Restaurants

By Guy Dimond

Algarve prides itself on its Portuguese menu: spaghetti bolognese, cheese omelette and chips, cream of tomato soup, vegetarian lasagne, prawn cocktail: the classics are all here, just as you'd find in the Algarve coastal resort restaurants. But so too is a smattering of traditional Portuguese dishes, enough to entice a few Portuguese expats on our visit.

Walking through the long, magnolia dining room past the azulejos (ornamental tiling) and open kitchen, you glimpse the polished copper cataplana dishes, used to cook stews of the same name: mixed meats, chicken and seafood, and so forth. These cataplanas look enticing, and serve two people.

Instead, we tried the sun-dried salt cod with potatoes and cream, a simple dish, but done well. The bacalhau had been rinsed properly with the brine soaked out. Another main course of diced pork with whole clams, fried potatoes and green olives was also home-style.

Some would argue that the simplicity of Portuguese cooking is its virtue, but we didn't see much virtue in a salad that was a fridge-cold assembly of tomato, lettuce leaf and cucumber; with no dressing, it reminded us of a school dinners circa 1975. Likewise, the foil packs of fish pastes and butter that arrived with the Portuguese bread and olives while we waited for our starter: unasked for, they later appeared on the bill at £3.

We forgave the cheeky surcharge and old-fashioned dishes when the dessert of pudim molotov arrived: a poached meringue with caramel sauce, it was ethereally light and had an appealing cinnamon aroma. Quite wonderful. Go to the Algarve when you feel the need for some Iberian sunshine in Wandsworth.

Time Out London Issue 1937: October 3-9 2007