from northern Europe and, more recently ceviche from South
America. Carvoeiro also offers Chinese, Indian, Thai and Nepalese cuisine – and all-day English Breakfast should
that be the limit of your horizons. There are an increasing number of tapas, Italian
and ‘Mediterranean’ restaurants, but most could still be described as 'tipico', where fresh, local ingredients are treated with respect.
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| Carvoeiro |
I have nothing against Indian restaurants or ceviche, but this post is about Portuguese food with am Algarve accent. It is not fine dining (though the Algarve has
its Michelin starred restaurants), nor exclusively about restaurant food, it
is about good food at everyday prices – something Portugal does supremely well.
Breakfast
We do not go out for
breakfast, and for the Portuguese at home, breakfast is little more than coffee, bread and jam, but I
must crowbar in a mention of presunto. Portuguese has two words for ham,
fiambre is wet cured ham, pink, flaccid and forgettable while presunto
is air cured – very like the Spanish Serrano Ham. Of the many ways to enjoy presunto,
none is better than smeared with a warm, runny egg-yolk.
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| Presunto, a sadly broken fried egg and an over-large breakfast |
Although we eat presunto for breakfast regularly, this is not a regular breakfast, this is the final day, 'clear the fridge' breakfast - well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Morning Snacks
Coffee and cake! A section of I Don’t have a Sweet Tooth but… is dedicated to Portuguese coffee and cake. I shall not repeat myself here, but I cannot resist a picture of café com leite with a pastel de nata, my absolute favourite.
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| What eleven o'clock is for |
It does not look much, but melts away leaving a legacy of lovely, lingering flavours. It’s like Portugal, not always showy but full of depth and richness.
Light Lunch
As will become obvious we sometimes go out for lunch, but rarely for a 'light lunch' - keeping it 'light' would be nigh on impossible. But to control a regime noticeably leaning towards over-indulgence, light lunches are a necessity. We need salad - lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, a sprinkle of herbs, a dash of vinegar and a drizzle downpour of olive oil - and in the Algarve
what better accompaniment than locally produced sardine paté...
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| Salad and sardine paté |
…or maybe some cheese. The Portuguese tend to eat cheese at the start of a meal, but visitors can do as they please. The Algarve produces a little, but most eaten in the region comes from the Alentejo, the next district to the north, or from the Azores, 1,000km out in the Atlantic.
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| Two cheeses |
On the left is an Alentejo sheep cheese. It is close textured with a gentle flavour, but a pleasing tang at the finish. (For more on Alentejo cheese see Eating and Drinking the Alentejo). On the right an Azores cheese made with mixed cow, goat and sheep milk – I don’t know of anywhere
else that mixes milks. It is soft and creamy with a delicate flavour but a
sumptuous texture.
Main Courses for the Main Meal of the Day (Usually Dinner, but Sometimes Lunch)
Introduction: Couvert
Maybe Portuguese portion sizes have increased, or - more likely - we are just getting old, but we no longer eat three course meals. Starters are pleasures of the past while desserts, if we bother at all involve two spoons but only one dessert. We do. howver maintain the Portugues tradition of a couvert.
In days of old, when clams were bold (or at least, cheap) you had no sooner sat down but some bread would arrive at your table, followed by the obligatory olives, sardine paté, carrots, maybe some cheese or a small fish. These were presented as though they were gifts, but of course you paid for them in the end, under the heading couvert (cover charge). This seemed fine to me, I liked the element of surprise and the cost was small, but clearly it did not please everybody. In the interests of transparency, the various items are listed and priced on the menu and you must ask for them, though specials, like a freshly prepared sardine paté, are sometimes offered verbally. We regard bread and olives as an absolute minimum, indeed starting a Portuguese meal without first eating a bowl of olives is downright perverse. We also like the garlicky, gently spiced boiled carrots which, despite numerous attempts, I have never quite managed to reproduce at home.
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| Bread, olives and white port - well why not? |
Unlike the French, the Portuguese do not leave a specific time for an aperitif, but we like a white port while we are munching our olives. Sweet or dry it has just enough acidity to sharpen the appetite for whatever comes next.
Fish
Some 100km West to East and 50km
North to South, the Algarve is a roughly rectangular with the Atlantic Ocean on
two sides. Unsurprisingly, it is blessed with the freshest of fish.
Dourada e Robalo. Sea Bream and Sea Bass are ubiquitous. The tourist-driven fashion of late is to fillet them, but they used to be plated whole....
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| Robalo, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2023 |
....and thankfully still are at Casa Palmeira in Carvoeiro.
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| Dourado, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2023 |
This year (2025), I noticed menus offering Dourada and/or Robalo, while also offering 'fillet of Dourada/Robala' as a separate item, This seems a reasonable compromise, protecting those who suffer conniptions on seeing a fish head on their plate, its dulled eye staring reproachfully up at them, while allowing us more robust dinners to carry on as before.
