11 da Villa — Restaurant in Loulé

First ate here in 2019 so was interested to see if it was as good as the last time I was there in 2020. Needless to say I wasn’t disappointed. 11 de villa is hidden up a little side street off the Main Street in Loule town. It has a good outside terrace with tables and plenty of oversized umbrellas for shade. I almost always sit inside and I love the decor. The back area almost feels like a cave but it’s bright, has greenery, fabulous art and an amazing ceiling, The food never disappoints this is my 5th visit and I’ve never had a dish I had to complain about. We shared our dishes, had a late breakfast and skipped lunch. Our booking that’s me and my food loving son was for 6.30pm but we arrived just after 6pm and they had no problem sitting us. This is what we had! People get the couvert. The bread omg is to die for(if your Irish you’ll understand) the carrot spread is like hummus, the three different butter and of course don’t forget the dipping oil. Our tapas - Firstly goats cheese with honey and pine nuts with lots toasts. Simply delicious. Chorizo and egg. This was our least favorite dish of the ones we tasted as it was chorizo with scrambled egg. Garlic prawns, 5 good sized prawns it was just missing a little finger of bread to soak up the sauce. Next we had pork cheeks. This comes in a little pot which contains the cheeks, potatoes, mushrooms and sauce. The checks were cooked to perfect, cut like a knife through butter and were very flavorsome. Our final tapas dish was duck magret with red berries this for us was the star of the night. My son said next time he will not share this dish with me I’ll need to get my own. We finished the meal with a chocolate brownie and homemade scrumptious tiramisu. I loved the presentation of these desserts on the slate with the 11 design in icing sugar. My only issue on each occasion is you may have to leave the table and go to the counter to request another water or drink. The staff did not ask if we needed another drink or checked with us if we wanted anything else. This for me is a small issue and wouldn’t put me off coming back. Upon leaving I could understand this as the terrace outside was packed and we were only a table of two inside. With another two sitting at the higher tables. Overall my favorite tapas restaurant in Loule. Make sure to book in advance not to be...

The food was delicious, the ambience is cozy and the staff are very attentive and friendly considering there were only 2 waiters for the entire restaurant at lunch on a saturday. However there were a few things that made me think twice about returning.

For starters I believe the current physical presentation of the menu is not practical whatsover. The staff actually required a hand from us to be able to hold the big menu so we could all see it. The staff only has one menu to present so they have to go one by one to each table. While I understand that part of this is because the main dishes change daily, a good alternative would be to have an online menu that you can edit daily in the morning.

But the biggest issue for our group was that we found several ants in our pitcher of white sangria. While the sangria was delicious and we did only notice this once we were nearing the end of the pitcher (we noticed them after pouring into the cup), the staff only offered to make us another jar and not give us a discount on the sangria we ordered. We were at the end of the meal and could not stay much longer so a new pitcher of sangria didnt make sense. At that point the staff should have offered either a discount on the sangria or not charge for it at all. Instead we were charged full price. Considering our bill was 181€, offering a 13€ sangria that had ants should be a no-brainer customer...

The restaurant seems to really be getting complacent with the success it received when it opened. We were seated inside the restaurant and despite the restaurant calling us to confirm the reservation, we found ourselves sat next to a corporate seating of 15 which looked to be the management team from a local hotel. Clearly a booking of this size changes the ambiance and atmosphere of a place as small and intimate as villa 11. We found ourselves having to raise our voices just to speak to the person opposite. The restaurant should have made us aware when they called to confirm we would be attending. Had we known a table of 15 people in good spirits, on a company night out would be opposite we would have thought again….

In terms of the food we appreciate that the portions are served tapas style, as they are ready, however some thought needs to be given to the order portions come out of the kitchen. Having three lighter dishes come out with a half an hour wait before a bowl of beef and plate of pork does not make for an enjoyable end to the meal. Sorry to say I think we will wait a while before giving villa 11...