AlgarveRestaurants.info

Robert Naser 30. April 2008

Even if it does not look like a place where you can have a good dinner for a fair price, the restaurant cafe Colibri in Moncarapacho is one of the most popular ones in the surroundings of Ohlão. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to make a reservation even off-season.

Entering the restaurant you will find yourself in a typical Portuguese coffee-bar, with some tables and a refrigerated counter with pastries. Turning to the right along the counter you enter the small dining area. Everything locks artificial rustically, with brick walls and ordinary wood chairs and tables. The room is absolutely crammed with tables and you will definitely learn to know you neighbour. On the right there is a small gallery with some tables offering a better overview.

Take a seat and make your choice from a pictured menu (normally I recommend never to eat in a restaurant with pictures of the food in the menu). There are some typical Portuguese dishes, such as grilled Black Pork, squid and touristy meals as the steak on the stone or kebab served on over dimensional spits. My favorites are the plain fare dishes like the hash steak with a fried egg or fried calamari rings. Fresh ingredients and perfectly refined, even when the Colibri is crowded and some 50 persons are having dinner in the small room.

There is a substantial amount of wines in the wine-list. The owner himself serves the wines with his a little prim charm, maybe because the most customers choose the open wine coming from a dispenser. The dishes are served by temporary stuff, probably the daughters of the owner or of the neighbours. Sometimes it is a wonder, that in high-season all the guests get their food in time, but the owner keeps the overview and steers the waitresses.

honest dishes just like from the mothers kitchen, lively small dining room with familiar service, have a nice informal dinner, cheap prices

Restaurant Colibri
Rua Prior Simas, 14
8700 Moncarapacho
Algarve - Portugal
Telefone +351 298792407

Tags: Algarve, Colibri, Monarapacho, Ohlao, Portugal, restaurant

• Recommendations , Simple Taverns
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Robert Naser 10. April 2008

The Quatro Águas Restaurant is called a gourmet restaurant or insider tip in the most restaurant and travel guides. That is not the truth. What is really special about Quatro Águas is the location; it is one of my favourite restaurants for outside seating. Take a seat directly at the Gilão River in the middle of the Ria Formosa, watch the ferries, leaving and arriving boats from the small yacht harbour next to the restaurant. Perfect off-season for lunch, or in the summer for an early dinner before and during sundown. The play of colours is worth seeing; you will understand what is meant with the blue hour. The different shades of blue and green of the sky, the Gilão and the Ria melt together. Change to the inside when the night starts, the mosquito go out for dinner, too. By the way do not be scared if a rat crosses your view, they have been there long before the restaurant.

The inside of the Restaurant is kept in traditional style, with a terra cotta floor, and pictures of more or less famous visitors. The tables positioning is a bit to narrow. The furniture and the inside of the building could be reconditioned some day. The menu contains a lot of so called specialties as the fillet of octopus with bean rice; char grilled fish and squid kebab. Unfortunately all these dishes are very simple in preparation and not always refined to the point. The presentation of the dishes is rural. Absolutely recommendable are the Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, mussels from the Ria in white wine, garlic and coriander and the Fettuccine with Gorgonzola sauce.

The service personal is very professional and friendly. For visitors with less gastronomic experience sometimes a bit to exerted. The wine list offers all the already well known Portuguese wines, and some from smaller wineries. Even for me as a wine seller there is always an interesting wine to find. Prices are exalted and because of the simple and not always enjoyable quality of the dishes unfortunately exaggerated. After trying several of the praised dessert I have to say that there are better tarts and pastries to buy at the pasteleria round your corner.

During season the restaurant is often crowded, like the most places at the Algarve. The parking is always full because of the close ferry wharf to the Ilha de Tavira.

