Old Tavern — Local services in Faro

So I decided to spend the day in faro and needed to find a place for early dinner. We checked a few places and came across this restaurant and was immediately drawn to the traditional Portuguese menu.

However, it was mid afternoon and therefore it wasn’t time for dinner but My son decided to speak to the waiter to check if they had any vegan options for which they didn’t. So Ok no problem: we decided that me and my wife would eat there while my son ate somewhere else.

So when it came to dinner, we entered a spare table to be greeted by a waiter shouting from inside “wait!!”. This was a shock and so aggressive and rude. But nevertheless we waited and another waiter came and cleaned the table. The waiter then went back inside to complain to another waiter about us in Portuguese. (But What they didn’t realise was - 1) I’m English but I can speak Portuguese - 2) my wife is from the Algarve - 3) my son is mixed but can speak Portuguese). Not only were they very rude and very disparaging about us but they were speaking really load (they must have assumed that we didn’t understand) they were constantly swearing and moaning, not the atmosphere you want when you’re trying to eat with your family.

While another waiter started to badger another customer (sitting next to us) complaining that they are waiting around too long before ordering - I couldn’t believe it!

So clearly, the service was shocking and I would avoid this place at all costs because of this!

Now to the food - the short answer … terrible! We ordered, prawns and chourico cooked in the traditional Portuguese dish (cooked via burning alcohol). The prawns did not taste of anything, missing so much seasoning and it was like chewing rubber.

The Chourico was of terrible quality and wasn’t cooked anywhere near enough. (They strangely served another set of tourists with the flame still lit but not us… strange) the wine was shocking bad too

Honestly, I cannot stress this enough ! They do not deserve your money.

—

This is their reply (in English);

“Hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! Poor quality sausage??? I don't think so! I don't even know if you've ever tried one as good as ours! But these are the opinions of someone who sat at a table without permission and completely dirty! Rules are rules and we still have some! We are a typical tavern! Not a shopping center!!!!”

Update - a response to their reply :

Mental! So as you can see from the above reply that they clearly do not get it. Notice how they do not acknowledge the fact that they spoke badly and rudely about us as customers before we even had the chance to order anything!

Regarding the food - Yes I have had good and bad chouriço as I have been married to a Portuguese woman from the algarve for 15 + years and travelled throughout Portugal and experience good and bad food (rarely bad) and good and bad service (rarely bad) and yours is by far the worst I have experienced!!!

Your arrogance and rudeness is on full display in your reply

You really do not deserve to take money from people who have worked hard...

Don’t understand the good Reviews at all.

We’ve been there a few hours ago and it was very disappointing.

First we came and the waiter told us to wait, due to busyness but there have been free tables for 2 and he totally forget about us. So we asked the waitress if she can give us a table (after waiting 15 min on chairs uncomfortable in front of the other guests and starring on the free tables) and we finally could sit down.

Second we ordered grilled octopus, shrimps and gazpacho. Both first two dishes were very overcooked and the octopus did taste like nothing. The shrimps had a tasty Creme, which made the shrimps eatable but bottomline - overcooked and mushy. The only tasty dish was the gazpacho soup - very fresh and recommendable.

Last the waiters are very unfriendly and do not care about service except of one waiter who was very in a good mood but unfortunately did not serve our table. The woman who served and whom we paid for our meal did not say a word except of „36€“ - no thanks no nothing. Furthermore the waitress cleaned the tables by spraying the soap directly on the table instead of spraying it in the cloth, so the spray goes on your food. Luckily we finished the dishes, otherwise we couldn’t eat it anymore.

We paid and left and would not come back to his place.

Added — PLUS!!: cannot handle any critics as what I see below. Very disappointing. Instead of apologizing and checking on it’s staff to make it better next time. I’m a cook myself and this has nothing to do with „slow cooking“ plus you need to advertise this...

We came to Faro on a Sunday and we parked our car at the free parking lot near the old town.

On a Sunday, quite a lot of restaurants are shut. We chose this one based on the high rating on Google Maps.

It is situated in a very cute alleyway. When we arrived, the weather was amazing so we were sitting outside. We stood there for a couple of minutes no one served us so we just picked a table and sat down.

The menu is on the chalkboard. I couldn’t understand much. I just looked at the photos on Google Maps and picked what I think is tasty. Waiters can speak English and they are very fast.

We picked fried octopus, shrimp and pork stew. The flavours of the octopus is very rich and tasty. However, the texture of the octopus is a little bit chewy. Overall I t is still very good. The beef is full of garlicky taste. The juice and the oil are very suitable for bread and boiled potato. The stew pork it is recommended by the waiter for our toddler kid. It is tomato, base juice and full of herby flavour. The pork is so soft and indeed kids can eat it very easily.

I would recommend this place for your first meal in Faro.

A family of three we spent around €65-€70...