Albufeira has all the tourist staples — pizza, fish and chips, curry houses along the Strip — but the old town has genuinely good Portuguese restaurants at reasonable prices. Fresh seafood is the thing to eat: grilled sardines (sardinhas assadas), cataplana (a clam and fish stew cooked in a copper dome), and perceves (goose barnacles, an Algarve speciality worth trying once). The daily tourist menu (ementa turística), typically three courses with wine for €10–15, is better value in the old town than anywhere near the beach.
Dom Marcos (Rua Alves Correia 100) is one of the old town's most consistently praised local restaurants — Portuguese cooking, generous portions, fair prices, and tables spilling out onto a quiet lane. O Zé near the Largo Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco has been feeding locals for decades and does the best grilled fish in the immediate area. For fresh seafood at picnic prices, the fish market near Praia dos Pescadores sells the morning's catch through the early afternoon.