In the beginning of 2009 the Quatro Águas reduced the size of the menu. Although the restaurant is now offering some meat dishes. One are the “Secretos do Porco Iberico” - delicous. It is made from the hidden filet of the Black Iberian Pig (Sus ibericus), also known in Portugal as Alentejano Pig. The quality of the didhes improved, therefore the Quatro Águas now is recommended without limitation.

this is not a gourmet place, parking in front of the restaurant, great outside seating for the blue hour, order the Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato or the Secretos Do Porco Iberico and a bottle of the upscale white wine, and you will love it

Restaurante Marisqueira Quatro Águas
Quatro Águas - Sta. Mª
8800-000 Tavira
Algarve - Portugal
Telefone +351 281325329
Fax +351 281325396

Tags: Algarve, Portugal, restaurant, Restaurante Marisqueira Quatro Águas, Tavira

• Recommendations , Superior Restaurants
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Robert Naser 3. February 2008

This restaurant is situated in idyllic location on the hill over the city, right next to the Tavira Castle, the Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo and only some hundred meters from the Pousada de Tavira - Convento da Graça. It is possible to sit outside the restaurant, in front of the entrance on the praça between the castle and the church under old olive trees. In this place it is possible to feel the breath of history as the surrounding buildings are more than two thousand years old and the fundaments date back to the Moors.

Inside the restaurant you may find a postmodern furnished dining area with tables and cushioned chairs made of dark wood, huge drop-shaped glass lamps and heavy red curtains, wine rack and a grand piano. Turning to the left from the entrance you are entering a small bar area, where you can choose from a respectable selection of rare single malts and other whiskeys. There are to much canvas on the small walls between the big windows offering a great vista over Tavira and the salines. The ambiance is harmonic but slightly overcrowded with accessory and furniture. Additionally to the tables on the place in front and inside there are some 10 places on the balcony over the city, with this extraordinary view.

The menu seems to offer a choice of local Algarvian gastronomic specialties, but all the dishes are not what they seem to be. I recommend ordering the degustation menu with five or six courses, to understand what the chef wants to achieve. For those who do not have the time for several courses make your choice from the menu of the day, as the quality of all dishes is very high. The prices of the dishes and the menu are exalted but because of the quality far from overpriced.

Enjoying the degustation menu you will experience modern Algarve kitchen using local ingredients and combining them in an experimental way. Different textures and recombined aromas bring a diversified treat. The wine list offers Portuguese wines in all price segments, unfortunately the assortment keeps common. What is missing are small wineries with inspiring wines.

The team is exerted to offer a classical service, including wine service at the table. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes this seems a bit too stiff. During the high-season the restaurant is often fully occupied more then once and the service personal overstrained. Do not expect to sit outside at one of the better tables if you come alone. Even if there are free tables you will be seated inside, to keep the tables for bigger groups (maybe next time I have to stress that I will have all possible courses with corresponding wines, and therefore a bigger bill then a table of four…)

the restaurant A Ver Tavira is certainly the best restaurant of the city! Great location and modern local kitchen. If you visit this restaurant off-season you will experience a nearly perfect evening.

A Ver Tavira Restaurant & Piano Bar
Calçada da Galeria, 13
8800-303 Tavira
Algarve - Portugal
Telefone +351 281 381 363

Tags: A Ver Tavira, Algarve, Portugal, restaurant, Tavira

• Recommendations , Stars of the Algarve , Superior Restaurants
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Robert Naser 15. January 2008

The restaurant oft the pousada Convento da Graça is situated in the former refectory of old nuns’ monastery from the 16th century. The restaurant is open to everybody, but a night in the perfectly restored old part or even in the newly built rooms is recommended, too. Once entered the Convento da Graça you will walk through the former cross-coat to reach the restaurant. Sadly the restaurant itself does not really combine old and new parts as the outside views from the pool or the bar area do. There are a lot of unused spacious possibilities, as for example it is not possible to dine in the patio, or at the pool.

