Kampo by Chef Julio Pereira — Restaurant in Funchal

Really disappointing experience. We chose this for our last meal out in Madeira and thought it would be a special evening for my partners birthday and our last night but the service was weird/terrible and the food was underwhelming as were the cocktails. You would be much better to go to Olivia's or Informal for much better food, service and drinks. Other reviews mentioned feeling taken care of here but that could not be further from our experience. The whole thing basically felt like a farce.

We arrived early for our booking and let someone know, they showed us to the lounge (don't go here before your meal you may be forgotten about..) the waiter said he would be back in 2 mins to take out order, 15 mins later he came back, by which time we should have been seated at our table. We waited more time for our cocktails to arrive which were underwhelming, they are a restaurant not a bar so okay fine. Still no one came to give us an update on our table, 20mins after our booking I had an email to say we had missed our booking! So I went and found someone to let them know, by this point it was getting late and we were hungry! Someone, perhaps FOH manager, then came up to us and announced brightly that they had a table for us (which was good seeing as how we had a booking and we'd been waiting 45mins by this point..) she then gestured at our cocktails and said how good they were (which they weren't). This was a feature of the evening, what little we were asked about the food or drinks was always in a way that you could only really answer yes to without appearing rude - the drinks are good, aren't they? the food was good, wasn't it? Etc.

She then ordered us to follow her quickly and we had to hurriedly collect up our coats and bags and drinks, obviously we're not above carrying our own drinks but it was a bit awkward and not really what I'd expect from a place like this. Once in the restaurant it was clear that there were loads of tables available and that there had clearly been a mistake but this was never acknowledged.

The rest of the meal continued in a similar style, we were served by at least 6 different people whilst there. There were plenty of staff and not many covers, yet the service seemed chaotic and there was a strange vibe, with things getting dropped and crashing sounds at multiple times. There was a distinct end of the night atmosphere as if we'd already overstayed our welcome before we'd even arrived, despite the fact that tables continued to be seated after us.

No one explained the menu to us, when we ordered the waiter seemed exasperated (?) with every choice making me wonder if we were ordering the wrong things or too much. Our starters came out with huge gaps, our plates and cutlery were cleared whilst we were waiting for the next one to arrive, they then had to bring more. No one ever asked us how the food was except to compliment themselves as they collected the empty plates. No one offered to refill our drinks at any point.

The food itself was not good enough to justify the poor service, and if the service had been better we might have been more forgiving of the food, but honestly you can get much better food in Madeira.

The bread was fine but we felt the chorizo crumb didn't really add anything. The beef tartare was fine but over salted and packed out with capers and onions so it didn't really taste of beef tartare in our opinion. The mushrooms and pumpkin dish was not good, it was under seasoned and the elements didn't really come together. The whole thing mostly tasted of burnt pumpkin seeds which were clearly supposed to be toasted not burnt. The steak main was good and well cooked and seasoned. The fish main had a nice sauce but was overcooked, it came with a nice seaweed risotto but it felt like two separate dishes which again didn't really hang together. We decided to cut our losses and not bother with dessert.

The waiter didn't ask how our meal was when we paid, but he did have the common sense not to give me the option of adding a tip. All in all wish we'd gone...

I don’t normally go out of my way to post reviews, good or bad, but after my meal tonight, I felt moved to share my experience. For context, I’ve worked in fine dining restaurants my entire adult life and while I don’t hold most establishments to the same standard as I’m used to, I was really excited to try Kampo and had pretty high hopes as it is one of a few higher-end restaurants on the islands with a chef who has many other restaurants around town as well. Unfortunately, we had a pretty disappointing experience with both the food and the service.

We ordered the Portuguese Sausage Roll to start - when it arrived, we thought they brought us the wrong dish, because we got what appeared to be long rolls of stuffed cabbage but I went with it, thinking “okay maybe they’re trying to do something here” and trusted the chef’s vision. This just really missed the mark - I still have no idea if it was supposed to be served this way, but the cabbage was stuffed with what I can only describe as pork tartare. Very confusing. We only took a bite each and left the rest but didn’t make a fuss about it and let the server take it away. They asked if we enjoyed it and we simply and nicely said “it wasn’t our favorite but it’s okay!” and just waited for our ribeye to arrive becuse we were hungry at that point. Our experience only went downhill from there, because the server ignored us the rest of the night - sent another sever over to us to make sure everything was okay after not eating the sausage roll and yes, we were fine and happy! But for some reason our server couldn’t be bothered to refill our empty water bottle/glasses for the rest of the meal or check in to see if the next course was okay, and didn’t even bring us our check. Anyway…

Our ribeye was okay, after taking 30 minutes to get to the table. We initially ordered it medium rare because that’s what we typically like but given the state of our previous dish, we thought the steak might arrive a little underdone as well and kindly asked the server to have the steak cooked medium when he cleared our first course. He acted as if it was a huge ask, but ultimately said yes, no problem. I’m glad we asked for it to be cooked medium because it came medium rare. We also ordered the vegetable side dish which was basically a bunch of grilled vegetables and various whole, raw nuts in an unseasoned, coconut flavored cream sauce with cheese crisps on top. I was confused by the choice not to toast the nuts but that was the least of my concerns.

What I would consider an extremely mediocre expensive meal could have been saved by excellent, or even okay service, but sadly that was not the case. We were ignored for the whole meal, and there were many opportunities for our server to save our experience but he chose to just… not. Go...

This restaurant is 100% worth a visit if you love lamb and desserts especially desserts.

The atmosphere changes drastically if you sit upstairs or downstairs.

Downstairs you are left on your own to enjoy your meal and enjoy the quiet without feeling the rush of a high quality restaurant.

Sitting upstairs you have the opportunity of sitting in front of the chefs preparing your meals. This gives a completely different atmosphere since you get to see what's going on in the kitchen. All the intricate details and planning that come together in a culmination of masterful skill toppled with the speed of which serving has to be done is a great spectacle.

I've been 2 times a year apart from eachother and the quality and expertise of the cooks and staff remain like it was, wonderful.

The "HOMEMADE BREAD, OLIVE AND WHITE BUTTER" is a warm welcome to the restaurant, a great tasting bread with a butter covered in, I believe, chorizo powder which tastes lovely.

The "LAMB TENDERLOIN WITH CAULIFLOWER PRALINE" The best lamb I've ever tasted, not just that but the praline was delicious the mouthfeel and overall taste of this dish was like no lamb dish I've ever tasted. Truly a unique culinary experience.

The Matured Sirloin I ordered, don't get me wrong. It's a great piece of meat which was prepared as per request medium rare. Yet it is just a Matured Sirloin. If you're looking for the culinary expertise that these cooks are capable of it's in another dish, or more specifically the desserts.

The first year I was there I had a dish that still occasionally pops into my mind. A strawberry dessert with lemon grass foam. It was fresh and perfectly balanced.

Coming here the second time I had the dessert in mind and it wasn't on the menu instead I found other marvelous desserts.

"WHITE CHOCOLATE, BLACK OLIVE AND PASSION FRUIT" was a fresh creamy dessert that makes your mouth feel alive with fruity flavour with a great balance of the black olive to balance it out.

The true showstopper this time around was the bomb of a dessert "DARK CHOCOLATE AND TANGERINE SORBET" a heavy dessert with such an amazing texture and flavour. The salt caramel is hidden by the dark chocolate their flavours coming together wonderfully. Combined with the fresh tangerine sorbet that cuts through the strong flavours creates a perfect combination of flavour and a...