Portugal: Ricardo's Pizzeria in Albufeira, Algarve

Discover Pizzaria Ricardo's a good option for Italian food in Albufeira, a lively city in the Algarve region in southern Portugal.

RICARDO'S PIZZARIA

Located in the ever-bustling historic center of Albufeira, Pizzaria Ricardo's is an Italian restaurant located in a 3-story building with a terrace at the top offering beautiful sea views. The pizzeria was founded in 1983 and, according to its own information, is the oldest Italian restaurant in Albufeira. In addition to the tables on the pleasant terrace, there are tables inside and also on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

Portugal: Ricardo's Pizzeria in Albufeira, Algarve — Restaurant terrace | Photo: publicity

Pizzeria Ricardo's has a variety of pizza flavors, as well as salads, soups, starters (bruschetta, garlic bread, among others), pastas, Italian dishes with fish, seafood and meat. There are also gluten-free pasta options.

OUR EXPERIENCE AT RICARDO'S PIZZARIA

Albufeira has many options of bars, restaurants and cafes full of tourists, mainly English. There are very noisy places, with loud music, singing, showing sports on big screens and lots of people drinking. This is not our profile. We prefer quieter, quieter places where it is possible to talk quietly while eating. That's why we tried to avoid the more popular places and that's how we found Pizzeria Ricardo's. Whenever we can't find a vegan restaurant, we look for a Mediterranean or Italian one because there are always options to eat. Pizza with vegetables and without cheese, salad, pasta with tomato sauce are always good alternatives for us vegans. Pizzeria Ricardo's does not clearly offer vegan options on the menu, but we talked to the employee who served us and managed to organize our dinner well.

We started by ordering a red wine and, as a starter, a Ricardo's Bruschetta with tomato, basil, oregano and olive oil, because we knew there would be no mistakes. Basic and tasty, isn't it? And it was! But, we found the portion so small with just two slices of bread! In other restaurants we've been to, there are usually at least four slices. Well it tasted good and we were waiting for our pizza to arrive.

The restaurant does not offer any vegan pizza options, but we chose the Vegetarian Pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms, peppers, onions and olives and we asked them not to put cheese. The dough was good, but the pizza itself was a bit bland. It wasn't visually pretty, missing a tomato, a red pepper, to highlight, a brighter color and make the pizza more appetizing (we start “eating with our eyes”, right?). It was okay, but it could be tastier. I think it would have been more worthwhile to order pasta with tomato sauce, but that's for next time.

Ricardo's Pizzeria is very well evaluated by users, has a very varied menu and we believe it is a good option to taste Italian dishes. That is, it has a lot of great potential to be a place to have a nice meal. However, it is still not very prepared to receive vegan customers, because although it has a few options, they are a bit bland. On the way back to the hotel, we passed by Deck44 ice cream parlor (Address: R. Cândido dos Reis 44, 8200-103 Albufeira, Portugal | Opening hours: daily from 9am to midnight) to buy delicious handmade vegan popsicles, with nothing of animal origin.