LobStar . Enjoyable Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Sal

Restaurant refused service because I’m Asian

I went to the restaurant today for dinner. We sat at a table by the windows, were showed menus and told how to connect to the Wi-Fi to see a more comprehensive, digital menu.

10 minutes after we ordered for food, while we were waiting for the food, we were ordered, not even asked politely, to move to another table that was inside.

The reason given was that apparently the table we sat on was ‘reserved’, without any indication nor label for reservation. It was 6:40pm and we were informed the table was reserved for 7pm.

I asked, why we were moved around and I was immediately given the answer ‘it’s not about you being yellow’. Notwithstanding how racist the statement was itself, it’s very interesting to see why the derogatory racial term was mentioned in the first place , if not for a telling reflection of what all the staff were thinking — how dare you being ‘yellow’ and occupied a table that’s clearly reserved for white tourists only!

After I refused to move tables, we were totally ignored by the staff for half an hour, an entirety of 30 minutes, without anything being served: no water, no food that was ordered — they wanted to force us to leave by playing the waiting game.

Avoid. If you don’t want to pay to be treated in a discriminatory fashion because you are not...

One of best location in the city for this elegant but yet very cozy beach restaurant. Beautiful terrace with an amazing view of Santa Maria Bay and of the well know "Pontao". A must if you are in Santa Maria, rich menu best in seafood dishes. Close during this time as unfortunately most of the business are close because of Covid situation. Moreover, this is a small island and basically is totally isolated from the rest of the world. The good thing is that it is very safe here; in Sal at this very moment, there are 0 people infected, and remember that it is a tropical island, so we have no complaints at all. I'm used to living here, and I hope that all will start to move as it uses to be. As the government told us during the last days, Capo Verde already made all the arrangements for the vaccine, and if it goes as is planned, I really hope so; by March or April, the vaccine supposes to be administrated to all people in all islands. We have just to hold and hoping for the best. I believe that the worse time is past. Note: as I said most of business are closed at the moment, the pics posted are not mine, but come from pubblic internet posts as tripadvisor. I will post new pics as soon the situation will back normal....

The restaurant itself is lovely, perfectly located to enjoy the New Year’s fireworks—a truly ideal setting. However, the food fell far short of expectations.

We ordered the lobster risotto, which arrived astonishingly quickly, within 10 minutes. It raised questions about whether it was precooked, as risotto typically requires more time to prepare properly. The tuna tartare was also disappointing, both in texture and appearance.

Service was another weak point. Despite several attempts to get the staff’s attention, I waited over 10 minutes, even as the waiters looked in my direction but failed to respond.

To make matters worse, the restaurant began closing before midnight, leaving many guests—who had chosen the venue specifically for the view—feeling rushed and disappointed. It’s a shame that such a prime location wasn’t matched by better...