O Penedo — Restaurant in Albufeira

A Truly Awful Dining Experience – Please Avoid

My partner and I had what can only be described as one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had. We came in for dinner hoping for a relaxed evening, but left feeling shocked, disrespected, and genuinely uncomfortable.

We ordered the sirloin steak with herb butter for myself, and the tuna steak for my partner. The problems began immediately. The herb butter on my steak was stone cold—as if it had just come straight out of the fridge. Anyone familiar with this dish knows the butter should be warm enough to melt over the meat. The only vegetable served was a pile of plain carrots. My steak, ordered medium rare, arrived completely overcooked.

My partner’s tuna steak was also overdone and unexpectedly came with a sauce that wasn’t listed on the menu. We politely raised our concerns with the server—who to his credit, did bring us a warmed-up sauce. But by then, we had already decided we wouldn’t be paying for the mains and just wanted to pay for our starters, drinks and then leave.

Then things took a turn. The manager approached and instead of listening, immediately became dismissive and condescending. When I pointed out that the steak was overcooked, he actually said, “You’re too young, you don’t know.” I’m 34, and I’ve been dining in restaurants for over 20 years—this comment was insulting and completely uncalled for.

To make matters worse, a diner seated next to us witnessed the interaction—particularly the manager’s tone and sexist behavior toward us—and promptly got up and left without even ordering. That should say it all.

When we made it clear we weren’t paying for the mains, the manager escalated the situation and threatened to call the police. He even asked if we had our passports. When I replied that no one carries passports to dinner, he claimed that it’s “the norm” in Portugal—which, frankly, is absurd.

A second owner joined the situation, and rather than try to mediate or de-escalate, he offered no solutions and simply reinforced the hostility. We were so uncomfortable and intimidated by the end of the interaction that we paid just to get out of there.

My wife left visibly shaken and devastated by how we were treated. We can’t help but wonder—would we have been treated this way if we were men?

Please do not support this establishment. What we experienced was not just poor service—it was rude, threatening, sexist, and downright...

First off, let me say that I frequent this place every year when I visit, but this one visit has ensured I won't visit again.

5 of us arrived just about 10pm (as it closes at 11pm), we'd arranged our night around this visit as it's on the way back to our villa.

The man who greeted us, arms crossed, simply said 'we're closed'. After mentioning about the closing time of 11pm, the man used a number of phrases such as "we close when we want", "we close if we don't have clients" (there was another group of 6 sat down in front of us), "You looked at summer opening hours, not out of season"

I can understand if someone is apologetic, maybe that because of slow service the kitchens are closing, but this waiter could not even offer the basic courtesy of an apologetic response. Instead he was rude and disengaging. I thought in the low season, having customers is a good thing!

After telling friends this was a nice place with a view, I will now be saying to avoid it due to the rude staff member. Amazing how one experience can change your viewpoint.

After looking at other reviews, seems to be a trend of rude service.

There's plenty of other lovely restaurants that I'd choose over this, and I had excellent service, and amazing food, from Restaraunte Casanova in...

We decided to stop there for a quick lunch before hit the road off to the airport. First we saw the site, nice view on to the beach, sound it great. Then our waitress came. No smile, not articulating when talking, at this point we're not feeling welcomed. We ordered some wine to start with, she served us but she spilled some wine on the table. No "sorry", no "oops let me clean up this" NOTHING. Some other customers arrived in the meantime. Same thing, no smile, little communication. At this point we knew that wasn't just because of us. And we started to observe all the staff. The only approachable person was a blond young man. All other staff were miserable. The food was good. I left €2 tips by principal but this waitress did not deserve it. When we paid and left she look at us and said "cao" we could not wait to get out of there. Such a shame that this owner employed people like that because this is a nice restaurant in the good location. My partner and I do travel a lot, we also understand that language barrier could trigger a all experience. But we're both in customer service and we know that smiling coast €0,£0,¥0,$0 you do not need training for smiling to customers. Unfortunately we do not...