Pézinhos n'Areia — Restaurant in Castro Marim

If you are looking for great local food on a unique place, Pézinhos na Areia is definitely a good choice.

Let's start by the basics. The location is a beach front winner, with stylish deco and ready to accommodate both families, small groups and couples without getting too crowded or noisy. With inside and outside tables areas to sit, I've found it easy to get a comfortable place no matter your will. Opened both for lunch and dinner, I recommend the dinner. The restaurant is at the entrance of Praia Verde beach, so during the day and specially at Summer, expect a lot of traffic from both people and cars. At night is easy to park and the sunset is something incredible. If not windy, and even if chill, bring a coat and go for the outside tables. And don't forget to book in advance. It will be almost impossible to get a table without a reservation.

As for the food, the meat is of good quality (fortunately any sauce of your choice is served on side and not under the steak, ufff), and being in Algarve, the fish is always a good choice, no matter what you wish. Go and ask to check the daily catch. All the dishes are well cooked and some are really special, like the Pataniscas de Camarão (shrimp fritters, like the traditional Portuguese cod fritters). If you are in a rush ask first about how much time will take to make your meal - some can take up to 40 minutes to be ready. The desserts are diverse. I'm a fan of alfarroba deserts (carob), quite local and delicious - so just give it a try! The drinks are a must (I really like their gin - simple, no floating stuff - just tonic water and a good gin), but beware as it's easy to significantly increase your bill at the end.

Now for the service. Any restaurant in Algarve during high-season can be mistaken for a tourist-trap. While Pezinhos is not a tourist-trap (you will find a diverse type of clients where most of them are middle to high class Portuguese clients), I saw that the service has certain flaws. One table can have an incredible good experience (like mine), while another one, just because there is a waiter in stress due to the high demand of requests, can't handle the relation with the clients and mess what could have been a great moment. Fortunately this is the exception, although in my opinion exceptions are not acceptable for this kind of restaurant.

Last and least, expect the average price per person between 25-30€, and while the food is priced accordingly, I find any kind of drinks, including the water, a little overpriced. But well... it's not everyday you have such a beautiful...

We visit this restaurant each time we come over to Portugal since it has opened and enjoy the food and the view and have even held birthday parties there but am sad to say that last nights experience will not be repeated, it didnt start well when it booked in it was like they didnt know we were coming even though my friend had rang earlier that day to reserve a table and it took a long time to consider if we had a table or not before we were seated. On ordering two of us decided we would have the turbot which is a lovely meaty fish even though they were going to fry it and I asked if it could be done lightly and the waiter agreed. When it arrived we first had to remove a fried head of the fish which had no meat on it as well as a tail and underneath there was three strips of fried fish which as well as having bones the flesh had to be scraped out of it casing at this stage I decided that I did'nt want this meal as there was nothing much to eat for 19.50 euros and my friend decided the same and we ordered a seafood linguine instead so therefore our partners were eating their meals on their own whilst we waited for ours, one had iberian pork which was devoid of any moisure and had to be cut with a steak knife and was very chewy and our forth member had a prawn curry which was nothing like he had had before at this restaurant and was just okay with no presentation etc., the covert at the beginning of the meal has been downgraded to what has been on offer before there used to be a good variety on the shared plate and then bread presented separately this is not the case now. Even the linguine had no sauce on it and was just okay. This restaurant should not rest on previous reviews and should up their standard the bill was just under 150 euros which included two drinks each and was not good value for money. On leaving although we paid the bill I did say to the staff at the bar that it was an extremely disappointing expensive experience and that the management should be informed yes they are busy but is this at the expense of quality and value for money, instead of celebrating a friends birthday we went home moaning about the evening. One good point was that our waiter was extremely attentive and there is no fault there. Come on... make the evening a culinary experience instead of a cafe experience dont rest on past reviews when the mother...

I’ve been to Pézinhos n'Areia at Praia Verde 4-5 times over the last few years. I remember the first time, it was a great meal, and the setting overlooking the beach really couldn’t be better. Before today, I last came in February 2022, when it was OK if not as good a previous visits, which I put down to it being out of season etc. With that in mind, I took another chance and came back today (30/09/22) and I’m sorry to have to report that I have never been so disappointed; massively overpriced and unimaginative food. I’m well aware of staffing problems across the restaurant sector and there may have been changes there, but I couldn’t eat my main course - crab salad, which was the dish that brought me back - as it was unrecognisable from previous visits and frankly awful. Oddly, the waiter didn’t believe we’d eaten there before and the manager barely acknowledged my complaints and only very reluctantly took it off the bill after some back and forth. The rest of the food wasn’t great and certainly not value for money but we were OK to pay for that as we chose the dishes and that’s the risk you take. Overall, a disappointing experience at a great location. I hope things improve but I will...