Tasca Jota Lagos — Restaurant in Lagos

Tapas come in so many shapes sizes and styles it’s hard to differentiate one restaurant from the next. Do yourself a favor and walk a bit off the main tourist drag to Tasca Jota. Elevating tapas to next level, the food is plated professionally, the quality is well above your average tapa and service is friendly and fast.

Having a hard time choosing, we went with four tapas and a main. I should point out that only a few times out of 17 nights in Portugal were the mains as good or better than the tapas or charcuterie plates. This was an exception.

We started out with a house pate which was tuna. Small but excellent. The first tapa we had was crunchy squid sticks with harissa mayo. Better than most calamari in North America the portion is big and the squid is excellent. Harissa is flavorful and there’s plenty of it for dipping.

Next we had burratta over truffled black olives, tomatoes and grapes. Looking like a Michelin star dish, the sweetness of the cheese matches all the delicious goat and sheep cheese we’ve enjoyed in Portugal. Excellent choice.

The menu lists the salad as butternut squash with cottage cheese, pesto, seeds and almonds but they called it pumpkin. Either way, it would be $25 or more back home but here it’s less than ten euro and worth it. One of the best salads we’ve had anywhere actually.

We asked if we should choose chicken wings or shrimp and they suggested the prawns in sautéed in ginger, chili peppers and garlic. We’ve had shrimp about ten times in Portugal. Many times it’s over cooked and not flavorful. Not this time. A large portion of 8 or 9 deliciously perfect shrimp is easily shareable.

Finally, we chose penne with spiced chorizo from Monchique. Not having visited that area, I wanted to have one last chorizo before going back to the spicy Mexican version we get at home. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the chorizo was amazing, portion size is bigger than the tapas, sauce is flavorful. We had no room for dessert and actually, you’d be full with three tapas and a main or four tapas and no main

Asking if the chef has experience in Spain, they told us they’re from all over including Argentina, Spain and other parts of Europe. Whoever they are, this was our best meal in the Algarve. Prices are a bit higher than most tapas but the elevation of the food makes it well worth it. Five stars all around and nothing negative whatsoever to critique. We only had two experiences where mains and tapas were both five star. (The other one was Aneto & Table in Paso De Regua). Hats off...

Simply put the best meal we had in Lagos, all the staff are so friendly and helpful, especially Rafael who took his time to interact and make us welcome and give recommendations including showing pics on his phone of the dishes and the restaurant was busy and only 3 waiting staff yet service was always efficient, excellent and first class, they work like machines never forgetting an ask or leaving you feeling neglected. I would normally list what we had and make comments though every dish was first class and therefore recommending one dish would be unfair to the others, I truly believe no matter what you order you will not be disappointed, though I would revmemd the covers / appetisers as for a tiny extra payment they were exceptional. The portions are good, not enormous but to be honest we were grateful that this was the case. More importantly they tasted amazing, and were great flavour combinations, and visually they were just as excellent. I would describe the food as modern Portuguese ie great local food elevated to the next level served by the best team we've experienced in Lagos. Criticism is almost impossible though if I had to make one then I'd say that their house wine is acceptable not great, we have had far better in other restaurants. We have already booked to go back in 2 days and are already looking forward to it as so many dishes sounded and looked so good, just this time we'll pick a better wine. Whoever owns this restaurant you need to know how amazing the fro t of house staff are and your kitchen team as everything was faultless, just maybe review your house wine offering, Portugal has so many amazing inexpensive wines such as Pouca Roupa which are far superior and...

Superb food and service

Food was superb. Starting with, snack food: bread and the house selection: doritos-like crunchy bread and warm bread bun. The mixed cheese with cured meat and the mayo were very good to keep us entertained while waiting. Crispy squid, ibérico pork loin strips and chicken wings. The squid was very good, texture and the dipping sauce was great. The pork loin was tender and fresh, with herbs, white wine, lemon and apple sauce, to keep it fresh and light on your palate. The wings were very flavourful, a bit on the dry side (maybe) but very nice taste, can't really fault them. After that we had the mackerel and steak tartar, both finger-licking good!!! The mackerel melts in your mouth, accompanied by slow fried onion and peppers in white wine and lemon sauce. The waiter mixed the steak tartar with the egg yolk and mustard in front of us. Everyone was very, very, very nice. They all spoke English. In fact, one of them speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese. The other one speaks English, German (he spoke to the table next to us) and Portuguese, obviously. At the end of the meal the Chef came to see us, and he spoke Spanish, Portuguese and greeted us in English too. Totally recommend this place!! See you tomorrow!

Edit: went there again next day, dinner again. Everything good, everything correct, as before. Good vibes, good interaction waiters - customers. Overall a good experience, not only food. Good for couples, dating...