O Lusitano — Restaurant in Albufeira

We chose this place one night based on a 4.3 rating from 58 reviewers in Google Maps. I don't mean to negate other's experiences, but I'm writing a dissenting review, with the caveat that it's from a specific point of view: three of visited late one evening in the Algarve off season. There was only one other group that evening but they were quite large, perhaps as many as twenty, of all ages and clearly having a great time making a night of it; a good sign.

In contrast, we were weary from travel, and wanted only a single main course before bed, rather than the customary multiple courses, and no wine, also highly unusual, even for us. This does not mean we don't enjoy the multi-course, lingering meals with good wine, but not that night, and it was pricey.

Background completed I will get to the point: the service was extremely irritating as I will explain, and frankly, all three of us found the fare sub-standard by any measure.

We ordered a single appetizer: a plate of garlic bread; it turned out to be a meager portion, the bread mediocre at best, and even the garlic butter didn't help much; we've dined at hundreds of restaurants around the world and none of us could recall such uninspired garlic bread. We hoped to have some along with our fish, but as time dragged on, no fish arrived. After 40 minutes of waiting I finally politely inquired about the delay at which point our waiter cheerfully informed us that he had not ordered our fish prepared because we had not finished our entrada - by which he meant a single small piece of the forlorn bread that had not yet been consumed. He informed us that this was the correct way to eat, to linger and enjoy the meal, and even chided us for looking at our phones. (Tired of waiting, we were planning the next day's events.) He went on to explain that this was "real" food, lovingly prepared from "real" ingredients unlike the fast food we Americans eat. He smugly doubted my politely worded assertions that there many fine restaurants in the US. I tried pointing out that that several of my family (my wife included) are great cooks; my sister even authored several cookbooks, one of my brothers writes a food column, our three children had all worked at restaurants, and a close friend of ours owns one. To no avail, nothing would convince him that Americans understood what good food was. To add injury to insult, when the main course arrived, we found both the sea bass dried out and over salted, served with flavorless whole potatoes and a few equally uninspired vegetables.

We made a dignified and polite retreat, lied about our enjoyment level and tipped anyway. Why? Because we refused to play the role of the "ugly American", and because our waiter, despite his behavior, was well meaning and completely convinced that he was correct. Instead, I offer this review as a warning that if you are from the US, you should be thick skinned - or at least make your expectations clear up front. Perhaps several bottles of over-priced...

A horrible and questionable experience from the start. Since the beginning we asked what was the house specialty and received the answer that everything was special which us a good feeling that we would enjoy our dinner. It took quite a while for the waiters to take the order of the food. While ordering we asked how big was the kids menu and we were assured that the chicken dish was no bigger than a finger and we order 2 dishes because of this, besides a soup as a main course which the waiter of course knew, everything for a person. We were surprised in a bad way when the 2 portions of chicken arrived and they were normal sized. Besides this, one of the other main course dishes, a beef steak, while chewing one of the people eating it discovered a piece of hair in the steak; we of course told the waiter who was skeptical at first, and even saved and showed the piece of hair in the meat. The waiter asked if we want a new steak, but because it was already eaten almost entirely we politely refused. After that we order dessert and asked for the bill. Upon receiving the bill we were curious to see if the restaurant would offer a reduction or at least complimentary dish. Imagine our surprise that we not receive anything we had previously thought of. I do not recommend this restaurant, it is just a fancy facade with nice words coming out from the waiters, but once you start looking at smaller details it is definitely not worth from a food quality or service...

The best restaurant in albufeira 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Don’t believe fake tripadvisor reviews that place this wonderful restaurant around the 65 mark in the tripadvisor reviews when every two bob Indian takeaway in the top ten, 6 last time I counted!!! Also number 1 on those reviews are a two for £12 restaurant, a bit like Wetherspoons in the U.K., so judge trip advisor reviews at your peril!!

Ive been coming to albufeira for many, many years now and have eaten at almost every restaurant in town, now you have to judge a restaurant on its consistent standards.

Service - Second to NO other restaurant in albufeira, it’s never once changed from the highest of standards, Pedro and team are outstanding. Hygiene - We judge this on the toilets, you could could literally eat your dinner in there, spotless!! Quality - The quality of food is top notch! Food - For typical Portuguese food there is no restaurant anywhere near as good as o’Lusitanos, We’ve literally had everything on the menu(which changes) and never once have we been disappointed. From the starters to desert everything is lovely, the sausage, mushroom, prawn starters are fabulous, but the highlight for me is either the Portuguese or lusitano steak 🥩 Out of this world.

You simply couldn’t spend your hard earned money anywhere better, Pedro and team...