Eating
Restaurants in Aljezur we actually eat at.
Aljezur has a handful of restaurants rather than a scene, and that is its charm. The town is known for sweet potatoes, for percebes and fish landed at Arrifana, for Rogil peanuts and for medronho. Below are the twelve we go back to ourselves, from the grill by the bridge to the Thai place and the burger shack above Arrifana.
Walking and driving times are from our front door. In July and August, book two days ahead or eat early.
Mornings
What is worth your morning.
Koyo
- 12 min walk
- Roasted here
- Open daily
- 08:00 to 16:00
Speciality coffee, roasted on the premises, with somebody on the machine who actually knows what they are doing. It is the one place in Aljezur where the coffee is the point rather than the thing that comes after the meal.
It is also where the foreigners who live here end up in the morning, laptops open, dogs under the table. If you want to fall into conversation with somebody who moved here and stayed, sit down for an hour and you will.
A Padaria
- 16 min walk
- Bread and pastry
- 08:00 to 17:00
- Closed at weekends
A small bakery on Rua 25 de Abril where the bread is baked on the premises and you can smell it from the street. Loaves, cinnamon buns, savoury pastries, fresh orange juice, and a couple of tables outside. They will sell you half a loaf if a whole one is too much, which tells you what kind of place it is. Closed Saturday and Sunday, so the market is the alternative.
Pão do Rogil
- 13 min drive
- Open daily
- 07:00 to 19:00
- On the N120
Fifteen minutes north on the road to Odeceixe, and the stop everyone on this coast makes sooner or later. A wide counter of sweet and savoury pastry, bread, sandwiches and pizza slices, seats inside and out, open every day from seven. If you are driving north to Odeceixe, or walking the trail down from Zambujeira, this is where you stop.
Pont’a Pé
- 9 min walk
- Grilled fish
- Live music
- Closed Sunday
By the old bridge, under the trees, and the place everyone ends up sooner or later. Grilled fish, dogfish from Arrifana, pork cheeks, and sweet potato with most of it. There is live music some evenings, which you will hear from the terrace whether you planned to or not.
Café da Ponte
- 10 min walk
- Coffee
- Pastéis de nata
- Toasties
Thirty metres from Pont’a Pé, on the corner by the bridge. A galão and a pastel de nata standing at the counter, the way everyone here has breakfast. Bread is fresh, the toasties are two euros, and you are out in five minutes.
Várzea
- 11 min walk
- Portuguese
- Vegetarian choice
- Closed Tuesday
On the EN120 at the Quinta do Sabugueiro, with a terrace set back off the road. Fish, tajine, pork, and more for vegetarians than anywhere else in town. Open for lunch and dinner, which not everything here is.
Arte Bianca
- 15 min walk
- Sourdough pizza
- Open daily
- Midday to 21:30
In the old town on Rua do Vento. Neapolitan-style sourdough pizza, and the only place in the old town that serves through the afternoon. Busy in August, so go early or take it away.
Pomodorino
- 4 min drive
- Italian
- Evenings only
- Closed Sunday
A small Italian place in the new town, evenings from six. Pizza, a proper kids’ menu, water bowls for the dog. More locals in it than visitors, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Tamrab Thai
- 4 min drive
- Thai
- Cash only
- Closed Monday
Thai, cooked by a Thai family, on Rua 25 de Abril. We lived eight years in Thailand, so we are hard to please here, and we still go. Ask for it properly spicy or you will get the careful version. Lunch and dinner, cash only.
Cera
- 4 min drive
- Tasting plates
- Book ahead
- Tue to Sat
The one we book for our own birthdays. A short seasonal menu of four or so plates, wine chosen to go with them, and a kitchen that cooks rather than reheats. Evenings only, closed Sunday and Monday. Two days ahead in summer, the evening before in winter.
MÁDÁ
- 11 min drive
- Meat and fish
- Open daily
- Book at weekends
South on the EN120 at Santa Susana. Octopus, steak and game, in a room that has had money and thought spent on it. The one to pick when you want dinner to be an event and you do not want to drive to Lagos for it.
Altura Steakhouse
- 7 min drive
- Steak
- Closed Monday
- Free parking
North on the EN120 at Aldeia Velha. Picanha and sirloin, and the plate arrives with rice, beans, fries, sweet potato crisps and salad, so order fewer sides than you think. There are four or five vegetarian dishes as well.
Cal Arrifana
- 15 min drive
- Above the bay
- Brunch to dinner
- Open daily
Above Arrifana, open from half past nine in the morning until eleven at night, which makes it the answer on a day that started with a surf and did not have a plan after that. Coffee and brunch early, octopus and steak later.
Sector B
- 13 min drive
- Burgers
- Evenings from 17:00
- Closed Tuesday
A burger place in Vale da Telha, ten minutes from Arrifana. Goat cheese burger, a good vegan one, and a terrace with the sea in the distance. Where we end up when nobody wants to cook and the beach day ran long.
Gaia, Rogil
- 13 min drive
- Vegan
- Organic shop
- Daytime only
Fifteen minutes north in Rogil, half organic shop and half kitchen. One dish of the day, vegan, cheap, and good. Daytime only and closed on Sunday, so it is a lunch on the way back from Odeceixe rather than a dinner.
The Saturday market
- New town
- Sat morning
- Cash
- Then the square
Saturday morning in the multipurpose hall above the new town: sweet potatoes, vegetables, peanuts from Rogil, honey, medronho, plants and whatever else people have grown. It is the best meal in Aljezur in the sense that it is where the best meal starts.
Then coffee on the square. Half the town is there between ten and noon, and that is the actual ritual.
Shopping
If you are cooking.
- Two supermarkets in the new town, five minutes by car
- The market hall for fish, fruit and vegetables, mornings
- Sweet potatoes from Aljezur, in season from October
- Percebes and limpets, if you find them on the counter, buy them
- Pasta, sauce, coffee, tea, spices and salt are already in your kitchen
- Bread from the bakery on the way up the hill
A kitchen of your own
Every home properly equipped.
Induction hob, sharp knives, a moka pot and a French press in every home, and an oven in Casa de Anna. Because after a day in the water you often want to eat at six, not at eight when the restaurants open.