Dan & I visited Ponta Delgada after a week on mainland Portugal for our wedding, where we ate all of the delicious Portuguese food (but no pizza)! When researching places to eat in the Azores, I came across Forneira São Dinis and its wood-fire pizzas, and I decided that we had to eat here! I mean, I really love pizza!
Wood oven pizza!
Forneira São Dinis is technically in Ponta Delgada, but its on the outskirts of town and about a 40 minute walk from the center. We walked it anyway, and the walk wasn’t terrible (although there were parts without a sidewalk). Forneira São Dinis is the only restaurant in the area, so its very easy to find.
Dan ready to eat!
I had made a reservation before I left home via email, but when we arrived they did not appear to have it… Whether they had it or not, we still got a great seat overlooking the Atlantic Ocean (and a parking lot!).
Table view.
Forneria Sao Dinis specializes in wood-fire cooking, particularly pizzas, but they have an entire menu of other dishes! There is definitely something for everyone on this menu, making it a good choice for families and groups!
The menu.
We started our meal with the most delicious sweet potato chips with a side of some sort of mayonnaise-based sauce! The chips and the sauce were really good! Great start to the meal!
Sweet potato chips!
For my main course, I clearly ordered a one of the pizzas (as mentioned, I love pizza!). My pizza was really delightful and was topped with real pepperoni (a true rareity in Europe!), mushrooms, lettuce, a tasty red sauce, cheese, and onion. You could tell it was cooked on a wood-fire oven. There is only one size of pizza and it was more than enough for me, but probably not quiet enough to split between two people unless you are ordering something else to accompany it.
PIZZA with REAL pepperonis!
Dan, a pizza snob, did not order the pizza. Instead, he ordered an octopus dish that was cooked in a wood-fired oven. The octopus came with potatoes, onion, and carrots. It looked really tasty but unfortunately, Dan did not love it… I guess the bar is pretty high for octopus in Portugal!
A pretty dish.
Dessert was much better. Since it is so difficult to pick a dessert, we split two – an Azorean pineapple and a chocolate crepe cooked on the wood-fired oven! The pineapple was served as a half pineapple and you could just eat it with a knife and fork. Like all Azorean pineapples, this one was sweet and delicious!
Platted pineapple.
Close up!
The chocolate crepe was also really, really good! It was filled with Nutella and my only complaint is that it was not bigger! We finished the entire dish!
Chocolate crepe.
For wine with our meal, we ordered São Miguel’s own wine, a red Jardinete! Despite being grown and produced on São Miguel, Jardinete wine was a bit hard to find. In fact, we only found it one other place during the week that we were there (and we were looking for it!). It was definitely nice to try since we were on São Miguel, but I do not think I will order it again.
Sao Miguel wine!
STEAL OUR DINNER
Forneria São Dinis: Rua Padre Fernando Vieira Gomes, nº20, 9500-241 Ponta Delgada, Azores. Open Monday – Thursday 12:00 – 15:00 and 19:00 – 23:00. Friday 12:00 – 15:00 and 19:00 – 00:00. Saturday and Sunday hours are not clear from the website. Reservations can be made online. They also deliver to Ponta Delgada.
ON A BUDGET
Forneira São Dinis is definitely not the most budget friendly restaurant in Ponta Delgada and its located a bit out of town. While you can walk, most people will probably take a car at least one way. For more budget friendly options, stick to downtown Ponta Delgada, which is teeming with lots of budget friendly spots.