Chaparro — Restaurant in Aljezur

My friends and I went to another Chaparros by mistake the previous night (Chaparros Natura, a vegetarian branch but that serves octopus) and had an AMAZING time — great service from a charming elderly waiter.

I decided to give this one a try the next evening since it came highly recommended by our hostel, but the service was a toss-up between friendly and gruff, depending on the waiter hosting you. I had two younger waiters before my main meal, who were sweet and smiley.

My main gripe was my orders that kept going wrong — The medium rare steak I ordered specifically without rice came well done, cold and with rice (the latter is ok but not the former). I wasn’t going to fuss but it was too tough to even cut through that I had to send it back, and it went downhill from there.

They sent the next one too rare, also cold — but by this time I wasn’t going to say any more.

The waiter I’d asked to help refire my steak came back with a rather intimidating stance, asking, “Good?” I noticed he was much friendlier with other patrons.

On top of that, I had ordered a €13 bottle of wine and somehow got brought & charged for a €16 bottle (I only found out at the end after paying) 🙁

Either way, this restaurant fills up even on a weekday — and does have decent ambience and a nice outdoor charcoal grill.

But I’d say to head to the quieter Chaparro Natura if you’d prefer cosier environments, better service, and overall, and value-for-money food and wine (this last one applies to both outlets).

Unfortunately the other outlet isn’t yet on Google Maps but...

Unfortunately the worst dining experience we had in Portugal. The staff will ignore you, make you feel unwelcome for sharing you are ready to order (after 40+mins of waiting and seeing 3 other tables that have come after you receive their drinks, and finish their appetizers) and for asking for cutlery (making you chase them down in the restaurant because they have ignored your attempts to ask for their attention as they walk by), AND then when you ask whether everything is okay because other tables (who again arrived after you) have dined, paid, and left, and the table who came an hour after you received their mains before you, the staff gaslight you saying you were not trying to get their attention and it’s “not their fault they can’t control the kitchen”. The staff were very friendly with other tables around ours, which I suspect is because they were visibly European. Extremely uncomfortable experience full of...

We came here as a family on vacation. Two of my family members are vegan and we were very happy to see vegan options on the internet. When we came here, the only vegetarian(!) dish was vegetable curry, which didn’t even taste that great. Only after asking 3 times they were able to combine some pasta with tomato sauce. Honestly, I didn’t know it was such a difficult thing to do… After complaining about the lack of vegan/vegetarian alternatives, a new waiter got assigned to our table… anyways the food came quickly but it had a lack of taste and spices. The chicken I ordered got served with cold fries and rice, it didn’t have any sauce and was completely burned. The waiters seemed annoyed and unhappy, an environment that shouldn’t take place in a restaurant. We expected much from this restaurant and got badly...