Vivmar — Restaurant in Faro

We've had very bad experience. I think mostly because staff didn't understand what we were asking.

We ordered fiah casserole, I've asked if it's without any mussels (pointed to the pictures of mussels) , they've said it's without. I asked if there are any fish bones in the fish, reply was something like "no no no fish-fish" ordered beer that was served in good temperature but no glass, ordered fruity tea for my mum, they've brought ice tea in the can. That's ok, I like ice tea we could always put into the back pack for later. Ordered another tea for mum (this time green), guess what came, another ice tea arrived. This one I've sent away. Ordered some bread as I thought it will go nice with the fish. Tried a bit of was kinda stale and very dry, plan was to soak it in broth when fish comes, but that didn't happen. Strong wind came suddenly and swooped our bread off the table. Picked it up, put back into basket, took it inside gave it back, told the story. Was still in good mood and found it funny. Staff had no idea what I'm saying again, even my theatrical performance involving wind sounds didn't help. She took bread and we didn't get the new one. After a loooong wait casserole arrived. And everything was wrong, there were mussels inside, husband left disgusted straight away. Me and my mum tried our best with fish, but it was small pieces with so many bones, we didn't even managed to eat 1/3. There were some potatoes inside but they were undercooked. We had no bread, so basically we were eating just fish in broth. Taste was ok, but whole service was very disappointing, state of toilets also very poorly. Payed 53 euro (bread and second ice tea was on the bill, but I didn't want to argue just leave this horrible place), they struggle with my payment (visa card), when I was trying to do it contactless it didn't work, one lady just took card out of my hand and was trying multiple times to do it contactless, I've took different card out, that was also taken from my hand without a single word she tried swiping, nothing works, finnally she did put card in, I've entered pin, and we could finnally...

Unfortunately we have to share the opinion of some of the other people here. We chose this restaurant because my travel guide recommended it for its "fair prices and friendly service". Well, we had neither of those. The lady who served the food was incredibly unfriendly. We had to ask several times if we could order. The food came quickly but was average, I'd say. I had ordered the squid which was not on the menu (because the other two things from the menu I tried to order were shot down with a cold "we do not have"). I was pretty sure she said 7,50€ when she told me the price, but when I saw that on the bill afterwards she wrote 17,50€ I thought I must have misunderstood... After what I have read in the comments I'm not so sure it was my mistake, after all. After asking 3 times (!) for the bill and a coffee and waiting 40 minutes for it, we payed a bill of 55€ in total and left very disappointed. By far the worst experience for now on our beautiful Portugal vacation. I would not recommend...

Not recommended, better to pass by and find somewhere better - there are lots of places that are. The place takes advantage of it's tourist location and so doesn't try too hard - the fish is ok, although sardines came with scales and had not been properly cleaned, the vegetables were boiled oversoft and tasteless and cold plus being overpriced (my vegan friend asked for only vegetables). Watch out also for the bread starter being pushed too - even when you don't order, you'll pay at the end, plus.....the food took ages to come. Been to so many fantastic restaurants in Faro (so don't insult my review Mr Vivmar!), but this is certainly not one that...