The restaurant has a dark wooden floor and a dark coffered ceiling. These give the room a slightly depressing atmosphere. The furniture is made from dark wood with baroque fabric on the chairs. There are some decoration elements which I did not really understand, like the silver amphorae in the picture. Nobody could tell me if and when what they had to do with the convent. In the end I kept my first impression, these cans look like the containers the Pharaohs’ organs where put in after mummification…

The menu offers typical dishes from the region (Tuna Fish Carpaccio with Flower Salt, Olive Oil, Lemon and Black Pepper Ray with Garlic, Vinegar, Potato and Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Roasted Lamb Saddle in Crust Mountain Flavour, Mint Sauce and Sauté Potato in Duck Fat. “Tavira” typical Soft Cake with Mandarin Sorbet and Wild Fruits Sauce). Everything is of undoubted quality, but produced without any passion and under spiced.

The team is professional, but not ambitious in their work. One reason might be the fact that the waitress of your dinner is serving your breakfast, too. There is a huge assortment of Portuguese wines but take care if you get what you ordered. Not all the wines are available, and the waiter takes the easy way by just serving some other wine without further explanations. You can see that a lot of money was spend for the building and furniture but you can feel that there is no one taking care of the restaurant personally.

spend a night at the Convento da Graca, but do not even take your breakfast there, go out to a pasteleria in the city, overcharged meals. Great ambience in the hotel.

Pousada de Tavira - Convento da Graça
Rua D. Paio Peres Correia
8800-407 Tavira
Algarve - Portugal
Telefone +351 281 329 040
Fax +351 281 381 741
eMail recepcao.conventograca@pousadas.pt

Tags: Algarve, Convento da Graça, Portugal, Pousada de Tavira, restaurant, Tavira

• Limited Recommendations , Superior Restaurants
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Robert Naser 15. August 2007

The panoramic restaurant is situated in the Praia Verde Resort, at the N125 between Altura and Monte Gordo, close to the turnaround at the end of the road. Praia Verde belongs to Castro Marim, but the next city is Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The most spectacular thing about this place is the view in deed. The restaurant shares a modern building with the panoramic pool and bar area of the resort at the edge of the pine grove hill some twenty meters over sea level. From the inside dining area just as well as from the terrace you may have perfect clear views over the sea. The furnishing is modern and puristic, dark leather padded chairs and tables made of dark wood. The architecture of the building and the restaurant is high grade, unfortunately not the execution of the works. Outside and inside the restaurant you can already easily find the first signs of decay.

When we visited the restaurant it just opened and the menu was much bigger then today. The first thing that did not fit in the premium look of the restaurant was the typical tourist bread-service (the waiter coming to your table with a huge basket of different bread). This is a ceremony that has absolutely nothing to do with a gourmet restaurant. As starter we had a gourmet style salad, unfortunately only in style and presentation. The taste of the creation was very restrained, with only common ingredients and probably using convenience blends for the dressing. The main course, grilled ray, was of better quality but also not of expressive taste and nearly without side dishes. Regarding these two substandard courses I decided not take the desert and the coffee at the bakery directly in front of the restaurant.

The service was uninvolved but nevertheless overstrained. Even if the restaurant was nearly empty the facilities were not clean. In my opinion what was missing was a manager taking care of all the challenges of restaurants daily routine. The dishes where all too small and because of the uninspired preparation overpriced.

My limited recommendation deserves the Panoramic Restaurant at Praia Verde only because of the location and not for the quality of the meals. Regarding the actual small and much simpler new menu there is room for some hope that now it is possible to have adequate lunch with the fabulous views.

spectacular location with perfect views over the sea, but unfortunately sad food and bored service - please give this place some tasty dishes and talented staff!

Restaurante Panorâmico
Praia Verde – Altura
8950-434 Castro Marim
Algarve - Portugal
Telefone +351 281 956 207
Fax +351 281 956 209
eMail panoramico@praiaverde.pt

• Limited Recommendations , Superior Restaurants
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