At Alameda Faro, we probably had one of our best meals of the year. It is a trendy, chic, and elegant restaurant in Faro. Located near the garden of Alameda in the center of Faro. 

Faro it is where the young chef Rui Sequeira has decided to open his own restaurant after working for the late chef Serge Viera in Couffour in France and for Hans Neuner at Vila Vita Parc’s Ocean. 

For our reunion with friends around Europe, we chose to spend a long weekend in Faro from November 08 to 11 of 2024. The moment that we put our feet outside Faro’s airport we knew right the way we hit the right spot for our weekend. Faro with its sunny sky, warm weather, relax vibe and great food was the right destination for our group of gourmet friends. 

Alameda restaurant was our choice to spend our last night together, and what was an amazing choice. The chef presented his story telling called a “Love beyond time: A journey through the tales of Algarve”. A story telling which translates into a menu of degustation in seven moments and two desserts: 

First moment: Welcome to Algarve 

Second moment: Legend of Floripes|Olhão 

Third moment: Legend of the Enchanted Moor of the Walls | Faro 

Fourth moment: Legend of Praia da Rocha | Portimão 

Fifth moment: Legend of the Washerwoman’s figs | Faro 

Sixth moment: Legend of the Oleanders | Faro 

Seventh moment: Legend of the Almond Trees | Silves 

The First moment was a pure delight and a masterpiece of amuse-bouche, a miniature replica of the Cataplana, the traditional Algarve dish, and the reinvention of chicken Piri Piri served in a broken egg, both were incredibly good that we wanted to have a dozen of these dishes to eat. 

Each moment was a dish inspired by the legend and we felt that the chef is inhabited by the tales to create unique dishes and the whole piece was a marvelous work. 

Rui Sequeira is a magician and technically masterful from the storytelling to the realization of his menu. 

The wine list was short on purpose because the chef and his sommelier want to work only with small and local wine producers who have a more natural approach and who are fully respecting the terroir and the nature. Our sommelier had advised us two very bottles even though, we found them very pricey. The bottle “Fresh from Amphora – 2021” from Alentejo was price at 56 Euros and the “Entre Pedras Efusivo Branco – 2022” was price 89 Euros 

The service was exceptionally friendly, ensuring a warm and hospitable atmosphere throughout our dinner. A great mention to Rui, our host and waiter for our table. 

Alameda restaurant in Faro is a must visit and it should garner a few stars for its creative and inventive cooking.

 

Alameda

Rua da Policia da Segurança Publica 10

8000-151 Faro, Portugal

ATO, a contemporary Portuguese cuisine by a young American chef from Florida named Sean Marsh. 

Ato is a small restaurant in the center historical town of Faro, it has only 22 seatings. The reservation is highly advised. 

Guests can see the chef in his tiny open kitchen, so you can see him and his sous-chef at work. 

For our dinner, we were welcomed by a charming and smiling host and sommelier. 

There was no set menu, every dish is à la carte. There seven starters, four main dishes and two desserts. 

The starters like local clams, Kimchi and brown butter and local prawns were very tasty and well-cooked. The chef is extremely good with the bouillons and the sauces.

The main dishes, the corvina was perfectly prepared and cooked with courgetti, saffron and mint. The Açorda with wild mushrooms dish with three different types of mushrooms was exquisite. It’s too bad that we didn’t have place for the desserts. 

The wine list is short with two sparkling wines, fifteen white wines, twelve red wines and five fortified wines. The selection is small, but the wines were pretty good like our bottle of Quinta de Linhares Azal, Vinho Verdes, 2022. 

The service by our host and sommelier was welcoming, warm, smiling with a perfect English. 

We made a small comment to chef Sean Marsh that his small kitchen was poorly ventilated and that it was unpleasant to smell of food when leaving the restaurant.

ATO is a petit and affordable bistro with a grand ambition on the food scene in Algarve.

 

ATO

Rua do Albergue 16.

8000-416 Faro, Portugal

Telephone : +351 937 613 844

www.atorestaurante.com

 

 

Quinta Da Amendoeira located just six kilometers outside the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Evora. 

The Quinta Da Amendoeira was built as a modern farmhouse, the Quinta is beautifully conceived and well designed, they have seven apartments that combine rustic and comfort. 

The Quinta has an average size and beautiful swimming pool, a Padel field, a baby foot and a ping pong table and trampoline for young kids 

The environment of the farm is magnificent surrounded by vineyards and vegetable garden, even sheep. There is even a small artificial lake where guests can come and have a picnic or get a massage. 

Our family room is very airy, comfortable; each room has a bathroom equipped with Italian shower and toilet, a small living room with open kitchen and a nice terrace. 

The staff is particularly kind and helpful, a special mention to the chef, Gonçalo who is the handyperson on this farm, he cooks, he welcomes customers, he serves drinks. He does it all with a smile, but unfortunately, sometimes one man cannot manage so much.  

