Mercatto di Osteria — Restaurant in Angra do Heroísmo

I wanted to like it. I really wanted to like it.

Service walking in the door was good. Vibe was good. It went fine. Nothing special but fine. Food came. Looked great. Pizza, tuna, and steak. Tuna was fine. Steak was fine but risotto was not good. Pizza was good but crust was tough and chewy. No problem. I never said a word. Someone came to clear our plates and asked if there was a problem with the risotto. I said it just wasn't for us. I wanted a good experience and don't like to complain. He said I should gave said something earlier. OK.

I asked for a desert menu. We ordered some sort of pizza thing with cream and Nutella. Not good. Too bad. Still didn't say anything. Then I stared are a 1/4 eaten desert and empty glasses for 20 to 30 minutes!! Are you kidding me? Offer me another beer, a coffee. Glance in my direction. I'd take anything. Finally I spoke loudly enough to get his attention to get us thd bill. Mist expensive meal we had in Portugal. He said he made an adjustment to a beer because of the risotto. I assumed he took one of the draft beer off. Nope. $2 discount. Then ge took away the almost uneaten desert.

I do not...

Name is Paul. Made a reservation for 7pm on August 12. Absolutely brutal service. We initally ordered a 1.5L jug of sangria but after waiting the time it took to drink a coffee and then some as my wife watched on with her bubbly still water (we wanted still and were told it was still meanwhile it was fizzy but waitress insisted it was still even as she poured it, it fizzed) we figured there was no point to follow thru with the sangria but it ended up taking over an hour to recieve our order of pizza which was actually pretty good. Waitress never refilled our "still" water and we sat like chumps for what felt like an eternity waiting for our main. I suppose my wife's body language was an indication as to how completely dissatisfied we were with our service as a different server finally brought us our bill after my wife flagged her down. No concern as to how everything was, no follow up after we finished our water..... we were happy to spend some money on a good dinner experience on a Saturday night out but I'll be damned if I'm gonna spend it at that place with that brutal waitress benefitting from...

After 2 weeks of fish we decided to give the seemingly only italian restaurant of Terceira a try. Although confused by the spelling of the name (wouldn't Osteria di Mercato be the correct spelling?), we were pleasantly surprised to find a table without reservation on a saturday evening. The menu was clear and sounded appetizing, but I was let down that they didn't specify the ingredients of the individual cocktails. Asking the young, charming waitress didn't help to clear that up, as she had to ask the barkeeper who then had to google the ingredients because I was the first person to ever order a side car, the second drink on the menu. The focaccia, which i had as an entrée was very tasty and bigger than expected, i could share it with the whole table. For the main course I had truffle pasta, which came out exactly how i hoped it to be. My parents who chose filet mignon with tagliatelle/ mashed potatoes were equally satisfied with their choice of dinner. All in all as good italian food as you're gonna get on the azores. Ps. If you want your water cold, you...