The Best Bakery in The Algarve. Go Eat This.
The best bakery in the Algarve is Fabrica da Amendoa in Loule, about 20 minutes northwest of Faro. They serve amazing bread (Páo) and pastries which are authentic, local to the region, and worth the trip if you’re anywhere in the area. If you wanna know more about what to order in Portugal, why I think it’s such a great bakery, or what to do in Loule, Portugal while you’re already there eating, read on! (and, if you’re sick of typing “what’s the best ______ in ______” and getting lists of 57 things, keep reading to help let Google know that real content is better than SEO clickbait.) How to Get To The Best Bakery In The Algarve Google Maps link to Fabrica da Amendoa In the center of Loule, on one of the main roundabouts, and about 100 meters from the entrance to the famed Loule Mercado (The Loule Market) but as with many things in Europe, this best bakery in the Algarve is easy to miss if you’re hustling, so here’s a picture of me pointing to it so you know exactly where to find it. Best Bakery in the Algarve: Why Fabrica da Amendoa Tops the List Honestly, there’s tons of great bakeries in the algarve, and no one person would ever be able to taste them all – so this could also read “what’s the best bakery you’ve tasted so far?” But I also believe that when you typed in “What’s the best bakery in the algarve,” you just wanted to get your hands on incredible local breads, unique pastries you can’t find elsewhere, and a reliable place to stop – I can guarantee all of those things at Fabrica de Amendoa. Amazing smells, bright and comfortable and pretty minimalist design, all highlight the reason you’re there in the first place – doughy things that taste good, with or without coffee to dip them in, probably with a combination of flour and/or sugar and/or eggs (and if you’re doing it right, definitely some custards.) They do sweet and savory. They have daily staples which can only be found in this part of the world. They bake everything fresh, it all tastes perfect, the people are nice and speak in an insane number of languages, and though I’ve had pastries there that aren’t my thing, I’ve never had pastries that are bad. What to order at a bakery in Southern Portugal If you are like me, and you’re visiting a new place, you don’t just get “a” pastry, that is terrible. Ideally you are with a few other people and you can grab multiple pastries and breads to taste your way thru and find your personal favorite. And while I’ll have some specific suggestions below, I just want to show you what I purchased on a recent trip. I wanted a selection of stuff for a late morning pastry + coffee snack with friends, and I’ll show you what I got. How much does it cost to eat at a great bakery in Portugal? All of the above was 11.40 Euro. Yeah. That’s a pretty sick deal. Pao de Aqua: Signature Bread at Algarve’s Best Bakery This site is all about the bread, so let’s start there. Pao de Agua is, to me, the perfect expression of bread. It’s flour, it’s water, it’s salt, it’s crunchy, it’s chewy, it’s got these big fantastic air bubbles inside of flavor, and it’s got a crust on the outside that reminds me of my favorite crusts on Earth. I’m a sucker for a sandwich, and you can absolutely use it for that, but really the core experience is just to ask for “pao com manteiga” and then experience that whole deep-seated sense we have in our psyche that “bread = life” because somewhere in our ancestry it’s the thing that helped us all survive the winter. This bread triggers that whole feeling HARD. Like, this is bread that is meant to satisfy the core need of bread on Earth, to sustain you. And dammit if sustanance doesn’t taste incredible (and shout out to all my ancestors who ate enough bread to survive!) Folhado Loule: My favorite pastry In Southern Portugal “The best pastry in Southern Portugal” – fixed it. Sorry Pastel de Nata, I know you’re more famous, and I know you’re having a moment – it’s definitely deserved. You’re creamy and awesome and your flaky sides were invented by monks. Excellent all around. But there are a lot more pastries in Portugal, and in fact, many many cities have their own specialities which you just can’t get elsewhere. King among those is the “Folhado Loule,” the flaky folded pastry of Loule. It’s an egg custard plus a little lemon and vanilla. It’s covered in sugar, but somehow it isn’t too sweat. It’s got these lovely flaky bites inside and I guarantee you’ll get crumbs all over you, but I promise you will not care. This is so much my sons favorite pastry, that my son continued to ask for them at every other bakery we went to in Portugal. But if you got 10 minutes outside of Loule, you CANNOT find them. Go 30 minutes outside, and they WON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT YES I’M SERIOUS!??!!? But if there’s one thing I want you to do, it’s stop in this bakery, eat this pastry, absolutely get a cup of coffee to wash it down. How to Order Coffee In Portugal The Right Way You know how the eskimos have like 20 words for snow? The Portugese are the same way for all the different names for how to order coffee. Like – they don’t just have a name for an espresso (here called simply a “cafe” or “eshhh-presso,” they’ve got a drink called “San principe.” That’s when you DON’T include the first 10-12 drops of the espresso shot, since they are slightly weaker till the flow gets going, and you get a perfectly strong espresso shot.