Our stay was almost perfect except for our last evening on Friday May 10 when the owner improvised a party at the Quinta by mixing his personal friends with the Quinta’s guests. His intention was good, but the result was disastrous because he had only Gonçalo as a cook and two helpers to serve sixty persons, so half of the guests wait more than one hour to have their drinks served and one hour and half to be able to eat. As for us we decided to leave the party after one hour wait and then we went to town to have dinner. 

It is too bad the owner of the Quinta Da Amendoeira took the party so lightly and had no consideration for the guests. Even though, the Quinta is beautiful and nice and the staff is friendly, this kind of behavior could generate a negative view with guests like us.

 

Quinta Da Amendoeira

CM 1088, Estrada dos Canaviaias Évora,

Alentejo 7005-279 

Portugal

Telephone : +351 926 300 004

www.quintadaamendoeira.com

For our little excursion to the charming village of Comparta in the Alentejo region of Portugal we decided to have lunch at the Cavalariça Comporta restaurant. 

Cavalariça Comporta is used to be a stable for horses, it has been converted into a modern, elegant restaurant designed by Jacques Grange. We were welcomed by our host, a charming and elegant lady who guided us to our table which is in an old bridleway and then she gave us the menu for our lunch, and it was a menu in a Tapas mode. 

Each of us took two dishes and each dish was a delight as illustrated by the steak tartare Terrincho cheese and Sourdough toasts or the roasted beetroot, rock pear and quinoa cheese. The cured mackerel, sesame grapefruit ponzu sauce was succulent and the Alentejo pork prey, suckling pig sauce, orange, and grilled lettuce was perfectly cooked, and the grilled calamari, mussels, aioli, and smoked ink sauce was delicious. 

We finish our meal with two wonderful desserts : vanilla parfait, black sesame cake and meringue and Rocha pear pine nut from Alcacer Do Sal and pomegranate. 

For the drinks, we went for the author cocktails and artisanal cola which were perfectly suited our mood. 

The service by our host was amazing, she could speak five different languages fluently (French, English, Italian, Spanish and her native tongue, Portuguese). It is too bad that we forgot to ask her name.  

The chef, Bruno Caseiro formed by Nuno Mendes in London and his pastry chef, Filipa Gonçalves are doing a perfect job by cooking Portuguese food with a touch of modernity and dishes inspired by their travel around the world.

 

Cavalariça Comporta

Rua do Secador, 9

7580-648 Comporta

Portugal

Telephone : (+351) 930 451 879

www.cavalarica.com

Ceia, which means supper in Portuguese, was one of our most memorable fine dining experiences ever. 

The restaurant, which is part of a project called Silent Living, is located on the ground floor of the Santa Clara, an intimate six-room boutique hotel with privileged views of the Tagus River and the Pantheon. Kristin Liebold, a member of the Silent Living team, is the hostess in the historical building (from 1728). 

We were second to arrive at the dinner, and Kristin served us a refreshing non-alcoholic welcome drink. We mingled and chatted with the other guests until everyone had arrived. Only then did Kristin open the double door that led to a very cinematic dining room, with a huge long single table, and allocate a specific seat to every one of our party of 11 (five couples and one teenager, our son). This was quite unusual and we were all a bit surprised by this setting, hoping it was not a reenactment of the movie “The Menu” (if you don’t know it, check it out and you’ll understand). 

Once we were all seated, dinner could begin. Renato Bonfim and his team came to greet us and introduced the menu called “The Last Harvest” which consisted of nine dishes: “Home”, “Ecosystem”, “Bond”, “Different Yet the Same”, “Time”, Adapt & Evolve”, “Movement”, “Inspire” and finally “Ground”. 

Each dish was wonderfully conceived and prepared, both visually and to eat. From the amuse-bouche to the dessert, even the bread, the whole ensemble was amazingly created, prepared, cooked and served. 80% of what we ate, both animal and vegetal, came from the chef’s local farm. Sustainability seems to be very important to him and his team. 

Even though we did not opt for the alcoholic pairing, we could tell the wines served to the other guests had been chosen with great care by the sommelier. As for our non-alcoholic drink pairings, they were all a perfect match to our meal. We could sense the enthusiastic and creative work of a team seeking to bring pleasure to sober guests. 

The service by Kristin and the kitchen team was flawless and extremely efficient. The company around the table turned out to be very international, interesting and delightful. 

Ceia was amazing on every level: the concept, the setting, the location, the hostess, the chef and his team, the service, and above all the food! As one of the guests summarized it later on: it was an enchanted evening. And definitely one of a kind. We loved it.

 

Ceia

Campo de Santa Clara 128, Santa Clara, Lisbon,

1100-473 Lisboa

Portugal

Telephone : +351964 362 816

https://ceia.superbexperience.com