Veladouro — Restaurant in Alijó

5 stars for the food. If you can somehow figure out how to get in here, you'll enjoy the good-to-great food, some of it inventive.

But 1 star off because their process and organization is a abject fustercluck. They have no clue how to run a restaurant.

We tried for weeks (seriously) to make a reservation - they don't answer the phone or return calls. There is no way to make a reservation online. There is no monitored email address.

Thus, we showed up 10 minutes before they opened for lunch - and they told us to leave. No queue to join. No "add your name to a list". Just "we're closed, please leave". Rude.

But instead we circled (we were very hungry and there are no other options in the area) and they ended up seating us first when they did open.

The entertainment part of the meal was watching them shoosh away potential guests from outside seating that was apparently "reserved" but had no placard indicating that. People would wander up to what appeared to be an empty table, a server would literally run out and inform them they couldn't sit there. Over and over and over. None of the employees or managers thought to simply put a sign on the table. This is exemplar of the lack of managerial brainpower at work here.

Crazy, but we got a free and entertaining show out of the circus.

Ordering was a pain. The servers were polite but overworked, and there there was no way to get their attention to order anything (say, another drink or dessert). An iPad to automate the ordering would be awesome but I can't imagine this place ever catching up to modern restaurant operating standards - my dining partners laughed at me when I started brainstorming such ideas.

This place is clearly run by fantastic chef(s) and incompetent manager(s).

So...take your chances. There isn't much else in town worth visiting, the food is good-to-excellent.

But you WILL be offended (or perhaps entertained) by the incredible process and and managerial...

We visited last week, group of seven. Fantastic experience, great food. Team of waiters guided us through the menu, explained Portuguese cod, so there was some learning for us too. It is obvious that people working in this restaurant like their work, like food and their enthusiasm shows. Yes, menu is limited, but this makes everything perfectly fresh. We had difficulty to make reservation and took a risk to come without booking and were lucky to get table. The reality is that reputation of this restaurant allows their team to basically ignore any reservation systems or even respond to calls. They still had more people coming that they had to turn away. I had house wine with the meal, not sure what it was, but it was...

Lovely restaurant with lovely staff. The portions are large, so it's probably best to share an entree. We did and still ran out of room for dessert. We had the sheep's cheese and prosciutto for entree. It was huge. It also covers with bread and olive oil/balsamic vinegar. Amazing. I had the rump steak and my wife had the pork for main. The streak was cooked exactly how I asked for it to be (rate) and was super tasty. The pork was also good. You also get a pile of baby potatoes and a large bowl of salad to share, so you won't leave hungry. This is a little more expensive than some other restaurants we have been to, but the value is there. Nice staff, lovely red wine and good food in a...