Paper Moon Algarve — Restaurant in Albufeira

Well, the name is rather strange for an Italian restaurant. And so is the food. Fusion food? Portuguese-italian or italian-portuguese? If I want really good Portuguese food, there are many better restaurants around. But this should be Italian? There are a few good Italian restaurants in the Algarve. But not this one. The view of the terrace is stunning (this saves one star); the tables are far too close for a period when Covid risk is rising again. What about social distancing? Same remark for the acoustics; reverberation of noise on all surfaces (soil, ceiling, glass etc.). So on every table people started to speak louder. At the end it became unbearable. On a neighbor table one elder lady had to take off her hearing aids. Only cozy place: a sofa lounge just before the restaurant, with carpets, plush cushions, so that the acoustics is pleasant. Our neighbors complained twice about the too loud background music. The volume was significantly reduced, but this didn't solve the design mistakes. But this is a problem for the whole hotel: too loud, too much. Zero coziness. Climate control: far too cold; I thought we have to reduce energy consumption because of the energy crisis. One degree warmer for the whole hotel would save a lot of electricity and make us feel more comfortable. We had to get up and go to the terrace to warm up, at night. Isn't this a paradox? And by the way: We were guided to the elevator to go to the fourth floor. But there were only buttons up to the third floor. But then we left on the third floor to be on the fourth floor. This is symbolic: the restaurant and the hotel need a lot of fixing and optimizing. So we left with the feeling: Again only when many many details are fixed. And only...

I can't believe that it's taken me so long to review this place.

On the last day of the holiday we went for a family meal and this place was amazing. Everything was perfect. The food was delicious, the staff were so welcoming and friendly, our waitress was so entertaining. She was involved, took photos, and had conversations with us, and it added to the experience. The manager even came out and spent time with us. He used to own or manage a store over here in the UK in Selfridges several years ago.

Unfortunately, we didn't get their names, but our waitress was this lovely young Portuguese black lady with short hair, and the manager was this tall, slim, dark-haired Portuguese man. They were both so warm and professional. I hope they see this because I plan on going back there in the future, and hopefully, they'll be there.

On to the food. It was stunning. Rich in flavour, lovely presentation, and the taste was very good. The desserts are huge. They could easily pass for another meal but well worth it. They sat us right by the view of the sunset. It was amazing!!

Lovely food, beautiful views, friendly staff. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, the drinks were nice and strong as well. Definitely...

First of all let me say that the restaurant is located inside the W hotel which is amazing. Best part about the experience was the service. The food on the other hand was a big let down.. We started with the trio tartar dish which was good size but lacked any seasoning other than olive oil which was the main (and only) taste you could feel. Then we had the lamb chops which were ok, nothing to rave about but again lacked seasoning. We then had the OWO pizza which was very nice but only if you can handle your spicy food. We were hesitant about getting a dessert and decided to give it a chance and net with the biggest disappointment of the night.. we took a sort of cannoli with vanilla filling. The dough was mushy, the filling was frozen and the general tastes were pretty bad and felt like frozen store bought and then unfrozen for us.. For a price tag like paper moon’s I’d expect a much much better food. Sadly 100% won’t return and...