Madeira cuisine is mainly based on fish and seafood, what do you expect, it’s an island, after all!
However that said all types of delicious dishes available, from the growing number of restaurants that are influenced by different global cultures and locations.
To help you get started (but you are not limited to these), traditional dishes in Madeira include:
Meet: Espetada (a sort of a beef kebab), Picado/Picadinho (Meet cubes served with toms and chips), Prego (Hamburgers in Bolo do caco buns, and often served with a slice of ham).
Fish: Espada com banana (battered black scabbard fish and banana); grilled limpets
Sides/Nibbles: bolo do caco (garlic bread) ; and bolo de mel
Deserts – Pastal de Nata (yep you guessed it!), apple pie and fresh fruit (passion fruit
Drinks: Madeiran wine, Poncha (alcoholic drink made from honey, sugar, and either orange juice, lemon juice or now passionfruit).
Below we have provided a small list of some of our favourite restaurants in Funchal and places we want to recommend and encourage you to also visit.
PLEASE NOTE – We have recommended these restaurants having previously had fantastic personal experiences of these venues; but unfortunately we cannot guarantee that your experience will match ours (however we really hope it does)! Please do let us know using the below form if your experience was not great and/or if you wish to provide further recommendations (which we will try before we potentially add them to our site).