Best Restaurants in Algarve

The Algarve's restaurant map is unusual for southern Europe. Ten of Portugal's Michelin stars are concentrated within a seventy-kilometre coastal strip. A density that has nothing to do with local population and everything to do with a forty-year history of five-star resort development between Albufeira and Quinta do Lago. Most of the serious rooms sit inside hotels; most of the chefs were trained in Vienna, Milan or Lisbon; most of the guests arrive by private transfer from Faro airport.

The cooking here pulls in two directions. The Michelin rooms. Vila Joya, Ocean at Vila Vita Parc, Gusto by Heinz Beck. Run formal European tasting menus with Portuguese ingredients. The village restaurants around Carvoeiro, Olhão and Tavira lean harder into coastal Portuguese tradition: açorda de marisco, cataplana of fish and shellfish, the grilled sardines of high summer, charcoal-blistered octopus. The Algarve wine scene has matured into something real. Quinta dos Vales, Morgado do Quintão, João Clara. And appears on most serious lists alongside Douro heavyweights.

For a deeper editorial read, see our ongoing Editorial coverage. Including pieces on the Best Restaurants for Every Occasion, and our Impress Clients and First Date occasion guides.