CATAVENTOS - Petiscos & Companhia — Restaurant in Figueira da Foz

Unfortunately, this was one of the worst meal we’ve had in a long time. As a chef, I hate to criticise when there’s been hard work done, but unfortunately this place just seems to be falling apart and something needs to be done! We had octopus to start with and it was gone off. Smelly, slimey, inedible. We also had a grilled smoked sausage, it wasn’t what I expected but was ok- more like a croquette in texture but not deep fried. We then both had grilled fish for main- I had tuna and my partner had Grouper. My tuna was quite nice, grilled and seasoned well. The grouper again, was very very smelly, clearly old and basically inedible. It was accompanied by plain boiled potatoes, grilled peppers (fine), courgettes (oil soaked) and aubergine - mine was totally raw, had not even touched the grill (see photo) , and carrot, totally raw. Very strange. It also took 2 hours to come. The wine was fine, expensive for Portugal and house wine. The waiter was sweet but seemed very confused and flustered at all times. When walking past the kitchen, it was chaos, plastic bags of defrosting food, dirty dishes, clearly something not right. We didn’t send anything back or ask for a refund as we don’t speak Portuguese and the language barrier was too much. The bill was €84 euros which is a lot compared to what we’ve had in the past. The owner was sat at the counter, drinking and ignoring everyone. Sorry to say but I wouldn’t waste any time or money...

Fingerlicking Good food. Lots of flavour, olive oil & herbs. Very friendly Owner & staff. Good wine & cold beer. Nothing fancy. But Fresh fish & seafood.. What else does one need? We liked this restaurant. Very good tapas & meals. I could eat their Lulinhas grelhadas (Fried squid) easy every day the rest of my life 😎 ..unfortunately our kids liked it Too.. so i only got A few pieces. Next time i’ll have to order 2 portions 🤣. When you’re in Figueira and you want to taste real nice flavours.....

Second visit after stumbling across this place a couple of years ago. We were a bit apprehensive about how it would be for a planned visit. Exceeded expectations in many ways. Decent food, very good wine options outside of the wine list and really lovely service. You get the feeling of a small restaurant that cares very much about what they do. I'd say ignore the more negative reviews and do go with...