The Beach Basket / O Cabaz Praia, Albufeira, Portugal

(I apologize for the renewed delay in posting, but I have had no telephone or internet for 3 weeks and seem to be getting only a 30minute window in the morning - these first world countries...)

I personally think they could have served me dog biscuits dampened with a bit of dish water and I would have found it deevine, just because of the setting. Fortunately, they chose not to do so and the food, setting and company were all super.

Wendles and Peter, my aunt and uncle, who you've met before in other posts, spent a weeks holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, so Joergi Bear (my hubby) and I decided to join them / bother them for a day seeing as we were only 300km away. What can I say, we can and we will hunt you down no matter where you are!

Albufeira is a huge tourist town in the Algarve, on the Atlantic coast. It has a lovely “old town” and long sandy beaches with lots to do in the summer time. For us, winter would be the only time to go there as in summer the population rises from 30 000 to 400 000 people!!! About 370 000 too many for me, but the delightful 20-something year old Irish couple we had drinks with were exactly of the opposite opinion.

We walked the beach in SLEEVELESS t-shirts and wandered around the town / city buying silly souvenirs. I think I did best, 'cos I bought a coke can that had been cut into shreds and then folded into an ashtray. Or is it a tea-light holder? Or is it a piece of trash (quote from husband).

Moving right along, Pete and Wendles had been to this particular restaurant earlier in the week and invited us to join them there for a meal. He hadn't even finished the sentence and I had jogged over there and taken a seat. “That's a yes then?” they said after they'd caught up. And what a great choice it was.

The only “disappointing” part of the meal was the bread course which I felt was overpriced at €3,00 for a roll, a mini-tub of margarine (not even butter) and another mini-tin of sardine pate. These tins are standard in Portugal and can be bought everywhere for 25c. Anyway, this is all I have to grumble about so that's not too bad.

Wendy had Pasta with Smoked salmon and Peter had Pasta with Prawns (both €8,50) and they both enjoyed their meals. I chose the Sardines with chips and salad for my main course (€6,50) and Joerg chose the Peri-peri chicken with chips and salad (also €6,50). Both were deelicious and recipes for you to try out will follow too.

I wasn't going to have dessert, but thank goodness the waiter took his time to come back to us so I changed my mind – this took all of 10 seconds – and a good thing too. The pud's were also deelicious. They were all around €4,50 and we all felt we had the best! Joerg opted for plain vanilla ice cream

Peter for the house ice cream which was a mix

Wendy for profiteroles

and me for the caramel peach (a bit lost in translation there – caramalized peach)

My peach was warm with a warm caramel sauce. It was really good, but the caramel did turn rock hard within a few minutes. It tasted great and I scraped some of it off the plate and tried to pull out a few of my fillings before just sucking and swallowing it. I will be trying this one at home too so watch this space.

Summary: For a front row restaurant it was reasonably priced (especially if your aunt and uncle are paying – thank you!) and the food was very good. The service was also very good and the view is spectacular. Worth visiting if you are in Albufeira.