A Bica — Restaurant in Funchal

We had a final dinner in Madeira here during the Easter holiday, and it did not disappoint. We had not intended to have a sitdown meal as we were tired and not very hungry, and planned on getting roast chicken at the place in the mercado instead, but Google Maps once again failed us on updated hours. So we walked less than a block over to the nearest open restaurant, which was A Bica. Unfortunately by then it was close to 8, which is prime dinner time here, and a group of 4 just ahead of us grabbed the last table. We opted to wait for a table since we weren't very hungry anyway, and a German couple leaving the restaurant saw us examining the street level menu (the restaurant is down one flight of stairs) and advised us to stay put and keep waiting. They showed us photos of their food from that night as well as the night before, and pretty much made us excited for a restaurant that we had not intended to try at all. We ended up waiting another 10 minutes before being seated. We had the grilled squid and prawn kebabs, the grilled prawns with garlic, the bolo do caco, the tomato soup and the soup of the day, and the tuna and espada skewer. All the grilled seafood was fantastic, though grilled tuna is not my fave as it is often overcooked. The grilled espada was delicious - almost creamy meat. No seasoning necessary. It was my favorite treatment of espada I've tried on my trip -- and we've had espada many times! The garlic butter sauce with the grilled prawns was to die for. Each main came with an accompaniment, and we were sharing all the dishes so they combined the portions and gave us one large dish of white rice, one large dish of steamed veggies and one large dish of boiled potatoes, and each skewer came on a small bed of lettuce and tomato. We basically dipped all the veggies and potatoes into the garlic butter sauce, and I mopped up the rest with the rice. We were too full to order dessert though nearly every table ordered the passionfruit pudding. We each paid less than E20 for a fantastic meal - nothing fancy or precious, just really good filling home-style...

we were looking forward to coming here after reading many good reviews. unfortunately our experience was not the same.

we started off with garlic bread and sangria, which was delicious. i ordered the house style cod and my friends both got the grilled squid. we liked that they came with sharing sides of rice, potatoes and vegetables, all very good.

however, the grilled squid was not cooked consistently. my cod was very chewy, to the point i couldn’t eat more than a few bites before giving up. i mentioned it to a member off staff and she didn’t speak english well so said she would get her manager. after watching her go tell a manager no one came over to our table for some time, so we thought the complaint was misunderstood. then finally someone came over and we asked if it was meant to be chewy. i have had cod before and usually it is flakey but thought maybe this was the style or type. he said it was probably raw and said nothing else. after he suggested no other options, and simply agreed it wasn’t cooked enough, i asked him to take it away.

later another person, who seemed to be a manager or owner, asked how the meal was and when we explained he said he would go check and sort it out. he never returned.

when we went to pay, the lady at the till was unprofessional. she said that she hadn’t heard anything about our complaint, but proceeded to tell me i had eaten over half of my meal so should pay for it.

i understand mistakes can happen, especially when cooking things through, but the staffs reactions were not consistent or helpful. the woman at the end had a particularly unpleasant attitude. until then we had been very polite and were trying not to cause a fuss, but her attitude was unnecessary...

We visited A Bica restaurant while in Madeira because one of the locals suggested it. Following google maps, we passed the restaurant twice, it is a very small door and we totally missed it so keep an eye out. It was a gorgeous day and this was our first day in Madeira so I was kinda disappointed that we were walking downstairs and were not headed to a patio outdoor somewhere. Entering the restaurant it felt like you were in your grandmothers basement. Cute, cozy with antique decor and furniture. The staff were very tentative and came to greet us immediately and we asked tons of questions and they were very helpful. I was extremely happy when I saw that the menu had a great selection of authentic Portuguese food with many starters, fish and meats to choose from. We were a party of four and we were all very satisfied with the taste and the quantity of the food provide. We had the bacalao with peppers onions and olives which was incredibly tasty and such a large portion could’ve been shared by two people. My husband (Who is very iffy with eating fish) had the fried fish and he loved it. This was also a very good portion. All the entrees we ordered came with rice, potatoes and vegetables. The food was fantastic!!!! we were extremely satisfied and happy with our selection for our first meal...