Manuel D Silva Zagalo

While we were waiting for the van driver to come pick everyone up from Lagos, we were already thinking of where we should be going for dinner. We don’t have a lot of days left in Portugal and we obviously want to make the most of it. Most of the time we were having something familiar, such as Italian, steak and curiously nothing really very Portuguese. Before the trip, I was raving about how good the food here in Portugal is and I was suggesting that we go on a food trip. That is actually easier said than done since there are several in the group who are quite picky with their food, especially the kids who seem to only know how to eat very specific food.

Even not all the adults won’t be that adventurous either, so this really limits the types of food which we can go to. It is a shame really since part of going to other countries is to partake of the local cuisine. I personally have refrained from suggesting any places since it takes a lot of effort to find a place which is acceptable to everyone. I was then surprised that we were going to this very authentic Portuguese place. It is actually not in Albufeira but further out in Quarteira. Getting there proved to be a challenge for our numbers. We will have one car with us but we needed to get a big enough Uber to fit the rest of the guys.

Somehow we all managed to get there albeit a little late in the evening. The place was Manuel D. Silva Zagalo which is in a residential area of Quarteira. The area also seemed to be a little upscale. I noted the presence of multiple swimming pools which are visible in satellite view in Google Maps. The restaurant is appears to be a well known one especially to the locals. I can see that there are hardly any tourists here apart from us. We ordered a whole bunch of food, especially their roast pork. The serving wasn’t as large as I hoped it would be but it was enough to feed us. We also got several other dishes such as octopus which was a bit interesting. It was cooked just right so it wasn’t chewy.

One thing to note here is that the place was so authentic that they won’t have food which would be more for the tourist crowd, that is, for people who are unable to eat the local food. This proved to be an issue especially with the kids so the parents were left to improvise. Let’s just say that the kids weren’t happy. Obviously this is not the fault of the restaurant, but if you have companions who are very particular with their food you might want to look for other places. For me, I thought it was the best place we went to for food the entire trip. Obviously, I am probably one of the most adventurous in the entire group. I would gladly go back there if it weren’t so far from where we were staying.

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