Austa – A Sleek Restaurant for Honest Eating in Almancil, Algarve

The sleek Almancil restaurant Austa—which takes its name for a Latin word referring to the southern wind—aims to be a breath of fresh air. The owners, a British couple who settled in the Algarve after years of traveling, have set out to create a restaurant that focuses on honest eating, thinking, and drinking.

That means paying rigorous attention to ingredients and sourcing, choosing small and independent producers, adopting zero-waste practices—the bread is served with marmite made from leftover crusts, for example—and cooking in an unfussy way that lets the flavors shine on their own. That doesn’t mean there’s no refined technique; it’s just not self-consciously so.

While the restaurant serves breakfast and lunch and acts as an all-day café, going for dinner is the best way to taste the owners’ vision. The menu, which evolves with the seasons, of course, is composed of sharable plates such as Ria Formosa oysters with pickled cucumber and piri-piri, grilled scarlet shrimp from Vila Real Santo António, porco presa from Feito no Zambujal with sweet potato and spring onions, and 30-day aged entrecôte from Asturias. (And yes, the points of origin are on the menu.)

The beef from Asturias is part of a bigger story. The owners have set out a vision of “local” defined by regional geography rather than national borders. Thus, the wine list—which emphasizes small producers, low-intervention winemaking, and all that 2024 jazz—features bottles from the Algarve, the Alentejo, and Andalusia, which is much closer than northern Portugal.

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There’s also a good selection of cocktails (with and without alcohol), many of which make use of infusions and cordials made with products from the on-site garden. This garden also has a sitting area, which is perfect for alfresco dining on warm summer nights.