Where to eat on Terceira

Following on from our top tips on Where to eat in Angra, we’ve cast our net even wider – across the whole island for our guide on where to eat on Terceira.

#01 –Let’s begin on the outskirts of the capital Angra. In the unlikely event  you’ve exhausted all of the excellent possibilities within the city centre, it’s a short five-minute taxi ride north to the Taberna Roberto. It’s very much a locals’ place: warm and welcoming, where you can turn up tired and dusty from an all-day hike, and treat yourself to Roberto’s amazing slow-cooked ribs and a bottle of mainland wine:

#02 –If you’re staying on the western outskirts of Angra, (at Quinta das Merces or the Terceira Mar Hotel),  the QB Food Court is a fifteen-minute walk away. During the day, the ground floor snack bar is ideal for a light lunch, pizza, salads and soups. In the evenings, the first-floor restaurant has a nicely-mixed menu of Azorean classics and more European-style cuisine. They’ve been introducing more veggie options recently, and it’s worth a visit just to sample their desserts, cakes and chocolates:

#03 –Heading clock-wise on a foodie-tour of the island: the west coast village of Serreta is home to the Restaurante Tipico Ti-Choa. Blink and you’ll miss this unassuming, one storey building. It’s a cosy, family-run restaurant serving big portions of home-cooked Terceiran food. For our resident guide Tiago, Ti-Choa is the best place to sample the island’s most-famous dish Alcatra, served with sweet potatoes and a fresh local Massa Sovada bread:

#04 – From Serreta, the road brings you up onto Terceira’s more-rugged north coast. As you approach the village of Altares, lookout for the Restaurante Caneta on your right. It’s another great restaurant for Alcatra and locally-sourced beef, as well as grilled limpets and clams from the island of Sao Jorge. And they’re big portions once again: visiting any of the more traditional-style restaurants is a non-starter if you’re on a diet – better to just give in and go with the Azorean-flow. You can usually pop into Caneta without a reservation during the week for lunch in the courtyard – but you’ll need to reserve in advance on Saturdays and Sundays (for lunch and/or dinner):

#05 – Biscoitos is well-known and well-loved for it’s natural swimming pools, and the Bar do Abismo is the obvious choice for a lunchbreak on dryland. Inland from the pools is one of the Terceira’s hidden food-gems: Senhora Delia Martin’s bakery. Delia and her family opened the bakery (or Padaria to give it’s correct Portuguese title) around five years ago, converting an old wine storehouse into a wood-fired bakery. It can be a bit tricky to find, (its the first left after the Banif Acores and Post Office), but it’s a perfectly placed take-away if you’re heading down to the seapools or just touring around the island:

#06 – …and if you’re in Biscoitos for an evening swim, you could end the day with dinner at the Restaurante Porto dos Biscoitos – more of those big portions of unpretentious Azorean cuisine:

#08 – Also in Praia is Sabores do Chef. You could call them the young pretenders to o Pescador’s long-held crown – they have a similar menu, perhaps slightly more on the gourmet-side in terms of presentation which fits nicely with the restaurant’s modern decor. Their grilled Swordfish and the Octopus stew are both particularly good – although they tend to be a bit more pricey than o Pescador:

#09 – One of my favourite restaurants in Praia is La Barca. It’s walkable if you’re staying in the town, and it’s a good option for lunch if you’ve a few hours free between connecting flights. I’m more of a meat eater and their steaks are excellent – and the floor-to-ceiling windows make the most of the seaview across the harbour: