O Velho Pescador — Restaurant in Funchal

Visited Wednesday 26/4/2023 late afternoon

Menu sounded nice, the starters (Camembert with Rosemary and Shrimps on Mango) should have been a warning however. Camembert came with a small twig of Rosemary and actually very dry shrimps were decorated on a sliced mango. You would have expected a kind of actual seasoning for the Camembert and some sauce or marinade so marry the shrimps with the mango.

The main was fish of the day (parrot fish) served as butterfly cut (and the second dish was a whole fish, both came as ordered). Instead of butterfly cut the fish came in two halfes. Somebody sliced the whole fish in half, resulting in a mess of fish meat and fish bones. You can do it that way but your task is to ensure that the bones can be easily separated from the fish. Not good here. The fish itself was ok. Not sure whether the potato sticks should have been fries or oven baked, but were oven baked and not crispy (but the taste was ok). The vegetables were tasteless as from cooking in pure water (usually you add salt to the cooking water so the veggies keep their taste). The texture was ok.

Service was ok as well.

The bill was 80€.

My summary: I had the impression that the cook working on that day at that time we were there had no idea how to prepare what was on the menu.

Let's see whether the restaurant will give a...

Alberto was a superstar! He was so zealous and funny. He was the best waiter in my whole trip.

We came here for their seafood plate, and it was so yummy! But the potion was not was big as we thought for the price of it.

I loved the banana scabbard fish! It was so delicious! For all the restaurants, their fish was coated with butter, which is a traditional way to cook. But I prefer their fillet, and lots of passion fruit sauce. I didn’t know what was the sauce on side (three dots), but it was nice too.

Thanks to Alberto, we tried sangria and it was the best one! Lots of fruits and flavour was balanced - if you like sangria, order it! We also got digest drink on house in the end.

Overall, excellent experience with great...

I was extremely disappointed with this place. I ordered the fish baked in a salt crust, and it turned into a disaster. The salt shell was rock-hard, and when the waiter smashed it open, the fish’s head flew off, a piece rolled across the table, and I ended up covered in salt. It honestly looked like a battlefield — clearly the fish was overcooked.

Instead of apologizing, the waiter was rude and dismissive. He didn’t even say sorry himself, but sent over a colleague. The other dish we tried was also fish, which turned out to be far too dry and not tasty at all.

In any case, both the food and the service were a complete flop. Definitely not an experience I...