At the recommendation of our accommodations we made a reservation at Ritual for dinner. The…read moreatmosphere and location are marvelous. The staff are top notch, quite helpful--making suggestions and answers all our questions. But the food was the star of the evening, honestly the best meal we had on our week long walk of the Rota Vicentina. Both salads were phenomenal, incredibly fresh cheese accompanied by wonderful vibrant produce. And the scallops were perfectly cooked, delicate, melt in your mouth. The curry was light and flavorful but didn't overpower the natural flavor of the scallops. Overall we had an outstanding experience and highly recommend you try Ritual.

Nice place in the center of Vila Nova de Milfontes with a wide variety of fusion food. Great…read moreatmosphere and very high quality food. Apart from some fancy fusion food (Italian, Japanese, Malay, Indonesian, etc.) they also have some great burgers and steaks! My favorite is Mango Prawn Curry. Amazing!! For starter try their croquetes. Bom apetite!!!

Had lunch in a pleasant atmosphere with a beautiful view. The food was delicious and service very…read morefriendly and helpful with translations.

Fantastic beachside restaurant. Great lunch and dinner menu. Great view from the outside patio…read more Thoroughly enjoyed the large salad...

Great view and good fresh sea food. The coffee is strong and the beer taps flow. I would recommend…read morethis place for people that are visiting and want a nice view while enjoying a few drinks/coffee or a snack. But if you wanted something more filling come during the evening for their full menu. We had what Café Rita was serving for lunch.

Wonderful cabbage and bean stew! My friend loved her wild boar as well!…read moreHuge servings and so delicious!

The restaurant is perched on a hillside overlooking a lush valley. We arrive for an early lunch so…read morewe were able to get a terrace table with full access to the view. The food was superb made with real, fresh local ingredients. I had pig cheeks with chestnuts, braised in a rich sauce- melt in your mouth meat and very regional. The salad was locally sourced watercress, arugula and oranges. Our waiter was super sweet and friendly. A great find and a wonderfully authentic experience. Our lunch for four with drinks, dessert and coffees was 160 euros which felt very reasonable. The place was full by the time we left around 12:30pm.

Happened on here for lunch. Delicious food Service was good. Lots of locals eating there. Always a…read moregood sign

We stopped in Sines en route to Lisbon from the Algarve and had a lovely late lunch here. The…read moreatmosphere is nice, set in a renovated train station (hence the name, of course). They have a wide variety of seafood, all of which looked delicious, but we went for their special razor clam rice with fried squid, which was delicious (and huge! The half portion was honestly enough for two) We also got the veal stuffed with ham, raisins, and chestnuts in a cream sauce which was unique and tasty. Prices were an excellent value for the quality of the food, and they also have a menu of the day (lunch special) which is an even better deal for around 12e, which had either a fish or meat option when we were there (you have to ask about it, it's on the menu outside but not listed on the inside menu). One downside was that it was pretty hot in there mid-afternoon. We got there right at the end of lunch service so maybe they had shut off the AC? In any case, worth a stop especially if driving north to Lisbon (they have plenty of free parking too!)-would definitely return and maybe explore Sines a bit more as well (castle was cool and beach looked beautiful from afar!)

Oh. My. Sweet. Goodness. I'm in HEAVEN…read more I am hiking the "Rota Vicentina," which passes through Cercal do Alentejo. It's a really cute town that deserves a lot more noteworthiness. I stayed at a great and amazingly inexpensive hotel here and the owner's no-hesitation suggestion for dinner was this place. So off I went. The front is a bar so you're not immediately sure you're in the right place. Just follow your nose to the back restaurant area. There is a limited menu but if you take a seat and just put your dinner in the owner, Sheila's, hands, you will NOT regret it! I explained my gluten problem and she brought out a cavalcade of awesome dishes including a truly local soup and main dish of pork, pickled cauliflower, and oranges. This is the second time I've been served oranges with pork in Portugal and it's a brilliant flavor combination! My gosh, I'm exhausted from that meal. But it was so good I just had to write about it. I'm sure you can get a fancier meal in a fancier setting, but this was REAL, DOWN-HOME Portuguese country food and it was outstanding! I hope that other folks walking the Rota Vicentina and passing through Cercal see this and stop in. They will remember it for a long time!

