O SARDINES — Restaurant in Olhão

O Sardines is an amazing experience that showcases the simplicity of fresh local seafood aficionados alike.

This restaurant is definitely off the beaten track, across from a fish processing facility. From the patio of the restaurant you can literally see the fishing boats come in to transfer the catch in the holds into the fish processing facility.

There is a Portuguese menu written on a blackboard inside the restaurant, but your best bet is to let the staff handle the ordering for you. When we arrived at 8:00 p.m., the owner came out and took our order by simply asking one or two, and he's not referring to one or two sardines, he is referring to one or two plates of sardines.

Each sardine meal, which is under 10 euros, comes with a fresh tomato and green pepper salad as well as simply boiled baby potatoes. The sardines are grilled in their charcoal cabinet affixed to the front of the building, and it is definitely a sight to see as the owner stokes the coals to get the grill hot enough to perfectly char grill the sardines. The tails and the heads were definitely crispy enough to eat as is, and the flesh of the sardines were tender and flavorful. The sardines themselves were simply seasoned with salt, and with the flavour of the grill and the charcoal, is possibly the most perfect sardines experience you will have in portugal.

A meal for two consisting of 10 giant sardines, two accompanying salads, and a small plate of boiled potatoes along with two bottles of local beer cost €23. This is the deal of the century.

The location is certainly not on the tourist drag, and will require a little bit of a hike. It's only about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the main tourist areas to this amazing sardines experience that you will...

Rude staff, horrible food. We wanted so much to love this place, it came highly recommended. But it wasn’t meant to be. The sardines were lukewarm, oily, and soggy. When I complained they pretended like they didn’t understand me. The staff was completely stressed out the entire time we were there as well. Overall, a very disappointing dining experience. There are better options in this...

Really tasty food, good portions. Menu of the day (grilled fish/meat) for 7 euros. We ordered 2 portions of grilled fish. One of them (not in the picture) came with 4 fish. The one in the picture came with 6! I think they might have been closing so they gave us what was left :) (or if that was the normal portion then even better!) the man serving...