Linguado Sole used to be on most menus, then disappeared and is now making a come back.
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| Sole, Bela Rosa, Carvoeiro 2024 |
My sole at Bela Rosa in Carvoeiro was minimalist, to say the least, and perhaps looks overcooked though it was not. Sole in the UK is ritually drowned in butter and pebble-dashed with capers and this made a pleasant change.
Sardinha. Sardines are available in (almost) every restaurant in the Algarve and are often the cheapest main course.
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| Sardines, Dona Barca 2024 |
Since 1982 we have been making what has become a pilgrimage to the Algarve’s second city of Portimão to eat sardines. The scruffy trestle tables
on the dock have long been tidied up, but ducking under an arch from where they
used to be brings you to a small square where Dona Barca, an old-style
restaurant with communal tables, grills fish in the open air. Since we discovered
it with Brian and Hilary in 2001(ish) we have never felt the need to go
anywhere else for our sardines.
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| Dona Barca 2022, with Brian and Hilary Sardines, salad and boiled potatoes, so simple, so satisfying |
It is a treat we have often shared with friends, usually Brian and Hilary. Dona Barca is inexpensive, the food is excellent
(they have a full menu, it’s not just sardines) and it is one of very few restaurants
we visit with Portuguese customers as well as tourists. Sadly, the long
communal tables disappeared two years ago – more victims of Covid?
Espadarte. We both like an occasional swordfish steak, though sometimes they can be a touch dry. It is a meaty fish and Lynne enjoyed her swordfish in A Galeria in Carvoeiro, though presentation does not appear to be the restaurant's greatest strength.
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| Swordfish, A Galeria, Carvoeiro 2025 |
At lunch at the Atlântida, on the beach at Alvor, they offered an Espadarte Algarvia. There is no agreed definition of ‘Algarvia’ or ‘Algarve style’ but I expected something with tomatoes, peppers and garlic.
What I got was different.
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| Swordfish with orange and almonds, Restaurante Atlântida, Alvor 2022 |
Oranges and almonds are important local products, but I was not prepared for a slab of fish to be doused in orange (juice and pulp) and sprinkled with toasted almonds. ‘Oranges and fish!' I thought, 'No! No! Thrice No!’ But, believe it or not, it was the best thing I ate in our 2022 visit. Like Lister’s triple fried egg, chilli, chutney sandwich it was all wrong, but perfect.
Perhaps there is a fashion growing here. In 2023 I spotted a restaurant offering 'swordfish with coconut and passion fruit'. After discovering the pleasures of black scabbard fish, banana and passion fruit in Madeira I thought I might try it, until I read the restaurant's review.
We lunched at the Atlântida at the suggestion of my (distant) cousin Ricky, long- time Algarve resident, fluent Portuguese speaker and now a Portuguese citizen. See Finding a Long Lost Cousin.
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| Ricky and me, Restaurante Atlântida, Alvor 2022 |
Ensopado de Enguia (Eel Stew). The restaurants we use in Carvoeiro and along the coastal strip describe themselves as 'tipico' but their clientele is largely tourists and however tipico they want to be, they all have an eye on what will appeal to the north European palate.
In 2023 Ricky took us to the restaurant in her village. She told us they feed local workers on weekday lunchtime and on Sundays (when we visited) people drive up from Portimão (the nearest city) for 'country food'. Wherever the clientele came from they were overwhelmingly Portuguese
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| A Oficina, Mexilhoeira Grande |
A Oficina gave us access to several dishes that do not make it onto the tourist menus and I could not resist trying ensopado de enguia, eel stew. Disks of perfectly cooked eel floated in a somewhat rustic sauce consisting largely of blitzed tomatoes strongly flavoured with coriander. It was accompanied by a plate of chips and fried bread, which would have been perfect if I spent my day labouring in the fields, but for an idle so-and-so like me, was more carbohydrate than I needed. The eel, though was delicious, the white, delicately flavoured flesh falling willingly from the spine.,
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| Eel stew, A Oficina, Mexilhoeira Grande, 2023 |
Bacalhau. The Portuguese love affair with salt cod started over 400 years ago and continues to this day, even in the Algarve. However, for me the Algarve is about fresh fish, and Bacalhau feels more at home in the Alentejo, which has much less coastline and a different culinary tradition. So, for Bacalhau dishes visit The Alentejo: Eating and Drinking 2024.
Other Denizens of the Deep
Lula. Squid has long been a favourite of both of us. They were disappearing from menus a couple of years ago, but I am glad to see they are now making
a recovery. In 2022, 23 and (for Lynne) 24 and 25 We have eaten our squid at the Bela Rosa in Carvoeiro.
