Ancora — Restaurant in Albufeira

I hate having to do this but I feel the only way to get better is to give some feedback. We decided to give this restaurant a try on our last day. The outside of the restaurant looked amazing and inviting, we usually look at reviews before going to a restaurant but for some reason we just decide why not, it looks like a nice place. Unfortunately we should have looked at the reviews because I definitely share most of the sentiments as previous reviewers. Although the staff (our waitress in particular) was very sweet, the food was probably the most depressing part of our trip to Portugal. The nachos we ordered were just plain nacho chips with a really cheap bright orange cheese sauce that tasted like sour milk (honestly this just came across as extremely lazy in my opinion which says a lot about the rest of the food as a whole), the glasses on the table were dated, dusty and dirty when we arrived. My main meal I ordered was chicken breast with piri piri, the chicken was thick and dry and the piri piri was just drizzled on like an after-thought after it was cooked and it honestly tasted like they drizzled some Nandos sauce on top, the mushroom sauce was a done sauce they just reheated and the fries were limp and tasteless. I looked around at the other patrons and I've never seen a restaurant with so many mutually disappointed and dissatisfied faces. I'm sure this restaurant can do better but for such a small menu I expect better (or any)...

Where do I begin. Well, looking forward to a nice steak all day and my group of friends decide this would be a good place to go, first wrong choice of the evening. Ordered the local beer, which would have honestly tasted better had it been preconsumed by someone else and served into a glass to me. Then we decided to order the nicest sounding steak on the menu "top deck" a fillet steak wrapped in bacon and garlic with a sauce of your choice. We then finally get steaks that don't look anything like their description nor does the waiter care that we all ordered our steaks at differently, we clarified this is not what we ordered, so the plates were sent back and came back with a burnt piece of ham slapped atop of it. The sauce also refused to move out of the gravy boat. Medium rare? The cow might as well still have been consuming the lettuce on the plate itself. Well done? Charcoal briquette may have been less burnt. And last but not least I've never seen steak being served with a lemon and lime. We tried to complain and were offered more toilet beer. Highly not...

Asked for a medium steak and a steak arrived that was cooked almost to being burnt. Queried with the staff as it was practically inedible and the rude member of staff initially argued to say that there were red tender parts in it (evidently not as I had cut it through and clearly demonstrated it was practically burnt). Then the staff member just walked off without saying anything and returned a few minutes later shrugging his shoulders saying he couldn’t do anything. Following this I asked if they could provide a different steak or refund the meal to which he just walked off again without saying anything and eventually after what I can only assume was waiting for me to just crack on and eat it anyway and everyone at the table had finished their meal the same staff member came over and asked what I wanted to do. To which he was surpised when I said I would like another steak. Absolutely shocking service and rude staff, definitely wouldn’t go again. I’ve never written a complaint before but couldn’t leave this...