Dinner at Vila Joya – The Name Says it All

Recently, we took the opportunity and had dinner at the probably best restaurant of Portugal; the Vila Joya in Albufeira. And boy, was it worth it! The Vila Joya is a hotel with a gourmet restaurant that has been awarded with 2 Michelin stars and is run by an Austrian chef, Dieter Koschina. The owner named the hotel after his daughter.

The evening started with an aperitif in their quaint bar area and dinner then took place on their terrace whereof half of it is under arcades. As it was late summer, we needed our sweaters, but they also had Paschmina scarves ready to keep us warm. The culinary firework started with a set of amuse bouches.

Amuse Bouches
On the left picture, in the funny looking glass you see a honeydew cold soup that was superbly spiced, on the far left is a cone filled with salmon tartar and topped with fish roe. On the right picture in the far back is a beef tartar and on the right is a cucumber based shot. All in all, we had more than seven different amuse bouches – each one of them surprising and convincing in taste.

 

Tristan Lobster
The amuse bouches were followed by a delicious lobster tail with buttermilksauce and roasted coconut flakes.

 

Carabineiro
Carabineiro is the name of a shrimp type found in the Algarve region. It was the top of a tomato and calf’s head salad.

Grouper
The third course consisted of a grouper fillet lying on a bed of artichoke hearts and capers – a great pairing.

Sot L’y Laisse
Sot L’y Laisse are two small parts of poultry which resemble fillet. The chef prepared them with black truffles and mushrooms in a cremy sauce. This course did not surprise our taste buds and was probably the weakest, but nonetheless cooked to perfection.

Venison Saddle
Deer is one of my favorite meats and this was prepared very nicely, especially in combination with the braised fig and the fois gras on top. The Brussels sprouts though would not have been necessary for this dish and did taste rather blandly. Many people don’t like Brussels sprouts. I for myself have found to like them if they are roasted in the oven, ideally with some balsamic vinegar drizzled on top.

Pre-Dessert
Yes, in Michelin star restaurants you do not only get amuse bouches that were not on the menu, you also get pre- and sometimes after-desserts. “Intermediate” courses are rather popular in haute cuisine, in the 90’s (e.g. in Pretty Woman) it was popular to serve a sorbet as intermediate course. You hardly see that anymore, but it still served for the same purpose; to freshen up your taste buds and prepare them for the courses to follow. This pre-dessert was topped with a cream cheese praline rolled in rasperry powder. In the glass was a cucumber based cold soup.

Praline (or the real dessert)
The main dessert was a little tower with the base of a sponge cake, topped with chocolate ice cream and surrounded by a vanilla and black rasperry sauce and a dark and white chocolate praline. To me the pralines didn’t add to the course, so they could have been skipped. While every part of it tasted good, the composition as a whole did not really convince me.

After-Dessert
The after-dessert were to cremes, vanilla and caramel and they surprisingly tasted very well.

Friandises
Accompanying our coffees and tea were some friandises. Sadly, I can’t tell you how they tasted, because there was simply no room left to try them!

All in all, one of the best dinners I’ve ever had. Just the amuse bouches alone were a sensation. The desserts fell somewhat short, but this could also be due to my high expectations as the chef is an Austrian guy. So the nagging above is really at very high standards. Should you ever find yourself in the area, take the opportunity and have dinner there. It’s well worth the money.

Vila Joya
Estrada da Galé, 8201-917 Albufeira
Opening Hours: Daily for lunch and dinner
Reservation required, online reservation possible. Dress code mentioned as “casual elegant” (no clue what that is).