Best restaurants in Madeira

Top ChoiceRestaurants in Funchal

Take a superb location on pedestrianised Rua da Carreira, a team plucked from top Madeiran restaurants and an inspired owner, and the result is one of the most authentic dining experiences in the archipelago. João Caldeira has a created a restaurant with perfect service, meticulous attention to detail and 100% Madeiran dishes using island-sourced ingredients as far as possible.

Top ChoiceRestaurants in Santana

Stylishly rustic, this excellent hotel-restaurant sets the highest standards on the north coast. Wonderfully imaginative gourmet dishes, such as cream of beetroot soup with glazed chestnuts, foie gras infused with Madeira wine and quail marinated in sugar-cane molasses, blend international familiarity with a touch of exotic Macaronesia. Meals are taken indoors or out on the terrace with astonishing north-coast views.

Top ChoiceRestaurants in Funchal

This great shabby-chic Zona Velha restaurant uses local recipes that every Funchal avozinha (granny) would instantly recognise. Take a seat at the tightly packed jumble of tables to enjoy espada (scabbardfish) with banana, São Martinho codfish and lots of other genuine Madeiran favourites. To find out what's in your meal, see the recipes writ large on the walls.

Top ChoiceRestaurants in Funchal

Madeira's top seafood restaurant is an intimate affair at the heart of the Zona Velha, attracting tourists, locals and Portuguese rich and famous, who come for one of the most authentic dining experiences on the island. Fish from the waters around Madeira are complemented by Portuguese seafood air-freighted in every Saturday.

Restaurants in Funchal

Two Michelin stars shine brightly from the kitchen of chef Benoît Sinthon, who supplies very well-heeled diners with aromatic Mediterranean and gourmet Madeiran fare at the award-winning Cliff Bay Hotel. The renovated interior is surprisingly plain but the views make up for this. Smart casual attire required (jacket for men).

Restaurants in Funchal

Housed in an old stone-and-dark-beamed salt store, this is one of the city centre's best restaurants with a different menu to most of its competitors. Lamb and black pork are more mainland Portugal than Madeira, but scabbardfish and a dessert of pineapple carpaccio brings you right back to the Atlantic's sun-kissed shores.

Restaurants in Funchal

This little piece of elegant old Funchal has somehow survived amid the expanding concrete of this part of the Hotel Zone, offering Michelin-reviewed but affordable Mediterranean and Madeiran dishes in an oasis of traditional service. Some tables have wonderful Atlantic views.

Restaurants in Funchal

A Hotel Zone original that predates most of what's around it, this delightfully kitschsy Madeiran restaurant set in an ancient stone house is tastefully done out in Camacha wicker, azulejos (hand-painted tiles), wine barrels and vivid Madeiran cloth. The purely regional menu of classic island meat and fish can be enjoyed in one of the cool, low-lit dining spaces.

Restaurants in East Madeira

The aptly named Atlantis looks as though it's risen from the waves and clamped itself to the cliffside above the suntrap beach below the Galomar Hotel. Seating options are on chunky wicker inside, or out on the terrace above the crashing Atlantic. You'd expect an exclusively seafood menu, but meat and even uncommon dishes like duck make an appearance.

Restaurants in Câmara de Lobos

This contemporary place is Câmara de Lobos' best seafood restaurant, offering the highest quality Madeiran fare. The fish, including parrot fish, red bream, dourada (sea bream) and espada (scabbardfish) are sold by weight, lightly salted and grilled to perfection on acacia embers. Local seafood include limpets, whelks and occasionally octopus. There's sometimes live music in the evenings, including fado and Madeiran folk.

Restaurants in Funchal

The slightly obscure theme here is famous visitors to Madeira (mostly Portuguese celebs), but with a blood-red and basalt interior and black-and-white photos covering the walls it's an atmospheric place to spend an evening in the Zona Velha. Plates come laden with honestly prepared portions of espada (scabbardfish), tuna, rabbit, goat and lamb, and the wine flows freely.

Restaurants in Santana

The 'Northern Star' seats 145 at formally laid, tightly packed tables, onto which waitresses plonk the mainstays of Madeiran cuisine such as espada (scabbardfish) with banana, espetada (grilled beef skewers) and marinated pork. If you've had your fill of regional cuisine, there are also decent pizzas and house specials.

Restaurants in Porto Moniz

Around since the late 1960s, the 'Whale' wins the prize for Madeira's craziest restaurant location, sitting atop the crumbly volcanic rock on Port Moniz seafront, occasionally taking a wave from the furious Atlantic. Inside you'll discover an exhibition on the town's whaling and agricultural past before you reach the dining room and plates of limpets and scabbardfish with banana.

Restaurants in São Vicente

Located on São Vicente seafront, the town's best restaurant serves up 360-degree views of the coast and seascape (the dining room actually revolves slowly), as well as meat and fish in equal measure. The focus is firmly on Madeiran mainstays, such as scabbardfish, espetada (grilled beef skewers), tuna and fish stew. For dessert, go for the pudim de veludo (custard and caramel pudding).

Restaurants in Câmara de Lobos

The sister restaurant of Vila do Peixe is the 'House of Meat', a clean-cut eatery specialising in traditional espetada (chunks of beef covered in salt, garlic and laurel leaf, impaled on a green laurel skewer and grilled over acacia embers). Interesting sides include sweet potatoes with molasses and typical Madeiran milho frito (fried corn cubes).

Restaurants in East Madeira

Occupying the original 19th-century mansion house at the Quinta Splendida, this gourmet restaurant serves the most exquisite meals on this stretch of the coast. Take a seat in one of the three rooms to enjoy a seasonal menu, with the flambéed dishes a speciality of the house. For dessert, go for the crêpe Suzette, flambéed with Grand Marnier and orange sauce.

Restaurants in Mountains - Interior

At the turn off on the ER103 for Pico do Arieiro, this rustic mountain refuge plates up Portuguese and Madeiran favourites in a welcoming, slightly old-fashioned dining room. It's just the place to reheat after a hike in the hills with a few shots of poncha (local sugar-cane spirit drink) and a bowl of hearty and warming Madeiran tomato soup.

Restaurants in Funchal

Outside the tables are dressed in traditional Madeiran stripes, inside Europe's largest collection of football scarves hangs from the ceiling while 1000 beer bottles are lined up in glass cases. Characterful owner Ricardo has packed this ancient stone house in the backstreets of old Funchal with his personal collections, which you can admire as you enjoy the limited but well-cooked menu.

Restaurants in Funchal

For a bit of olde-worlde elegance, head to the dining room of this quinta hotel, all Turkish carpets, antique lamps and starched tablecloths. Venison carpaccio, herring caviar and duck in gooseberry sauce are a continent away from usual Madeiran favourites, but the fare here provides a welcome change for those lingering longer in the Atlantic. Smart casual attire only.

Restaurants in Funchal

Fusion isn't a word used often in Madeiran dining (bananas don't fuse that well), but this funky little urban bistro is attempting something never before tried on the island, and that is to marry traditional Madeiran/Portuguese flavours with their Asian and South American cousins. Add a contemporary design inserted into a traditional building and the effect is impressive.