O Veleiro

Really recommend to try local food. Small cute restaurant with an excellent service and amazing Portuguese food. Not expensive even though it’s in the old city centre. 10/10
Thank you! Really great experience!

Arrived at the restaurant for early dinner slightly before 6pm, the restaurant was empty. The staff was friendly and helpful with the menu. My first time trying Portuguese Cataplana dish, it taste pretty good. A single portion of Cataplana was quite a lot for me to finish. I wanted to have fried calamari for starters and the staff offered the fried calamari without the sides of chips for €5 instead of €8. Overall excellent experience with a local taste.

Amazing food and soo much better than all those bright lights! Food recipe was the owner’s grandmother from 15 years ago! They even provided us with freshly made piri piri sauce but not your average high street stuff, genuine home cooked style, that blew my taste buds away! They are super amazing and I urge everyone if they want to enjoy good food to go here!

Been coming here for years and despite the location change it continues to consistently impress. The food is delicious and portions are great. The staff have always been attentive and friendly. I will continue to frequent here on my return trips. Theresa and the staff serve up authentic Portuguese cuisine. They were able to easily accommodate dietary restrictions of my travel companion. They are always busy but well worth the wait.

If you're in the centre of Albufeira and are looking for a typical Portuguese restaurant, Veleiro is the place. (we were just strolling towards the top of the street and, when we passed the restaurant, we had a double take when we saw the food that was being served to one of the tables - so we had to go back the next day to try it!)

This is a very small, simple restaurant owned by a Portuguese family and serves typical food from Portugal.

The 'bacalhau' (salt cod) in Portugal is rarely seen in the UK but is a staple ingredient in many traditional Algarvean dishes.

You must try Veleiro's 'Bacalhau à Brás' and the 'Bacalhau à Lagareiro' (in the photo below). The food can take long to be served as it's mainly cooked from scratch but well-worth the wait (there are also great starters while you wait plus a very decent house wine.

In short, don't expect a 'posh', glossy and polished restaurant but, instead, expect the best typical Portuguese food that the Portuguese would eat themselves, served with a big smile and a lot of care.

Had a very early dinner and the place was all ours 😁 The food was really tasty - I particularly enjoyed the octopus with steamed veggies, as well as the shrimp. We also had some sangria which was refreshing. Service was pretty decent. I would recommend this place for some delicious seafood.

Amazing Portuguese dishes at a local restaurant! Total worth of money!

We went there for two nights! Friday and Sunday. We went there just before 8pm, just a bit of waiting. There was a queue after 8pm due to a high perk.

We had grilled sardine and seabass as our main. On the 2nd night we had octopus and grilled goldbream. Had a pudim for sharing at both nights. Not to mention that the boiled potato and vegetables which came with the dishes were also nice.

As it was busy with a small friendly service team, 3 kitchen team members at the small kitchen for a high peak, sometimes needed to wait patiently, then the servers came back as soon as they could.

Mainly we paid for fantastic food with friendly service, without really breaking out banks 🤩

Will go back to try another dishes next time!

Lovely place with good food! Grilled swordfish was really tasty

I have been waiting for Google to ask me about O Veleiro with great anticipation. First, this was our first trip to Portugal and hence, Albufeira Old Town. Looking for restaurants when we arrived, we saw this place was highly rated. We walked and drove by it a few times before finding it, expecting a larger place. It is small, but don't let that fool you or discourage you.

Yep, the outside patio has 6 tables and there are another six inside. We were there in Jan/Feb so it was cool outside, but a nice patio heater made the night pleasant. Now, full disclosure, the patio is right on the street. Not adjacent to, but right on the street! It seems to add to the charm of this spot. It is quiet and quaint!

Staff are friendly and accommodating! Our Portuguese is not strong, but the staff could not have been more accommodating!

Now the food! The first night we were there, we had grilled sea bass, sole and grilled chicken. All were absolutely fabulous, especially the fish! Good size sides and inexpensive (but good) wine and beer!

We saw the couple beside us, having Seafood Rice. We said, that looks fabulous and we need to come back for that! In our month long travels, we had the seafood Rice and Cataplana at other locations and they were good. So, the baseline had been set. I can say with full confidence that seafood Rice was the best of all at O Veleiro ! I couldn't stop eating it! Right down to the last scoops there were still tonnes of seafood! ONG! So good!!

Yes it is a small unassuming restaurant, but the food is fabulous! The pepper steak and chips were well received as well!

I know I am going on here, but you need to make this must stop when in the Old Town Albufeira! If there were 10 stars, I would give it to them. Its that good....

The chicken and mushroom dish was so good we came back for it a second night! We went in the summer though and there are limited tables so go early or it lines up!

Delicious traditional Portuguese food. Lots of options to choose from and reasonably priced.
I ordered the Bife à Portuguesa. The portion was huge, the beef was cooked to perfection (medium rare), the sauce was a well seasoned creamy sauce and the potatoes were fresh.
My partner ordered the mixed grill and all the meats were seasoned to perfection. Very delicious, came with a side of fresh chips and salad.
The service was good, they did forget our olive starter but it was quite busy so I can’t blame them.
Highly recommend this restaurant!

Amazing traditional family-owned Portuguese restaurant. The best food and service I've had in Albufeira. I would definitely recommend if you want to try local food.

AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING!
The food is gorgeous, full of flavour and super fresh. The restaurant is a little bit away from the very touristy area, which I was happy as it made it quite calm. The food is very traditional and they have all those amazing Portuguese dishes that you have to try. We had the cataplana for 2. which was ridiculously GOOD and very well served. The service is also very good, they are not pushy at all and give you all the space you need. The price is reasonable and it is in line with the price around the country (Not under or over priced). We were there for dinner two nights in a row, We really enjoyed our time there.

Lovely authentic Portuguese food, pretty quick service… it seems to be a rather popular restaurant in the middle of the old town, would recommend going earlier if you fancy trying this restaurant in order to get a table.

Perfect typical portuguese food. Fresh, well done. Service welcoming, efficient, pleasant. Food delicious and you get an incredible quality for price ratio. We tried dorade, octopus and sardines. All perfect.

Authentic,simple , fresh and delicious. Delicious food made by and served by good friendly people ❤👌👍

Authentic Portuguese food, made by a local family. Simply the best 🙏🔥❤

Delicious food and great service. Small restaurant with authentic Portugal cuisine.

Perfect location, ~25€ for 2 people with a dish for each one + half a liter of Sangria to share

Absolutely amazing small restaurant with proper Portuguese food. Good prices too for the quality of food. Definitely not a fancy setup, just genuinely good food.