Furnas do Guincho — Restaurant in Cascais

We’ve been to this restaurant several times in the past year. The location provides an amazing view of the Atlantic ocean, and the decor of the place is quite nice. We’ve had some good experiences in the past since the food is decent; however, the service is now lacking. My husband and I had our “date night” dinner there (with a reservation) which consisted of multiple courses and two bottles of wine to share which we thought we had time to drink. We were asked to leave after an hour and a half to free the table for another reservation.

The couple at the table next to us were also asked to vacate the table to allow for another reservation. We were not able to finish our second bottle of wine, nor did we ever receive our after dinner coffee we had ordered, as we were so rushed. They never even brought the dessert menu. In Europe we have never been asked to leave a table for another reservation after one hour and a half, especially on a weekend evening, and the request that our table was needed came 15 minutes after we had ordered a second bottle of wine.

By the way, there were plenty of tables available in the restaurant when we were asked to leave to make room for another reservation. We were seated at a table of the restaurant’s choosing, so we had no idea that we had a clock ticking for our dinner. The other couple (unknown to us) seemed surprised they were asked to leave as well. I don’t know how many other people were asked to give up their tables to accommodate incoming customers, but this has never been our experience in Europe. I can understand it if you are a “walk in” and are told that you have 1 1/2 hour to complete your meal and you accept those terms. This was not the case for us.

Something to note; when we arrived there was a party of four at a nearby table having a wonderful time who were not asked to leave. On our way out we asked them how long they had been at the restaurant, and they stated that they had been there a little over three hours, and cordially invited us to join them for their continued stay. We declined but wished we had given them the rest of our bottle of wine that we didn’t have time to drink.

Our tab, as far as we got with our dinner was over 200 Euros which is not unusual for a fine dining experience, and we’ve certainly spent more for dinner at this restaurant in the past. However, the way they conduct business was in no way a fine dining experience. It was just an expensive, unfulfilled outing which included some decent food and rude service.

I don’t know if they book reservations with a 90 minute limit (if so it’s a new, random policy, and they should say so when you book your reservation) or if people just showed up at the restaurant without reservations, therefore people were asked to vacate their tables because the restaurant didn’t want to lose the additional business.

We will likely not go back which is sad because this restaurant used to be a pleasant place to have a meal and a...

Our lunch was so awful & expensive today, we simply had to write to warn the owners and others. Do not waste your time or money. We were suggested this place by our hotel, but we have told them they no longer should to future guests. We were super excited as we haven’t found great food in Portugal. mostly canned fish reheated throughout our week in Lisbon. Our best meal was in Porto, but surprisingly wasn’t seafood. We live in NYC, and although we are not “foodies” we do know well cooked food. I am a chef and have traveled extensively- It really isn’t hard to bring out natural flavors of fresh food- especially seafood- but apparently this place hasn’t gotten that memo from Most of its Mediterranean neighbors. The food today from Furnas do Guincho was so awful that we had an awful taste in our mouths and felt physically ill the rest of the day. We believed if we went to an upscale seafood restaurant, we could order anything and it would be decent- because everything at Furnas do Guincho is super expensive- for absolutely no reason! ... my husband ordered the swordfish, it came with 3 tiny over cooked with NO seasoning white mini potatoes- for 20€! That’s it. The fish had such an awful taste we couldn’t even finish it. How can you ruin swordfish? He said it reminded him of eating his rubber flip flop shoe...

I ordered what I thought to be Bass with a salad... what came was a breaded and fried but soggy “fillet o fish” x’s 3 on my plate with a side of heavily mayonnaised “salad”. What other countries would call an ensalada rusa quite common in Argentina & Uruguay; however this was no good “salad”, this was a slop of terrible mess glopped in mayo. I couldn’t even bite into the apparent “Russian salad” We asked if we could possibly switch it for some kind of rice and they literally brought us the tiniest scoop of plain white rice back. With Not even a pinch of salt- nothing! Plain and dry as wood. The 3 fish patties were soggy and tasteless- it would’ve been better from Mcdonalds and I haven’t eaten there since 1989. And cheaper. They even served my “bass” with Tartar Sauce? I’ve never been to an upscale restaurant that served tartar sauce to adults? Or at least a restaurant that charged 20€ for this mess...

In the end We regretfully paid over 66€ (15€ for 2 glasses of wine) for a lunch that made us both feel ill for the rest of the day...

I can only imagine rich people are going to this place for the scenery, and to be seen- because the food is probably the worst I’ve had in my life and the most expensive I’ve ever paid for a “fillet o fish” If the New York Times ever came and reviewed this place, they would shut down in 48 hours for embarrassment. This owner really needs to eat his menu and see this is horrible for his guests, and he is stealing...

When we arrived, I was amazed and blown away by the setting. Perched right on some rocks by the sea, it was breathtaking. Soon after we sat down, they brought us 3 dishes of baked cheese and 3 plates of cooked prawn. We starting eating the cheese and prawns naturally and realised they were actually items on the menu that you would order and pay for normally. It’s strange that they do not tell you and try to force these dishes on you. We eventually asked them to away 2 plates of the prawn as it was too much and they did so but they really informed the customer that they were not complimentary dishes right from the beginning.

Then we ordered the fish soup, lobster soup and both were underwhelming and tasted the same. Then came the stuffed crab which was not good at all. Not sure why they had to prepare the crab this way, best would just keep the crabmeat intact rather than mincing it up into some kind of pate texture. Then came the mussels which were terrible, they had an unpleasant smell and were very tiny and shrivelled up. Then the fish stew and shellfish rice came and another fish dish came, they tasted exactly the same as the previous soups but with slightly different ingredients, also underwhelming. They probably use the same sauce/soup base for most dishes here. The rock lobster was also unseasoned and was dry and tough. The best dish was the salt baked seabass, but it was average, at best. This level is cooking is lower than average in our opinion and definitely not what you expect with the prices and amazing setting. The bill for our family of 10 came to around 700+ Euros which would have been fair if the food had been average at least. I would say that the food was quite a bit below average and we did not really enjoy the meal. The waiter was however, super fun and he made the whole experience a little more pleasant. A very disappointing meal overall. We were too scared to try the desserts. I would definitely not recommend this restaurant to anyone and would not...