Thanks for all your posts. We had a fabulous time in Tavira, such a nice quiet change from much of the greater Faro area. I’m horrible at remembering to take pictures of food at the table, so I’ll post when I remembered to take a photo. We stayed not far from where you were, in the heart of the city and really only ate within walking distance - unless traveling to explore a different part of the coast.
When we arrived we had lunch at a place called “La Terraze”. It was a nice setting right on the river, up from the center of the action. They had great salads (which are hard to find in much of Europe IMHO) which was exactly what we wanted feeling jet lagged and foggy after our flights.
We did eat at Come na Gaveta, the gastrobar and enjoyed everything. The octopus tempura was excellent, nice light coating and super tender octopus. We also had a tuna taco, pork cheek tacos, sardines “on a rope”, and a few other dishes. All were great. They were packed and had no availability when we called, but when we walked by we asked if they could seat 4 and they said if we could be done in an 1.5 hours they could, they just needed the table back by then. No problems, we finished in a little over an hour without feeling rushed and glad we did.
We also ate at Ti Maria, which also calls itself a gastrobar. It was not nearly as good.
The most surprising meal was out at the beach in Tavira. You have to take a ferry out to the beach and there are probably 10 restaurants out at the beach. You’d think they’d be horrible since there is such a captive crowd but we had grilled sea bass and it was one of the best grilled whole large fish we had. Cooked perfectly, well salted, and charred well on the skin side without overcooking the fish.
In St. Luzia we ate at Casa de Polvo and did a full meal of octopus (of course). We actually enjoyed it enough to go back at the end of our stay for one final lunch (we don’t typically repeat restaurants on vacation). The fried octopus was excellent, the different fried starters were all good (except the english pasty style one which we found too bland - the samosa one was very nice). The cataplana was great, the roasted dishes were well done, we loved the feijuada . . . we just had no complaints.
We loved the Algarve but just didn’t expect the huge UK crowds in Faro (our own fault, we should have). We much preferred the quieter ‘edges’ of the Algarve (east and west) but we will hopefully be back!
