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They take their sardines very seriously
here. They’re fat and succulently moist
Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants last year – and
with good reason. The inventive and delicious five-course
lunch menu (€98/£84) I tasted included a modern take
on the prawn cocktail, a lobster carpaccio that was full
of flavour, and a simple but mouth-watering fresh berry,
buttermilk and blackcurrant sorbet. If Vila Joya is out of
your price range, try one of the many hotels offering ‘fine
dining’. I had the pleasure of trying the Tivoli Victoria’s
Emo (Av dos Descobrimentos no 0, Vilamoura, +351 289
317 000, tivolihotels.com), the sister hotel of the stunning
Tivoli Marina Vilamoura (thomascook.com), where I had set
THIS PAGE, LEFT: TRADITIONAL FIG AND
ALMOND PASTRIES WITH COFFEE – PART
OF JOAO LABISA’S HOSPITALITY AT TRÊS
PALMEIRAS RESTAURANT, ALBUFEIRA;
RIGHT: THE TERRACE AT ALBUFEIRA’S
MICHELIN-STARRED VILA JOYA
up camp for my foodie tour of the region. The technically
ambitious menu included some Asian inspired pork ribs,
but there were also more locally focused dishes, such as a
scallop dish with seaweed and salmon tapioca.
But what I really wanted to know was what do real
Portuguese people eat, and more importantly, where do they
eat? Like any tourist destination, there are traps that you can
fall into within the main resorts, but if you put the time in, ask
around and follow your nose, there are some gems to be found.
The first thing I discovered is that they take their sardines
very seriously here. I’m told they’re best eaten when there
algarve
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