Must-try regional dishes, local wines, traditional sweets and artisan products — handpicked to help you experience the real taste of Portimão.
Portugal's sardine capital by acclamation — fat fish off the charcoal onto bread in the old quarter's grills, crowned each August by a festival that feeds 130,000.
The copper clamshell at the sardine capital's high table — clams, prawns and Arade-mouth fish steamed in tomato, peppers and wine, opened steaming for two.
The fishermen's pasta pot — small massa cooked soupy in a saffron-tinted fish broth with the day's catch, Portimão's homiest plate and its best-kept secret.
The cannery city in a tin — sardines and mackerel in olive oil from the tradition that built Portimão, sold in vintage-dressed tins that travel home flat.
The Ria de Alvor's wedge clams and carpet clams, raked from the lagoon and opened in garlic, coriander and white wine — the brightest shellfish on the west Algarve table.
Octopus charred on the grill and doused in hot garlic olive oil with punched potatoes — the dependable feast of the port's fish houses.
Portimão drinks its region — Lagoa DOC whites from the vineyards next door, Negra Mole light reds, and medronho fire from the Monchique hills above.
