Ristorante Ernesto

Top notch food and great service. Pasta cooked perfectly al dente with fantastic flavor combinations. Nice wine list with wine available by the glass and limoncello to polish off an excellent meal.

From an Italian who LOVES good food, Ernesto is worth every penny. Great service, fresh ingredients and every plate has something special and unique that you wouldn’t normally find elsewhere. Could not recommend it more. Bravo Ernesto.

Great food for people who like fine dining. Typical Italian dishes combined with local fresh fish. A bit more time between courses would be a plus. The staff is great.

Delicious & creative Italian food, outdoor tables in a beautiful setting, and hard-working attentive staff!

Gorgeous Italian food, everything perfectly prepared; the polpo was tender, the pasta al dente, and the tiramisu light, almost airy and creamy. Add good coffee and friendly, observant service. All you need for a great meal with friends and/or family ❤

The best food we have enjoyed in Portugal by a country mile. Ernesto and his wife are incredibly hospitable, their food exquisite, well presented and timely, would not be surprised to see a Michelin rating in the not to distant future.

We come to Vila Real a few times a year but last night was our first time trying out Ernesto’s and we were not disappointed.

The place was very busy, but they still managed to accommodate us outside without a booking.

The menu is not extensive but to us, the more limited a menu is, the better it usually is. We would have loved to try the chefs welcome but that had sadly run out - a sign of a busy night! We stuck to having a main each. Seafood fettuccine for me and seafood ravioli for my husband. Both our dishes were sublime. You cannot beat fresh pasta and fresh fish. You can tell this place has put a lot of effort into ingredient souring and it’s menu offering. Simple but fantastic.
We also really loved the vintage coloured water glasses and bowl like wine glasses. It gave the restaurant a little more refinement in comparison to other offerings in the area and all the while still being reasonably priced.

From us it is a 10/10 and we can’t wait to come back on our next trip.

Amazing Italian Fish restaurant!Very good food, really good! Service is excellent as well.

A fantastic hidden gem in VRSA. It's simply a must-try. Chef Ernesto was welcoming and extremely friendly. His cuisine did not dissapoint, you can take the man out of Rome but you can never take Rome out of the man. The fish of the day was succulent yet flaky. The vegetarian ravioli left our plant eater friends extremely satisfied. The linguine con anchovies was simply stunning 11/10. The waiting staff were top quality, attentive, personable and positive vibe emitters. Overall a great experience. Highly recommend.

Food was gorgeous, really lovely service with fun waiter.

I went to this Restaurant with my Daughter She was very happy with the food, me also the food Is very excellent this is a really Good Italian restaurant with a Good service of Assistance very organized and gentle you felt at Home, or you Felt like if here there in Italia. Nice charming place nice velvet chairs, I'm very happy with all they have presented to us.

A very nice restaurant. A warm welcoming, followed by an excellent service, with a lot of attention to details. Food absolutely delicious, thanks to the Chef/Owner Ernesto, I’ll definitely return. Highly recommended!

First of all we have to say that they saved our meal. We arrived at VRSA at 15.15 and it´s almost impossible to lunch anywhere there. Ernesto was in the door with her wife and they invite us really nicely to pass. First step done, we had a place for lunch. What we didnt expected was that this will be one of the best meals we had in Portugal. We all know that the south of Portugal is grilled fish, cataplanas, rice and so on. But here you find something out of this box and really delicious. We let ourself recomend by the Chef (Ernesto) and the decision coudn´t be better. He recomend us tuna salad and octopus salad for starter, both where really delicious, fresh and tasty. Later for second dish, fried squids, cuccina, prawns and carot. I think were the best squids i ever took. Were completly clean, fresh and tasty, fried with a really thin lay of flour that makes it be crunchy but not heavy or oily. All this, plus 4 coffee (illy), 2 bottles of watter and 2 deserts...just 42€. Quality price amazing. Simpathy price also amazong because Ernesto, his wife and a friend that were there were really nice, polite and warm with us. A really "MUST" is Algarve. We will come back for sure. Gracie mile, the spanish/polish family ;)

Lovely food and good friendly service. Quiet when we dined there.

Delicious, fresh food. And the staff was pleasant and helpful. So glad we stopped here. Will come again!

Delicious food, excellent service, great wine choices, warm hospitality.

What an incredible surprise. Just delicious where very fresh ingredients are used in a creative way....really a very positive experience that we can only recommend . Not an extensive menu but exquisite !!!

We had a wonderful experience, the food and owners are TOP, besides, the gelateria right next door sells the best italian ice creams ! We will return.

Fantastic, freshly made food, love that the kitchen is open to the restaurant and the service was excellent. Will definitely repeat soon.

Excellent place. Had a delicious steak for lunch!