Martucci — Restaurant in Funchal

Martucci has two restaurants side by side. The pizzeria and the fine dining sector. This review is for the fine dining experience. I made reservations and was greeted warmly by out waiter. He was very friendly and attentive to our needs. Service in my opinion is a 10/10. As for the food, I can say it was utterly lacking in flavor and seasoning. The plating of the food seemed like they had effort, but amateur.

We ordered the shrimp ravioli appetizer, which was average. Nothing special. I also ordered two soups, the shrimp bisque and minestrone. The texture of the bisque was smooth and creamy with a nice seafood undertone. The minestrone was a disaster. Diced vegetables in a clear broth with no seasoning. It tasted like they boiled water and threw a few vegetables prior to serving it. Shockingly bad. If you know what minestrone looks and taste like, lower your expectations when ordering this. When a restaurant cannot make a very simple stock in the kitchen, then I have little hope for the rest of the food. My 5 year old son ordered the Bolognese with spaghetti, not featured on the menu, but the staff was kind enough to accommodate. It's an Italian restaurant, this shouldn't be too difficult. Once again, lacking spices, seasoning, and flavor. The texture of the minced meat was mush and the sauce had a very acidic taste leaving the palate. Saute your tomato paste please. Needless to say, my son didn't eat it. Lastly, the surf and turf. Fish, steak and shrimp with a bed of mixed vegetables over sweet potato puree. The seafood was okay, nothing to brag about. Just mediocre. I thought it was an odd choice to serve shrimp and fish with sweet potato puree, but I'm assuming the pairing is for the steak which doesn't bring the dish into one cohesive thought. I ordered a medium rare steak and received a med well-well done. It's not like the kitchen staff was busy, it was my family and a couple in the entire restaurant. But that shouldn't be an excuse, right? Anyways, I tried to eat the unevenly cooked steak because the cut was simply...uneven. Lacked seasoning and the crust was uneven. Also, no basting of butter...I just tasted the oil.

This is a fine dining establishment, so yes I'm going to be critical. I have no idea what type of cuisine they are portraying, but it's definitely not Italian in the least sense. We were very displeased with the food and I just wanted to pay and leave. The only redeeming quality was that the waiter refused to take my payment and said this was a bad reflection of the food served that night. Remarkable gentleman, but the chef/owner needs to give more thought to a menu that in need of a face lift. I should've ordered...

We visited this restaurant for the first time with my wife, and we absolutely loved it. The interior of the restaurant is very cozy, beautifully designed, and perfectly matches the restaurant's name. We were highly impressed by the service in the restaurant; it was top-notch. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask for our waiter's name. He was a young man with a beard and was exceptionally polite and friendly. His dedication to his work deserves praise because such waitstaff create a great atmosphere in a restaurant. If he reads this review, we want to thank him once again!

We ordered two dishes. One of them was a duo of veal and lamb rack served with sweet potato puree and grilled vegetables. The other dish was duck breast with mandarin sauce, grilled vegetables, and Jerusalem artichoke puree.

We must highlight that the chef is truly talented and prepares dishes with great taste. The meat in both the first and second dishes was incredibly flavorful and tender, showing that a lot of passion goes into cooking here.

For dessert, we ordered tiramisu, which was served with a scoop of ice cream. The main dishes and dessert were beautifully presented and tasted amazing.

As for drinks, we ordered Sangria made from red wine, which was also very delicious. We were extremely pleased with the quality of service and the flavors of the dishes and had no regrets choosing this restaurant.

The combination of all these aspects made our visit to the restaurant enjoyable and fantastic. When we return to Madeira next time, we will definitely come back to this restaurant....

We've been living in Madeira the past 10 years. Since moving here the competition have increased by leaps and bounds. Martucci is quite new among the "concept" restaurants in Madeira. Concept is where you pay a fix fee for all the courses and wine is included and normally quite good value for money. In our opinion Martucci rank in our top 3 "concept" restaurants with Ill Vivaldi and Mozart. The staff are friendly and attentive without being in the way. Food is excellent and done to perfection. I had one of my best steaks in Madeira here. We can highly recommend Martucci's for a new experience and if you have not tried the "concept" yet, this would be a good opportunity. Ps: the pizzeria area is separate and does not do the "concept" menu.

Ps: Update, we are now 15 years on the island. Still Martucci's is a firm favourite of ours and offers excellent value for money. We can highly recommend...