The Passarinho is what I imagine life would be like with a Portuguese grandmother. You walk into…read morethe seemingly small restaurant expecting nothing spectacular to happen but then out pops the first friendly face of a small Portuguese woman who welcomes you to one of the tables in the back. We came at just the right time because within 15 minutes all of the tables were filled and everyone looked excited to eat. We recommend you accept their suggestion of a sampler plate of local cheese and don't forget a pitcher of "house wine". We ordered two entrées and were VERY full after finishing them. We watched sadly as our table neighbors (who had shared an entrèe) each ordered a GIANT slice of wiggly cake. Next time we will have to try that too! We paid 26€ for a cheese appetizer + pitcher of wine + bottle of bubbly water + 2 entrées. This place is great for anyone looking to really taste the local cooking and the best part is the really the elderly Portuguese women who not only cook but also serve you the food. Those are some really peppy ladies!

We came here after trying out a local vegetarian restaurant that, after our full day of hiking,…read morejust didn't have dishes with the heft that we needed We left super satisfied. The server was multilingual and worked with us in English as we don't speak very good Portuguese. He was super helpful in showing and explaining all the fresh fish they had available, and for me making sure my gluten issue was addressed. We also had a delicious dessert of homemade chocolate mousse, and once again the waiter was very kind to point out which desserts had gluten and which didn't. Finally, he gave us a great wine suggestion that we really enjoyed. This was a laid back, traditional Portuguese food experience that totally hit the spot after our long day of hiking and we couldn't be more pleased that we picked the place!

Very nice family run restaurant with very good service and food. The staff serves the guests in…read morevarious languages and offers very helpful explanations on the menu. We had the fish soup as a starter and the stuffed squid as our main cause, both was delicious. We clearly recommend this place.

We passed through Vila Nova de Milfontes during our "Rota Vicentina" hiking trip and our hotel…read moreowner strongly suggested we visit this place. It was a good choice and I could clearly see it is popular with locals and visitors alike, and that the food is really solid. The interior is awesome and includes a fireplace with sofas! Our appetizers were delicious: a simple salad, pimientos de padron, and local sheep's milk cheese. I didn't love my main - it was roast lamb and potatoes, but what part of lamb it was wasn't explained to me very well. It seemed like throwaway cuts of ribs and vertebrae. It was very nicely seasoned and roasted, but it wasn't choice cuts, there was much more bone than meat, and I felt it wasn't worth the premium price they put on it. My girlfriend's food (Portuguese style steak) was excellent - so good that I packed it up for lunch on the trail tomorrow!!! The real star here was the service, which started a bit slow but was attentive and careful about my gluten issue! One thing I appreciated was that when we asked for a wine suggestion, we didn't get sold the most pricey bottles of wine on the menu. Rather, our waitress suggested one of the more inexpensive items on the list and it was really really solid! And as a post-meal snack we got a small sack of walnuts and a nutcracker! Bottom line, I didn't love my main dish, but I saw how good everyone else's was. Overall our meal of 3 appetizers, 2 mains, and wine cost about €85, which is expensive compared to every meal I've eaten thus far in Portugal outside of Lisbon. That's cheap compared to back home in DC of course! Get ready to open your wallet but if you are used to expensive meals, this will be well worth it!

The ambiance was good and service was fine. The food was so underwhelming. I ordered the roe salad,…read morewhich I normally love, but this time it was so full of vinegar I couldn't appreciate it. But I finished eating it thinking: ok maybe the next item will be fine. My husband ordered some whole squids fried and they were ok. For the mains I ordered a kind of bread porridge because I had something like it at another restaurant and loved it. The waitress seemed to warn me against ordering it : "This is very..plain. like a porridge. Very...typical portugese. You still want it?" It was unfortunate that it was just like she said. The porridge had an uninspired texture and the shrimp was overcooked. My husband's meal was a fresh fish and veges and potatoes. The ingrediants are fantastic but I couldn't get over how lackluster everything i had eaten so far was. What do I say? It wasn't awful. I ate the food but i found myself thinking i would have been more satisfied if we made food at home. It was just fine. But for the price?? It hurts my heart. This was just boring.