We live in the village next door and Thursday 8th September was the day our car needed to go to our local garage in Fronteira and we basically had to spend most of the day there and the plan was to have lunch in this establishment because it all appeared a good address with good reviews and affordable prices. We arrived there probably around 11 for a beer on the terrace. Then I went to investigate with the owner what there was to eat today. There was a choice of 2 dishes of the day, one of meat and one of fish. Perfect. I returned to the terrace. By 11:40 I decided to check with him about the times when they start serving. He replied between 12:15 and 12:30. Perfect again. We obviously had more time to kill and we decided to return our glasses to the counter (as we normally do) and went for a short walk in the town before returning for our lunch. Back now, headed towards the bar, most of the tables were empty, just 2 clients drinking. The owner arrives and looks at me with no particular welcoming attitude, asked nothing so I asked him whether we could sit anywhere for lunch and then he starts mumbling, looking at something else, making shrugs and showing some sort of annoyance with his body language. I feel uncomfortable and of course I wasn't able to really understand what he said. So, I asked, is there a problem us having lunch? Because as far as I could see there was space for us to eat. He replied that the dining room was now all booked! What dining room? all booked? We were totally astonished. I could not really find anything to say, language barrier not helping, so we just left with rather a sour feeling. I was so annoyed once in the street that I decided I needed to go back and get to the bottom of this. When the owner appeared, I told him I could not understand what was happening after having asked him about the menu and the opening time. He replied that he'd replied to my questions and because we left after our beer, therefore we were gone as far as he was concerned. He was unapologetic and showed no sign that he was sorry about the situation. How could we know that we had to book? There is usually no need to do so in local village restaurants during the week. His attitude was totally unprofessional, a good owner looking after the reputation of his business and of the clientele, be it local or not, would have first told me at the time I asked the questions, that it was best to book our table because he already had many reservations. But he had said nothing. From experience, we had no reason to tell him to keep a table free for us and therefore no reason to tell we were coming back. He obviously felt that there was no need for him to try and be pleasant, welcoming and demonstrate that he was interested in our custom. Sad to say that there won't be another attempt from us to visit his place, nor to recommend...
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