Pepper’s Steakhouse Wins a Wine Spectator Award in Portugal

Pepper’s Steakhouse, a restaurant at the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura Algarve Resort in southern Portugal, has received a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award, a distinction widely followed in the restaurant and wine business for recognizing strong wine programs.

The award, granted by the American magazine Wine Spectator, is given to restaurants whose wine lists stand out for breadth, depth, quality and fit with the food and overall dining concept. For Pepper’s, the recognition comes as the restaurant also introduces a new menu and enters a new phase under Romeu Montes, who has been named executive chef of the resort.

The restaurant said the award strengthens its effort to offer a complete dining experience built around steakhouse cooking and a carefully structured wine selection. In the Algarve, where hotel dining often competes with independent restaurants for international travelers, the distinction gives Pepper’s added visibility among guests who pay close attention to wine service as part of a meal.

Montes is taking on a broader role at a significant moment for the property. In addition to overseeing Pepper’s Steakhouse, he now leads the culinary operation across the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura Algarve Resort, including four restaurants, three bars, a boutique café and the banqueting and events division. The appointment expands his responsibilities after years in senior kitchen roles at the hotel.

The new menu at Pepper’s keeps the restaurant centered on premium beef while widening the range of dishes around it. According to the resort, diners will find national and international cuts including Wagyu A5, Rubia Gallega, Black Angus, T-Bone, Tomahawk and Chateaubriand. The menu also includes contemporary side dishes, starters designed for sharing, fish and seafood options and desserts intended to round out the meal.

One of the operational changes in this new stage is a greater use of the restaurant’s Josper oven, whose live-fire cooking method is being used to deepen flavor in several dishes. The resort pointed to a tomato soup made with tomatoes roasted in the Josper as an example of how that technique is being applied beyond meat cookery.

In comments released with the announcement, Montes described the changes as an evolution rather than a break with what made Pepper’s known. He said the goal was to preserve the quality of the restaurant’s products while adding a more contemporary approach in which each detail contributes to an experience that feels authentic, balanced and memorable.

Montes brings nearly three decades of experience in luxury hospitality in the Algarve. His career began at Hotel Quinta do Lago and continued at Le Méridien Dona Filipa before he joined Tivoli Marina Vilamoura in 2018. At the resort, he served first as banquet chef and later as executive sous-chef before moving into his current position overseeing the full culinary operation.

He said his work is rooted in Portuguese and Algarve traditions while using contemporary techniques and close attention to product quality. That approach is now expected to shape not only Pepper’s Steakhouse but also the wider food program across the resort.

For Pepper’s, the Wine Spectator award arrives at a time when restaurants inside major hotels are trying to show they can compete not only on convenience and location but also on cellar strength and culinary identity. In that context, recognition from a U.S. publication with influence among wine buyers, collectors and travelers carries weight beyond Portugal.

The distinction also reflects how wine has become central to destination dining in resort markets such as the Algarve, where international visitors often look for restaurants that can pair local hospitality with global standards in food and beverage service. By linking its new menu to an award for its wine list, Pepper’s is positioning itself not simply as a steakhouse inside a hotel, but as a restaurant seeking standing in its own right within one of Portugal’s busiest tourism regions.