Santa Eulalia Restaurant, Albufeira, Algarve

...above the sand, overlooking the Santa Eulalia beach and accessible via steps or by road, this restaurant caters for the residents of the adjacent 5 star hotel. To our surprise you needn't be a client to sample the cuisine.

The Restaurante Santa Eulalia is 50% of a food complex with the other 50% being a bar and snack area called "Cafe Bar Atlántico".
The Cafe Bar Atlántico opens daily until 8pm offering snacks, bar ...
...meals served at the Restaurante Santa Eulalia are cooked on an open char grill, easily seen from most of the outdoor tables and you can watch the chefs work their magic in the open air kitchen. The menu is presented in several languages accommodating most people. This is ideal as the Algarve is a tourist attraction not only to the English but to the French, Spanish, German and the home nationals themselves.

On arrival I found the menu ... more

Based high above the sand, overlooking the Santa Eulalia beach and accessible via steps or by road, this restaurant caters for the residents of the adjacent 5 star hotel. To our surprise you needn't be a client to sample the cuisine.

The Restaurante Santa Eulalia is 50% of a food complex with the other 50% being a bar and snack area called "Cafe Bar Atlántico".
The Cafe Bar Atlántico opens daily until 8pm offering snacks, bar meals and ice-cream until 7pm, when the restaurant takes over the catering side of things and offers a proper meal. The menu is fairly extensive and whilst I shan't list the contents, it includes appetisers, starters, a fish list, a meat menu and a comprehensive list of seafood specials which were the only things in the menu not to be priced.

The majority of the meals served at the Restaurante Santa Eulalia are cooked on an open char grill, easily seen from most of the outdoor tables and you can watch the chefs work their magic in the open air kitchen. The menu is presented in several languages accommodating most people. This is ideal as the Algarve is a tourist attraction not only to the English but to the French, Spanish, German and the home nationals themselves.

On arrival I found the menu overpriced, I say that because I am not used to pay much for my meals abroad, however in this case the main courses vary between €17 - €60 each, while starters vary from €7 - €20. The leaflets advertising the Restaurante Santa Eulalia claims it serves "selected Portuguese, international gastronomy, with specialities strongly influenced by its unique location by the sea."

If that has whetted your appetite read on...

We dined on the terrace overlooking the beach, thus declining a table indoors, though all seating was pleasant, I would recommend sitting outside as the views are stunning and it is so peaceful being able to gaze out to see watching the waves lap the sand.

We ordered our starters and mains at the same time. I enjoyed a lovely and well presented vegetable soup at €3.50 and Beef Tenderloin on a skewer priced at €17. My Beef Tenderloin nice, but had a very distinct taste, whilst the menu is varied there is no detail as to what the meal consists of, just a name and thus I wasn't expecting my beef to be wrapped and cooked in smoked streaky bacon and on a plate rather than skewed. Smoked bacon is quite overpowering and as I am a very fussy eater I wasn't expecting what appeared on my plate. My meal was accompanied by new potatoes and a small selection of vegetables.

My boyfriend ordered a goat cheese salad for starters which for €8.50 was small and delicate looking with very very thinly sliced tomato and cucumber and with a small amount of cheese decoratively placed around the plate. For a main course he ordered Portuguese Steak at €19.50 which was described as coming with vegetables and new potatoes. His meal consisted of a steak in a bed of flat potatoes, something he had had the day before for half the price under a different name. Both meals were ordered to be cooked at medium but mine was very pink whilst his was definitely well done.

Prior to receiving our meals, our table was adorned with a plate of bread, a platter of olives and 2 small fishcakes. As they appeared to be complimentary we ate the bread and fishcakes, passing on the olives. The bread I ate alongside my soup as there was none brought out with the starters. However at the end of our meal and on receiving the bill we were surprised to see three additional items totalling, €11 which we hadn't ordered. Due to the amount of money we took with us that night we passed on desserts and so additional payments were not a welcome surprise.

On enquiring we discovered this was the charge of the not so complimentary and not ordered olives and bread. I explained our issue with paying for something we didn't order and didn't eat and the waiter removed €7.50 worth of the charge. From the swiftness of his actions and the lack of argument he put up it appeared quite clear that they regularly received the same complaint and that the €7.50 removal was a common occurrence. Either way I wasn't very impressed, if something is put on the table and in the case of the man next to us, told it is complimentary then you do not expect to pay for it come the end of the evening.

Every table was issued with these extras and families with several kids were no doubt in for a nasty surprise when the bill arrived, as ours detailed the items x 2 one for each of us. Therefore thinking along those lines a table of 7 would have had the charged x7.
Our meal was nice although nothing too special and although I preferred the cheaper alternatives in the local bars or the resort the staff were excellent and very attentive but not pushy and the seas vie was amazing. You couldn't beat the view.

Unless you are looking for an expensive, okay but not fabulous meal I would recommend looking elsewhere. If money was no object then go and enjoy it, we didn't sample dessert as I said previously as we didn't take enough cash with us, and we don't drink wine so I cannot comment the quality of that, but the wine list was extensive and was served for you at the table. No pouring your own drinks and those drinking it seemed to appreciate it.

Worth checking out if you are local and looking to splash out. As the Resturante Santa Eulalia is attached to the hotel we were asked on arrival if we had a reservation, we didn't but this was not a problem and each time we went past afterwards it never looked overly busy. 

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