The seaside dining room at Fortaleza do Guincho, a Relais & Châteaux hotel in a 17th-century fort, is a bastion of old-school fine dining. The tables are clad in starched white cloths, and the food is served by waiters—and not by members of the kitchen brigade, as is the trend in contemporary fine dining today—wearing formal suits.
Yet, in a restaurant that has held its Michelin star since 2001, current chef Gil Fernandes (who still has the star), brings a creative, confident hand to Portuguese ingredients, especially those from the coast. The menu changes frequently, but at a recent dinner the amuse bouche included the spine and head of a small fish—a sardine, maybe?—that was meant to be eaten.
The four-, five-, and six-course menus emphasize fish and seafood, as in a dish of red carabineiro prawns from the Algarve with carrots and citrus, and low-temperature flounder with cauliflower and bivalves, although the popular “From Head to Feet” is what it sounds like, using Iberian black pork. A particularly beautiful dessert called “The Dunes of Guincho” pays homage to the dramatic landscape outside with pineapple, pinions, and resin plated to look like a shell and sea grass atop a small pile of sand.
For more information, visit Forteleza do Guincho website.
Fortaleza do Guincho
Estrada do Guincho
Cascais
Phone: +351 214 870 491
Daily – 12:30 to 5:00 and 19:30 to 22:30
