I take great care in choosing where we dine. Exceptional food is a given. What I’m really looking for is service that makes you feel cared for, and ingredients that taste of the place they come from. Every meal in Portugal was a pleasure, but one dinner stood apart: Raízes, at Vilalara Grand Hotel Algarve.
We dined at a long table in the garden, beneath the soft glow of globe lights. Raízes means “roots,” and it suits the place, because much of what we ate was grown in the raised beds right beside us.
The evening opened with an array of starters drawn from those same beds, followed by five courses from the garden grill: seafood, chicken, pork, lamb, and beef. The chef presented each course personally, and the wine flowed all evening.
And then came the dessert buffet, which, I’ll admit, was my favorite part of the night.
