Cafe dos Mestres — Restaurant in Olhão

Open-air “port-food”

The joyful noise of people enjoying food and the heavenly smell of the bbq will attract you if your nearby during lunchtime. We had to subscribe to a list and were waiting 40 minutes to get a table at this crowded terrace and open-air grill. The place belongs to a small café, which is probably just a café in wintertime, but becames a crowded seafood grill during summer with the addition of this terrace. You really expect to find at least one place like that in a traditional fishing village. I am giving only 4 stars to the place instead of 5, not because the food, service or price for value, but because it is surrounded by a parking lot, that separates the place from the direct port and water view. Instead of seeing cute boats swaying on the water and smelling fresh ocean air while eating, cars are almost parking next to your table and you can smell their smog. On the other side of the terrace there is a road with running cars... Cars everywhere - that is true for the whole Algarve - please start lobbying to remove the parking lot from the small port and remove cars from historic downtowns! They jus kill the athmosphere of this place and the liveability of small city centres. (Pavements in the towns of Algarve are basiclly extensions of parking lots, useless if you are a simple pedestrian and you can completely f*ck yourself if you are with a baby in a pram or using a wheelchair, but that is a different story, let’s just go back to our lunch.) Grilled salmon: well grilled, perfect texture and great garlic-coriander-salt-lemon harmony. The fillet was quite big, so even with eating only the salad from the garnish and leaving the cooked new potatoes to my 15-month old baby, I was full. Grilled sardines: very well done, delicious salt-lemon taste harmony, however the head was not eatable. They also grill sausages, hamburgers and lamb. For dessert we tried the orange cake and the fig cake. I expected more from the fig cake, but it was not bad at all. The orange tart was really delicious, but too sweet for my taste. However, it made me curious to try more orange cakes while in Algarve. I think, I might have found my new favourite cake. The staff was kind, the service was quick spiced with a bit of chaos during peaktime (two waiters took our order and a third one also came to take it, but better three than none ;)). All in all, they seemed very professional even in the chaotic, crowded peaktime. Price for value: good. If you love simple and freshly prepared seafood or non-fancy, simple streetfood, this place is a must in the lovely fishing...

First night we went everything was fine. Next time we went, the host and the owner were EXTREMELY rude. We had booked a table for 7:30pm and they gave it away for showing up barely 5min late. When booking the table the day before, no one told us there was absolutely no grace period to hold tables. We would not be this upset if it wasn’t for the attitude the owner gave us. Not costumer friendly AT ALL. No willingness to assist. This is sad because their food was...

We had grilled Tiger Prawns and grilled sardines, both incredibly fresh, cooked and seasoned to Perfection! Simply Delicious! The service was also attentive and friendly, even though they were absolutely full!! For dessert we had the carob figs and almonds homemade cake , the perfect ending of the meal. I will be sure to visit every time I travel to South Portugal! I also noticed they managed to talk to guests in French Spanish and English ;)...