Piazza — Restaurant in Faro

I visited Santa Barbara de Nexe for the first time when the contractor we hired to remodel our Olhão apartment took me there to select a gas cooktop for our new kitchen. I found the small town quiet and quaint, but, otherwise, never gave it too much thought.

While reading an article in The Portugal News about an upcoming Deep Purple concert and an interview with lead singer and song writer Ian Gillan, he mentioned that his 'favourite restaurant in the world' is La Piazza in Santa Barbara de Nexe, so I had to try it ...

PROS

The owners are from Italy and it is a 100% authentic, Italian, family operation - mom and dad were in the kitchen with son Fabio and his lady friend serving The restaurant is large and comfortable with a big wood-burning stove, so it was nice a toasty on a chilly winter night The menu has a nice selection of antipasti (starters), pizze (pizzas) primi (first dishes - pastas), secondi (second dishes - meat/fish), contorni (vegetables/potatoes), and dolci (sweets) at reasonable prices The Caprese Salad (€7.95) was very good, Funghi alla Crema (€7.95), and the accompanying bread crusty and fresh I had the Vitello alla Milanese (€18.50), coming with a side of spaghetti bolognese - the cutlets were delicious and tender, the spaghetti perfectly al dente, and the bolognese molto buono ... HOOAH! My wife ordered an entree size portion of the Tortelloni al Burro e Salvia (butter and sage - €9.95), her favorite, and she was a very happy camper - I concured My son went for the Vitello all Pizzaiola (veal cutlets in a tomato sauce - €18.50) - just like my Nona Tomasina used to make ... GRAND MAMA MIA! The homemade Tiramisu (€4.95) and Fondente al Cioccolato (€4.95) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream were a perfect conclusion to my 65th birthday dinner ... Grazie a tutti voi!

CONS

Having tried, as always, to provide a balanced review, I really had to think hard to come up with anything that could use improvement The large wood stove was nice in terms of warmth and ambiance, but it did get a tad too warm at times A large group of around 15 arrived well after we were seated, but their drinks and starters arrived much sooner than ours - Fabio and his lady friend could have probably used an extra hand or two that night It would have been a nice touch had someone on staff, at least, wished me a happy birthday

Turns out that La Piazza is not the only great restaurant in Santa Barbara de Nexe with a former Michelin-star restaurant (now Michelin Guide recommended) as well as a highly rated French restaurant and others located in the area, making Santa Barbara the 'Culinary Capital of the Algarve' ... OOH-RAH!

CombatCritic Gives La Piazza 9 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More...

This is not La Piazza as shown on the Piazza website. The food and the service is the worst I’ve ever experienced. My friend was asked how she wanted her turkey steak cooked, medium or rare!! I had carbonara which was served with spaghetti, some sort of meat, a raw egg and a small pot of Parmesan cheese. There was no white cream sauce or any flavour that resembled a traditional carbonara dish. My fellow dinner had a pepperoni pizza that was certainly a shop bought pizza with only 9 slices of pepperoni. The desert called Pavlova was a base of aerosol cream with few berries and a shop bought meringue lump on top. The new owner of the restaurant has failed miserably to follow on from the previous owners of La Piazza, and the Piazza website is using the previous owners photos and 4.8 star review to give a false impression of what to expect. Avoid Piazza at all cost as you will be disappointed as we were as our meal that cost more than a meal...

Ao ouvir falar da reabertura fiquei com muita curiosidade para experimentar a nova versão do La Piazza. Estava uma noite de calor e a esplanada realmente era um lugar convidativo onde apetecia estar. O staff é jovem e atencioso mas ainda pouco conhecedor do que têm para oferecer. Pedi um gin tónico. Na minha mente eu iria receber um copo de balão grande com muito gelo e uma orquestra de sabores… mas não. Era um simples gin à antiga num copo de tubo. Perguntei se a carbonara era autêntica, com guanciale, pecorino e gemas de ovo. A rapariga não me soube responder mas foi expedita em perguntar qual seria o prato alternativo que eu desejaria caso a carbonara não fosse a original. Dei como alternativa uma pizza. Pedi também uma focaccia para ir começando e depois ajudar com o molho da carbonara. O tempo foi passando, o pouco gelo do gin derretendo… e a comida não chegava. Aos 45 minutos de espera a rapariga veio perguntar se eu desejaria pedir algo… ao que eu respondi que ter o meu pedido servido seria o ideal. Ela regressou com um pires que azeitonas como oferta da casa que eu recusei por não gostar de azeitonas. A focaccia acabou por chegar. A chef veio à mesa pedir desculpa pelo atraso. Aparentemente a reclamação de uma outra cliente fez atrasar tudo na cozinha. Uns minutos depois chegou… a pizza. Perguntei à empregada sobre isso e aí ela confirmou que realmente a carbonara não era autêntica. A pizza estava realmente muito boa! Massa fina e crocante. O molho de tomate no ponto. Os cogumelos frescos e deliciosos. A lista de sobremesas continha uma lista de delícias então pedi a sugestão da empregada, que me recomendou a pavlova. Pelo tão boa que estava a pizza, criei uma enorme expectativa sobre a sobremesa… que acabou por ser uma decepção. Em vez de um suspiro caseiro e grande recheado com chantilly caseiro e frutos (e algum toque de personalização do chef) era um prato cheio de chantilly industrial com frutos vermelhos e um pequeno suspiro de pacote no topo. Estava doce e refrescante, mas longe da minha expectativa. Consigo dar 4* pelo boa que estava a pizza. Mas não deixou de ser um jantar de 37,5€, que demorou uma eternidade e teve várias decepções. O lugar tem potencial e Santa Bárbara precisa de um bom italiano, mas há muito lugar para melhoria, senão é só mais um sítio onde comer...