Restaurante Bellavita — Restaurant in Albufeira

2025: zero stars. Sorry I can't give zero stars. A visit in March 2025 was the worst ever. Just coming from hospital and being handicapped (for a few weeks only I hope) my wife and I enter the restaurant 13:45. Only two tables have guests. Most tables are empty. At that time of the day no big business is to be expected. I walk with pain and a lot of difficulties to the first table and want to sit down. The responsible for the restaurant denies me the table and sends me in the corner, on a small table. I tell him "no" and want to explain to him my temporary problem and that we were still waiting for two friends. But he feels so offended with my no, that he asks me immediately, in an extremely aggressive tone in his voice and equally aggressive body language: "why do you speak to me like that?" . So my wife and me, we immediately left the restaurant without any further verbal or body language exchange. Can I give zero stars when handicapped persons are treated like that?

2017-2020: 5 stars; good old times and our favorite restaurant in the region 2021: 5 stars during COVID; excellent home delivery 2022: 3 stars; 2023: 1 star: after more than 25 visits we became fed up with the very rapid watering down to an unacceptably low level. the best competent and charming servers have left; after having been such a frequent client, also in difficult COVID times where we ordered food to home delivery, the owner asks us to never come back as we don't glorify him. The best pizzaiolo has left; the food quality is medium; the quantities have been reduced to about half and should be called tapas, not dishes. The post-COVID prices have increased very significantly. The pizzas have little to do with good Italian Napoli type pizzas (they even have pizza with pineapples, the worst insult you can make to Italian cuisine, after ketchup and breaking spaghetti); they now resemble more to American fast food pizzas; I want to have the best traditional Napoli pizzas: so I have to do-it-myself or I have to drive to Faro center or Quinta do Lago or Almancil where you find half a dozen of really good Italian food and pizza tasting like the best places in Italy where I lived for many years. in Italy today you get tasteless fast food. So I regretfully give one star: not sufficient quality, insufficient quantity, impersonal service (they change the personnel too often to create a cozy atmosphere) where they don't recognized the most frequent guests, and an owner that insults his best paying guests and does not understand that constructive criticism is the very best help he can get for free. 2024: But finally the owner understood the criticism and the good pizzaiolo is hired back; so I add one star to my review; but there is still a lot to change to get the stars back to...

Zero rating due to the fact that this Italian restaurant is managed by an incompetent, racist and ill mannered individual.

This is an extended message to the incompetent manager of this restaurant. He sent a reply BUT FORGOT TO MENTION THAT HE CALLED MY HOTEL TO APOLOGISE FOR HIS INCOMPETENT BEHAVIOUR AND INVITED US BACK TO THE RESTAURANT FOLLOWING OUR FORMAL COMPLAINT We will only step foot back in the restaurant when this manager has left. The owner of this restaurant should fire you immediately.

First of all, to the Manager - I am the husband who has shared my experience and I WAS MOST ASHAMED OF YOU, the way you speak and cannot believe you are a manager.

My wife spoke with you in a calm and civilised manner and simply asked if we could place our order and mentioned the delay we had experienced. Your waiter was very good and was ready to take our order and also apologised for the delay but you spoke in a highly uncivilised and toxic manner - as follows in case you have forgotten:

You said you gave us a table when we hadn’t booked - well, you had a table available we did not beg you for one.

You said if we cannot wait we should leave - you saw that we had two children (1 and 4 years of age) who were getting restless, yet still you made such a rude, careless and unprofessional comment to me and family.

Racist - maybe you are to selected customers and your staff. Maybe your staff can confirm this.

MY ADVICE TO YOU: Go on a management course. YOU NEED THIS URGENTLY. Also get some 360’ feedback from your staff, I am sure you will learn a lot from this about who you really are.

You are the most incompetent manager. We are a reputable family, we have travelled to many countries for over 35 years now and we have over 25 years experience in management and Directorship. We are very aware of international standards also. You are the first individual who has behaved in such a way with us. So the stats you quote about your experience mean nothing to us.

The only person in the restaurant who was ill mannered was YOU. So most likely you were venting. Keep your problems to yourself, do not bring them to the restaurant and CHANGE...

ATROCIOUS food, APPALLING service & AWFUL experience. AVOID AVOID...and did I say AVOID!!!

Bellavista should be embarrassed to even label itself ITALIAN nor even a RESTAURANT. We spent 2.5 hours and got a 60 euro bill to end up going back to our hotel with what essentially amounted to a takeway pizza.

Some of the highlights of our time here: Reservation was not captured despite receiving a confirmation email. Calzone was undercooked the first time, and when returned to the kitchen for a new one it came back undercooked again. Table beside us which ordered the same could not finish theirs as well. Understaffing on a saturday night resulted in a near 20 minute wait time for even someone to glance at our table. This coupled with the food service issues basically meant we waited essentially an hour to not eat our appetizer, and then another hour for them to fix the pasta until we finally gave up an ordered a pizza to go Wrong order was captured for the mains, returned and came back with the 'right' order but with no protein (still wrong) Overzealous restaurant supervisor ARGUING with our server in italian (who spoke english well and was trying to be helpful) right next to our table for 5 minutes Server kindly offered to take Calzone off of our bill yet we were still presented with the full bill. We finally had enough and walked up to the counter to try to pay and had to wait another 10 minutes listening to the restaurant manager lecturing us about 'Italian food' before she reluctantly and unhappily agreed to take down the bill. Restaurant supervisor admitted that the woodfire owen was not working properly in an ITALIAN restaurant

The only saving grace of this experience was our server who tried her best to rectify our experience who unfortunately got YELLED at by restaurant manager who did not even bother to make sure things were going okay until the bill was involved.

Do yourself a favour and don't RUIN your holiday by choosing to dine here...