During our stay in Baleal, Portugal, we have visited the Algamar Grill twice - once on our arrival day for a late lunch as we awaited our villa to be vacated and secondly for an evening meal.

 

The first time, most people ordered either beef or pork steaks. Beware in Portugal when you see bife on the menu as it means "steak" regardless of meat and has nothing to do with beef. My father ordered a beef steak which was rather tough. My pork steak was rather better though nothing spectacular.

On our second visit, my son abolutely wanted his first experience of snails (which I had not even noticed on the menu). He was served a plate of at least 300 tiny snails - much smaller than the littl'ns in our garden at home! There appear to be few song thrushes here...

 

The waitress duly demonstrated how to get the flesh out from the tiny shells with a cocktail stick while making it clear it was something she would not touch! I have not often eaten snails but I think if you can eat shrimps you can eat snails. They were even part of the 18th century British diet for poorer people who could not afford meat.

 

It was not easy to pick out the snails but they had been cooked in a garlic sauce and were quite tasty. At about 50 snails each, both Mrs O and I gave up. It was not the taste but we wanted space for the main course.

 

My brother-in-law and I ordered arroz de tamboril (monkfish rice) and got a bit pot on the table which I think would have been fine for 4 people! There were plenty of shellfish (in shells) and prawns (shells on) as well as rice and monkfish. However it did taste good. Mrs O went for the grilled sea bass done in a typical Portuguese way with boiled potato and salad. It too was well prepared.

My son also had some after he had finished his grilled chicken so we impressed the waitress by finishing almost the whole pot. I do not understand why they did the same size of portion for 2, 3 or 4 people. It risks waste - though not in our case.

The restaurant rewarded us with a great view to the west.

 

While not unique to this restaurant the sunset was stunning.