Santa Maria, on the tip of the island of Sal, has concentrated all of its streetlights on one main drag, which is home to 90% of its bars and restaurants. This makes stepping a few streets back to Marea seem a little adventurous, but apart from the occasional roving pack of wild dogs, it is just dark, not dangerous. So I was excited to choose this as my first Cape Verde Restaurant Review!

Marea emerges from the gloom as a little floral oasis, with a stout half-door between you and Santa Maria’s culinary highlight.

It seems churlish to be by the sea and say you are sick of fried, freshly landed, fish, but if you gorge yourself on it at every meal, as it is easy to do when it is so plentiful and tasty, it can be worth taking a break. Judging by the popularity of the pizzeria on the main drag, it seems most people switch to doughy carbs to take their mind off the fish, but Marea has something else in mind, and so is worthy of a proper Cape Verde Restaurant Review..

This is not a big restaurant, and you do need to book (easily done by WhatsApp). We saw people turned away, including a couple who had made a big show of being “CV” regulars at hotel check-the day before. Nothing like a little schadenfreude served cold! Fortunately, a very good friend of ours (now promoted to very very good friend) had tipped us off about this place and we booked a few weeks ago.

The menu is simple, and not cheap by local standards (but that is exceptionally relative). Cash is not only King here, it’s Queen and minor royalty too: Very much a “no cards” establishment.

Having sworn off fried fish, we proceeded to try marinated fish instead, both starting with the Fish Carpaccio. But before that arrived, we were served some excellent homemade bread with oil and parsley sauce (amazing), and some amuse-bouches. The “tomato” was actually a delicious pate, in disguise.

The secret of the fish was the small but intensely powerful sauces that came with it, presumably local fruits, which complemented the fish perfectly.

For mains, I continued the fish theme, opting for tuna in a green pepper sauce. The tuna was tasty and well cooked, and the green pepper added a layer of spiciness to it.

Mrs Nigel opted for the Iberian pork, and while it was a long, long way from home, it was delicious. Unfortunately, it was just a little too much food for her as the portion was exceptionally generous.

We washed all of this down with a local Rose (yes, Cape Verde has vineyards, just not on Sal, which is, as the name suggests, one big salt flat) which bucked the current UK trend for light pink Rose, and had a dark hue, with flavour to match. Excellent.

The bill, with a tip, came to about £100, which was more than well worth it.

There was a final free amuse-bouche, a limoncello ball on one spoon and whipped cream on the other. They had gone before I could even get my camera out of my pocket.

This trip to Cape Verde is for one of those big anniversaries, and we were a little worried we would not be able to find the perfect spot to celebrate. Well, that is one less thing to worry about, and we have already booked our spot! Thanks again to SW for the recommendation, giving me the opportunity to make this my first Cape Verde restaurant review…

Update

Since I first wrote this review, we went back for our anniversary meal, and it was just as good as the first time, so we weren’t just lucky. One top of a very nice floral arrangement to mark the day, we also had “meat ravioli”, which was actually an Osso Buco filling, which I loved and “Roast Beef”, which was delicious, but far too much (and not quite as good as Il Faro up the road, review to follow). For mains, we both had Serra in orange sauce, which was properly bitter, and again a very generous portion. And I managed to get a picture of the limoncello balls as well. This place really is amazing.

Conclusion

Rating: 5/5 (I may have to rethink these ratings to have a “6/5” for somewhere like this)

Marea: https://wa.link/4hpkr9