Where to eat in the Algarve, Portugal

Restaurante  Fontenario in Espiche

Travelling along the main N125 from Lagos heading towards Luz, Burgau and all points west, it's easy to drive straight past the turn off for Espiche at the Luz cross roads and miss what is becoming quite a big village, with its own indoor market, small supermarkets, many tiny (real Portuguese) bars and some very good restaurants.

One of these is the Fontenario.

This family run restaurant is set back off the main street through Espiche, with easy parking on the adjacent wide roads around what goes for the square.  The Fontenario has an extensive Portuguese and International menu with many specialities, including lamb, cataplanas, kebabs, Portuguese steak and fresh fish dishes.  As with many Portuguese restaurants children are made to feel very welcome and there is a special children's menu as well as a safe, enclosed, play area on decking just in front of the restaurant so parents can keep an eye on junior while enjoying their meal.

Despite its location being a bit off the beaten track, the Fontenario is very popular and it is essential to book for your evening meal.  On too many occasions we have just arrived and tried to get a table only to be told they were fully booked and “you must make reservation if you want a table”.  Well, we did and the resulting meal was the proof of why Fontenario is so popular.

Although in the middle of October, it was warm enough to walk the 2km from Luz to Espiche and, taking life in our hands, we dashed across the lights at the Luz cross roads - well, if the locals can ..………….!!

At Fontenario, we were welcomed by Debbie (wife/owner) and shown to a table on a low internal balcony.  Very private and romantic!

Orders for drinks were taken immediately and arrived with the usual covers of bread, pate (homemade, and including local herbs), cheese, garlic carrots, sausage and olives.  What a menu. It's very difficult to choose when you are offered starters which include, as well as the usual soups of vegetable, onion or fish all at about €2.5 to €4.5, smoked salmon at €7, and butterfly prawns in garlic at €10.  Our table on the balcony allowed us to see what other tables were ordering.  The melon and ham was truly enormous and would have been enough to serve four at home, king prawns ( 4! ) and avocado, a meal in itself, and clams - what a big, big starter.

Despite the walk to the restaurant, we felt we really couldn't cope with some of the starters if we were to have the main course we really wanted, and settled for a vegetable soup, which was piping hot with chunky vegetables in an excellent meaty stock.

Main courses include pork and lamb fillets at around €10 to €14, mixed meat kebabs, fresh fish at €8 to €10, monkfish (€15), salmon and sole at around €16 and a fish cataplana for 2 at €30.

What was our choice?

Well, we had seen a menu outside the restaurant the last time we tried to get in and decided then that if it was available, we would have the ChateauBriand.  Fortunately it was available (a meal for 2 at €34), and when it arrived we were so thankful we had not gone for one of the “big” starters.  There must have been a pound and a half of juicy succulent steak, so tender, and cooked to perfection, still “pink” inside.  This was served with a Bernaise sauce, potato wedges, a dish of mixed vegetables and a bowl of salad.

There is an extensive wine list of Dao, Douro and Alentage wines which we must pay more attention to on our next visit but on this occasion we ordered a bottle of house red at €10 and that helped us to finish our meal, although it did take some time.

During that time we noticed someone had ordered a rack of lamb.  There were 9 big ribs on the plate - do lambs have 9 ??  It looked delicious and that will be on the wish list for our next visit.

I must say that by now we were full and wouldn't have been able to manage a pudding.

The dessert menu was simple with mainly ice creams and cakes but who cares, the Fontenario is a starter and main course restaurant.  Not the cheapest of restaurants but the quality and size of the meals makes it more than worthwhile.  Our bill which included our initial drinks, a bottle of water, the house red and coffees to finish came to €64.30.

The popularity of Fontenario is clear, by 8pm the restaurant was full and callers were being turned away - “you must make reservation if you want a table”.

Restaurante Fontenario is open every evening except Sunday, apart from June to August when they are open for lunch as well as Sunday evenings.

The walk back to Luz in the still warm evening was a delight and helped settle our big meal.  We felt we had been made very welcome and will surely go again.  Try it, you will enjoy it, but be sure to make reservation etc etc.

Make your reservations on 282 789 953

Jackie and Tony October 2007

If you would like to know more about Portuguese Food and Drink, why don't you dip into our Restaurants in the Algarve section and our series of articles on Portuguese Wines and Ports.  We also feature some Traditional Portuguese Recipes and a glossary of useful Portuguese food & drink words and phrases

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