Massa Fina da Praia da Galé — Restaurant in Albufeira

The place looks great — clean, modern, and close to where we were staying. 4.4 stars on Google and decent prices, so we thought: what could go wrong? Well… everything but the decor.

We were a group of 10. They don’t take reservations, so we showed up right at reopening. I gestured toward the empty outdoor terrace, but we were directed inside like it was our only option (funny how later a group of 8 was seated outside).

Service at the table was fine, but paying? A nightmare. One single waiter processing card payments for a line of people, and we had to split the bill into three. Since we were a group of 10, split into three families, we needed to divide the bill into three. We had to go through every item, saying what each of us had and didn’t have — a total waste of time. I’ve been to other restaurants where people simply say how much they want to pay from the total, and the last group covers the difference. Simple.

Starters? A disaster. “Ham and cheese bites” were sad little flavorless calzones. The garlic bread? Just oily, paper-thin pizza dough with mozzarella. Olives were fine — but let’s not pretend that’s the chef’s achievement.

Then came the main course. Spaghetti Bolognese. Everyone got theirs — except me. I waited… and regretted it deeply. The pasta was so bad I still had the awful taste in my mouth three hours later. One bite was enough. I’ve never eaten anything...

I emailed 4 weeks ahead for a table for 9 people We walked 30 mins with 3 small children to be greeted with "we have no reservation for you" I showed my returned email confirming my booking - "we have no table for 9 people" I persisted with wanting a table as I had booked weeks before - the arrogant young man said "what do you want me to do!" he then produced a piece of paper from somewhere with my booking details on it! - "you can sit outside" it was cold windy and we had 3 children - we were not sitting outside! So don't email as your booking goes on a scrap of paper to be forgotten about Didn't seem to have anyone in charge only young arrogant incompetent staff who didn't care if you ate...

Seemed like a nice place, but was not impressed with the food nor the service. The breadsticks were way too hard to chew, the starters were fine, and the mains were small. The pizza was thin and crispy like a sheet of paper. We requested a child portion for my daughter, and they gave us (and billed us for) a full portion. At least we were not left hungry... The desserts were okay too, nothing exciting. Service was a bit slow, and struggled with English. When they took our starter plates, we had the cutlery on them, so they asked if we wanted clean sets for the main... Then we had to ask for cutlery for the desert. The prices were great, I guess you get what...