The Indian Sizzler — Restaurant in Albufeira

We are a couple from the UK who ate here on the evening of 21/9/23, the final night of our holiday and the only time we had a "proper" restaurant meal.

The food was very good and everything went well until the end. When we went to pay, the proprietor scammed us out of about £2.30 or 2.65€.

It defied belief that she would bother over such a trivial amount and even more incredible that she thought we would be oblivious to what had happened, but the principle of it left a very sour taste. After questioning it, she didn't back down and we decided not to spoil other diners' meals (not to mention our final night) by complaining further.

The irony of it was that we'd probably have tipped more than that!

If you are interested to know how it happened, see below.*

We wouldn't visit again, there are many other well regarded Indian restaurants in the resort.

*My partner has a Starling (UK) Bank account. This account enables payments to be made in € at the exact "interbank" exchange rate. When she presented her card the terminal gives the option, to the customer, to pay in £ or €. The proprietor quickly pressed the £ key saying "you have to pay in £", which is absolute nonsense, not least because Portugal is a € zone country! Additionally, the same card had been used on many other occasions in Albufiera to pay in Euros without any problem whatsoever.

That meant that an extortionate exchange rate applied to the transaction. When we challenged it, she claimed the difference would be refunded to the card, more nonsense. There was no language issue, she has clearly lived in an English speaking country.

At this point we decided to...

A really nice surprise awaits you on your visit to the Indian Sizzler, one of the best by far of the Indian Restaurants I have tried in Portugal to date. Super friendly and helpful staff make you feel very welcome and are so very accommodating. The 14.95 Euro is very good value and was served to my wife an I very speedily. On finishing our starter which was Chicken Pakora and Chicken Tikka we were very quickly served our mains which was the delicious Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Jalfrezi with Pilau rice and Garlic and Butter Naan...wow is all I can say, all the dishes were very tasty and the even asked if I'd like my Jalfrezi medium or hot (I went for medium and you could taste all the ingredients and spices without intense heat) the 14.95 Euro menu includes a pudding which to be fair was a really tasty cookie surprise for my wife and a yummy toffee ice-cream for myself. We will definitely be coming back to eat again before the end of our holiday for our Wedding...

Out first trip to Albufeira in over 18 months and we were delighted to find out favorite local Indian place has survived COVID restrictions. Jay and her team are wonderful, welcoming, and care deeply about all customers.

The food is always delish, with many unusual items on the menu. We started with the sampler appetizer dish for two, a nice combination of small bites to try new things. I chose a new lamb dish (nazarai? - bottom one on the menu banner) and it was amazing. The sauce one of the most flavorful and delightful ones I've ever had. And the few slivers of ginger in it were the perfect touch. The husband had a spicy chicken dish (sorry, no idea of the name) which he said was seasoned well, with just the right level of heat to bring a tingle to his lips, but not so hot he couldn't enjoy the taste. The garlic and butter naans were both light, flavorful, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Absolutely love this place and highly recommend it...