Stews & More Albufeira, Portugal | Food

Today I am writing a whole blog post on just one restaurant in Albuferia, Portugal and the reason why is because the food was just incredible! Stews & More is restaurant that combines two cuisines Dutch and Portuguese as the restaurant owners are of those origins which does make your heart melt a little bit. 

It was a place we stumbled across and immediately thought we had to go there, it was so busy but just had a really nice energy about it, plus it smelled incredible. We inquired the next day but were met with disappointment because they were fully booked so we called up and booked a table. 

Stew & More had a great waiter who talked us through the menu and asked us what we like etc, I was even talked out of a glass of white wine and to have red instead because we're having a stew. Much like many restaurants in Albufeira, Stews & More have Couvert on the menu but with a little twist. Most couverts are served with bread, sardine pate, butter and bread, but this one was served with THE most delicious warm vegetable soup. It was a humble sized started but the soup won it hands down for me. It was a smooth consistency but had a peppery kick, I was in love! 

Now let's move onto the main reason we are all here, the stew! They had quite a good variety of stews, including something for the vegetarians out there but we opted for the Campo stew, which is a beef stew with vegetables and little pieces of bacon in it. The beef is marinated in red wine and brandy for a minimum of 3 hours so it really gets a chance to sink into the meat and adds a real rich flavour to the entire dish. Stews & More offer the stews in 2 sizes - for one or for two and the Campo Stew for two cost 23€ and you get bread and a side dish of potatoes and onions which they will top you up on any time. 

The waiter also joked that he will give us a straw for the sauce but genuinely...I wanted a straw, I couldn't get enough of that sauce, we literally had to have a second round of bread to finish it off. Herbs from the Algarve were also in the dish but it didn't specify exactly what herbs were in it but we were informed that this stew is more like a stew a Portuguese grandmother would make  

The carrots were really chunky but cooked to perfection because they were so soft, I thought they might be a bit hard. The waiter suggested that the reason they are so chunky is because the stews are slow cooked for a such a long time any thinner and they would disintegrate altogether and that wouldn't be what they wanted. There were also mushrooms in the dish, which personally I'm not a fan of but I just fish around those bits.  

Stews & More was a great little hidden gem down a side street in Albufeira and I am so happy that we were able to get a table. I would definitely go there again and urge any one who goes to this part of Portugal to check it out. 

Are you a stew fan?