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| Squid at the Bela Rosa, Carvoeiro, 2022 |
Perfecting squid is tricky and Bela Rosa are doing well enough to encourage our repeated return, but the very finest squid we have eaten was served at Maria's, a breath of fresh air, proper Portugal and sensible pricing on the beach beyond the tourist wonderland of Vale de Lobo/Quinta da Largo. After several decades of sterling service Maria sold up. The restaurant is still there, the name is unchanged, but the prices have soared under management fully invested in the creeping Californication of the Algarve.
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| The good old days at Maria's, Quinta do Largo, 2011 Fish is always best eaten within sight of the sea |
There is another style of squid dish that involves many small squid, sometimes, carefully stuffed and sometimes served in their own ink, as at Cozinha da Avó (Grandma's Kitchen) in Carvoeiro in 2024.
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| Squids, Cozinha da Avó, Carvoeiro 2024 |
Lynne is not keen on squids like this and it is not always clear which your are ordering, though these are usually sold as 'Algarve style' or 'house style'.
Polvo. We regularly ate octopus, more precisely, polvo à lagareiro in Martins Grill by the beach in Carvoeiro. Sadly Jan (Martins) Zegers died in 2019, Martins Grill closed soon after and octopus all but vanished in tourist orientated restaurants. This year (2025) saw a superabundance of octopuses in the waters around Devon and Cornwall, and as my fellow countryman and women have never warmed to their mild flavour and sumptuous texture, octopuses were exported to southern Europe in vast quantities. This may account for their appearance on many menus in Carvoeiro this year.
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| Polvo à lagareiro, Bela Rosa, Carvoeiro 2025 |
This year, while Lynne ate her squid in Bela Rosa, I went for the octopus from the specials board. It was the best polvo à lagareiro I have eaten. A lagareiro is a style of cooking that involves generous application of olive oil during the roasting phase and is perfect for octopus.
Arroz de Marisco. Seafood rice, a particular favourite of mine, usually comes as a dish for two. First comes the ritual tying on of the bib - this is going to be a messy business - and then a large earthenware bowl is placed on the table and the waiter gives it a judicious stir.
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| Arroz con Marisco, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro, 2023 |
He then hands over the spoon and what happens next is up to you. You spoon out a portion of rice, with clams, prawns, mussels, cracked crabs legs, langoustine and whatever else had been in the market that day. Fingers are required to liberate tasty morsels from shells - the crab legs sometimes require some force - and it all gets wonderfully messy. It can also demand some concentration!
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| I've found a clam! Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2025 |
Tasty thought the morsels may be, I derive as much pleasure from the sauce and the rice that has been soaked in it as I do shellfish, indeed the whole process and the whole dish is a delight.
When all has been consumed it is time to sit back and relax. Although I like hands-on eating, I also enjoy washing my hands thoroughly when it is all over.
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| And relax, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2025 |
Amêijoas. Clams have always been important in Portugal but the last twenty years have seen serious over-fishing. Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, clams in a garlicky broth, was once a cheap starter, it still appears on menus but now
costs more than most main courses.
It is sometimes posssible to find a bag of fresh clams at a reasonable price in a supermarket and cook them at home. I have never essayed Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, but I do a fair Amêijoas marinière to mess with a classic and mix languages.
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| Clams marinière frites |
Camarão Prawns used to appear more in the starters section than in main courses, except of course in Arroz de Marisco.
More than 20 yeasr ago, when we still ate three courses, I used to enjoy the prawns piri piri starter at Retiro dos Indios outside Val de Lobo. The restaurant survives to this day, but I have no idea what is on the current menu. This year three prawn dishes appeared as main courses in the Bela Rosa, prawns piri, prawns 'house style' and shrimp curry - though they were all Camarão on the Portuguese menu.
I chose the curry...
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| Prawn curry, Bela Rosa, Carvoeiro, 2025 |
...it was all right but the chilli could have been hotter and the rest of the spicing was far too muted. And as for it being a shrimp curry, no these were (I am happy to say) prawns. British English makes a distinction between prawns and their much smaller cousins, shrimps. American English use the word 'shrimp' for all such crustaceans regardless of size, even for tiger prawns. Perhaps they found their curry recipe on an American website.
Cataplana Dishes
A cataplana is a cooking vessel unique to the Algarve. It consists of a pair of hinged copper shells which enclose the ingredients sealing
in all the moisture and all the flavour. It can also be put on the heat either
way up. A fish cataplana, usually serving two, will contain several
pieces of fish - whatever is available that day - and, typically, prawns and mussels. The
smell when your cataplana is opened at the table is memorable.
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| Cataplana, Vimar, Carvoeiro 2011 |
The cataplana in the picture was expertly cooked, but I doubt the slab of salmon among the fish is local, and nor are the New Zealand green-lipped
mussels at the front. Local produce is excellent and promoting it is even more important now
than it was in 2011.
