Mercearia dos Avôs — Restaurant in Funchal

It is the first time I review a place but this one really needed to happen. Only put 2 stars because the waiter was really nice. The bruschetta was ok, the charcuterie board was very tasty with authentic Italian produce, but we asked for bread and they gave us overly toasted bread, we had to return it. As our pasta and risotto dishes came the pasta ones were undercooked, the homemade pasta dough was too thick, having travelled to Italy a lot in our lives and read the reviews we had very high expectations for this restaurant but recommend that the pasta dishes need to be worked on (gambas pasta had 4 gambas on it too). As for the Risotto it really wasn’t the best. We asked for Parmesan as one does in an Italian restaurant and they gave us big chunks claiming they don’t shave Parmesan (?) and it came with a hair and other food residue ( they probably used the same knife to cut something else which is understandable but should be more careful). Overall it didn’t meet our expectations which is a shame as we were quite excited to have diner there. Could be a cool spot...

My husband and I were out all day on a tour of the island and came back absolutely starving. We decided to grab an early dinner and found this small Italian place online with pretty solid reviews. Turns out not only were the reviews absolutely accurate but they were wildly underselling this place. From start (the garlic shrimp, which we ended up ordering a second serving of) to finish (the insanely delicious tiramisu), the entire meal was everything we could have ever wanted. I ordered the spinach and ricotta ravioli and ate every bite- the tomato sauce was light and fresh, the pasta cooked perfectly Al dente. My husband ordered the spaghetti with Parmesan and pesto and added black truffle and finished his entire bowl. We were both thrilled with the whole experience and so happy to find this local, family-run business to...

These people definitely need to learn something about Italian cuisine. I’ve never seen a traditional trattoria charge for the cheese that goes on top of your pasta. My dish arrived, they offered me pepper, which I accepted, and I told the waitress—who, if not very rude, could at least be considerate—to bring me a little more cheese. She brought the cheese, I took a bit and put it on my food. At the end, when I went to pay the bill, I realized they had charged me the outrageous amount of 3 euros for a pinch of Parmigiano cheese. Until today, in every Italian trattoria I’ve been to, I was never charged for Parmigiano. This is really the first time. But I’m not surprised, considering it’s an Italian restaurant that is not run traditionally by Italians, but by Portuguese people. I will never set foot in that...