Al-andaluz - Mertola

This is the place to eat a tasty meal in rural Portugal. The black pork and steak were incredible

Restaurante familiar numa pequena aldeia, carta de comida portuguesa típica da região, como o cozido de grão, o porco preto, ou o borrego. Comida de qualidade e em boas porções. Staff atencioso

Comida fabulosa criada com muito cuidado e paixão. Acolhedor, pessoal simpático e ambiente de convívio. Nós voltaremos!

Comida divinal, ambiente super acolhedor, serviço

So I came here shortly after it’s opening date in 2013, and this was my 3rd attempt as both previous attempts it was closed, so not sure if I was just unlucky or it closes at will (best to phone first to make a reservation to know it’s defo open). Nice cool air conditioning and decoy nice too (improvement since my last visit), but despite arriving at 20.30 (relatively early by Português standards) they had NO homemade soup left? And no other to offer! So my pregnant daughter went without her daily veg intake. A bit poor when restaurant was quite quiet at this point. We know all restaurants in area, but this one was slightly more pricey than all others. I ordered pepper steak and although it was cooked nicely the sauce was ok, too much cream not enough pepper and more fat on steak than I would have liked. My husband and brother in law had the deer steaks and although they were tasty a bit on the dry side as they were thin and needed a bit of cooking juice on them. My daughter had Javali (wild pig), and it was slightly over herbed so the flavour of pig was masked by thyme or something similar to that, she had same javali night before from Corvos, far superior in taste. They bought 1 bowl of rice between 3! And one bowl of skinny chips (not very warm) between 3! If your paying per person at least serve them their own accompaniments, in fairness another bowl of chips was given but no rice, so meagre rations all round. Wine, we asked for a litre and was given half a litre! €5 for the slate plate starters, bread served in a cotton bag, not sure if I liked all different people putting their hands in this bag, quirky but not hygienic. All in ok food was ok, service good but don’t like sharing, unless on a sharing platter and not cereal bowls,price average in comparison to others, not my favourite bit still it seems quite a popular choice. Have put receipt to give idea on prices.