Another dish traditionally cooked in a cataplana is pork and clams, and in 2022 I enjoyed this in an individual cataplana at the Casa Algarvia in Carvoeiro. This apparently strange combination was made in the Algarve, but undoubtedly designed in heaven.
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| Pork and clams in a cataplana, Casa Algarvia, Carvoeiro. 2022 |
As that last cataplana involved pork, it is time for the meat.
Meat
Borrego. Throughout the Algarve there are patches of scrubby land with a few sheep and a shepherd. The shepherds are uniformly the sort of old men who
feel they still need to do something useful (an affliction I have never
suffered from). Lynne felt that as they went to so much effort it was rude not to
eat some lamb.
Lynne’s rack of lamb at the Casa Algarvia was top quality meat, perfectly cooked. Unfortunately it was marred by a squirt of sweet commercial mint sauce at the side of the plate, partly over some salad. I suspect unimaginative British tourists have for years been telling Portuguese restaurateurs that ‘we always
eat lamb with mint sauce’ and this is the result. Not all restaurants make this error, and mint sauce has its place in a British-style ‘roast
dinner’, but here it was just inappropriate.
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| Rack of lamb, Casa Algarvia, Carvoeiro, 2022 |
Frango Piri-piri. Chicken piri-piri was on (almost) every menu in the Algarve long before Nando’s existed. Nandos was co-founded in South
Africa by Fernando Duarte, a Portuguese Mozambiquan who gave the dish the fast-food
franchise treatment and aligned himself with the gastro-criminals of KFC,
MacDonalds and the rest. There are mercifully very few fast-food franchises in
Portugal (though there is a Burger King with a ludicrously large sign in Lagoa)
and chicken piri-piri is cooked individually by each restaurant in their own
style. It is traditionally our lunch on our last day in Portugal.
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| Chicken piri-piri, O Barco, Carvoeiro 2022 |
Portugal and the chilli: a small digression
The chilli pepper was first cultivated in Mexico some 10,000 years ago. Several millennia later It was taken to Asia by Portuguese traders, arriving in
India in the late 16th century and recasting the whole cuisine of south-east Asian.
Vindaloo, the ultimate test of British diner's machismo, originated in the Portugal's Indian colony of Goa, as an example Portuguese/Indian fusion.
They took the variety that would become
piri-piri to Africa and it made its way to the Portuguese mainland from their
colony of Mozambique. Chilli does not appear in traditional Portuguese cookery
but sausages (chouriço piquante) and sardine paté with piri-piri are widely
available, as is piri-piri sauce, suggesting it is much used in home cookery.
Desserts
Dessert menus usually involve a large glossy folded card produced by a manufacturer of synthetic desserts and ice creams. Stuck somewhere on the card
there will always be a small, sometimes hand-written, list of the grown-up
desserts, many of them made in-house. Ever present is pudim flan, a rich
eggy caramel custard, which is perfect when you have too little room for
anything heavier. Sometimes it is just perfect.
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| Lynne and a pudim flan, Martin's Grill, Carvoeiro 2019 |
If you have a
little more space left, there are bolos (cakes) and tartes (translation
unnecessary) made from local produce including (but not limited to) almonds, figs…
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| Fig and almond roll, Atlântida, Alvor, 2022 |
… carobs, oranges…
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| An amazingly light yet full flavoured orange cake, and an affogato of sorts O Barco, Carvoeira, 2022 |
and apples. The
cakes are usually made with one egg more than would be normal elsewhere and are universally wonderful.
And there is always the mysterious little package known as Dom Rodrigo.
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| Dom Rodrigo, Marisqueirra Portugal, Carvoeiro, 2022 Very enjoyable, but rather small once you get in there |
Extroduction
The end of a meal demands one of these.
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| Bica |
The Portuguese version of an expresso is maybe larger than the Italian, but although it is strong the flavour is less aggressive and more layered. It is known as a bica, a word which also means spout and, in some contexts, nipple, though I have no idea why. Decaf is available, should you deem it wiser in the evening.
When you ask for the bill, it will usually be presented with a small glass of port, bagaçeira or almond liqueur. Once you have paid up and drunk up it is time to go.
The Algarve: Delights and Depredations(2010)
Mexilhoeira Grande and a Long Lost Cousin (2013)
The West Coast (2013)
Lagos (2014)
Castro Marim and Vila Real do Santo António (2015)
The Boxes of Carvoeiro (2016)
Mertola and Alcoutim: Strongholds by the Guadiana River (2017) - Also under Alentejo
Silves, Former Capital of the Algarve (2018)
Drinking the Algarve (2022)
Eating the Algarve (2025)