The lifestyle, quality of products and climate are attracting more and more foreign chefs to Faro, who choose the city to establish themselves and combine local raw materials with influences from international cuisine.
In a city where tourism developed later than in other parts of the Algarve, international restaurants were limited, around a decade ago, mainly to pizzerias or Chinese food restaurants. This scenario has been changing, accompanied by the growth of more sophisticated spaces focused on seasonal menus.
With the increase in the number of tourists, the municipality of Faro also registered an increase in the number of restaurants. If in 2014 there were 141 restaurants registered as traditional (with table service), in 2024 this number increased to 221, according to data provided to the Lusa agency by the National Statistics Institute ().
Foreign chefs find new opportunities in Faro
Arriving in Portugal from the other side of the Atlantic in 2004, Argentinean Josefina Cardeza first settled in Lisbon, where she opened two restaurants. At the end of 2019, shortly before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he decided to invest in Faro, where he opened Los Locos.
Despite the initial difficulties, “Ju”, as she is known, believes that the city benefited from a significant change after the pandemic, with greater openness to tourism and the emergence of new restaurants, driven by the increase in visitors.
With a small space, the 50-year-old businesswoman admits that opening the restaurant in places like Vilamoura or Almancil could have been easier, but considers that Faro presents interesting challenges, as the local public continues to develop more diverse gastronomic habits.
“It gives me pleasure that people have new experiences”, he says, adding that the restaurant’s concept is linked to his own personality: “it’s like eating at my house and telling stories. Everything here tells a story”.
International projects cross flavors and cultures
A few years later, also attracted by the region’s climate, quality of life and products, Sean Marsh decided to transform an old seafood restaurant in Faro into a bistro, giving rise to the ATO restaurant.
The American chef, currently 40 years old, moved to Europe in 2011 and chose Faro to settle down. He explains that opening a restaurant in Lisbon would mean being open for lunch and dinner throughout the week to be able to cover the costs.
Therefore, he chose to invest in a smaller city. “I prefer to be the captain of a smaller boat,” says the chef, who opened the restaurant in 2022.
That same year, Sky Visser opened the Céu restaurant, which combines influences from Asian and South American cuisine. Son of a Dutch father and Indonesian mother, he was born and raised in Curaçao, in the Caribbean, and brought to Faro the diversity of flavors that marked his career.
At the age of 27, he arrived in the Algarve influenced by his parents, who moved to the region after retirement, and quickly fell in love with the local lifestyle, the mild winters and the quality of the products.
“I needed a place that wasn’t too cold, with a calmer lifestyle. Faro has a lot of potential, it’s almost a forgotten city, because the tourism boom arrived here later than in other parts of the Algarve, which was good for the city”, he considers.
Tourism and gastronomic recognition boost the city
Despite being the city with the largest population in the Faro district, for many years its airport functioned mainly as a gateway for tourists heading to other destinations in the Algarve.
The first hostel only opened in 2011 and it was only in 2021 that Faro started to have its first five-star hotel.
More recently, the city has also achieved recognition in the area of gastronomy. This year, for the first time, a restaurant in Faro — Alameda, by chef Rui Sequeira — received a star in the Michelin Guide Portugal 2026, a distinction that marks “high-level cuisine, worth stopping by”.
- By Marta Duartefrom the Lusa agency
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