Restaurante Informal — Restaurant in Funchal

Discovered this place thanks to reviews on Google Maps, and glad we did. Otherwise walking past it in the street it might have looked like any other standard restaurant doing the typical dishes.

We were able to walk in without a reservation, but I think we were lucky to do so, so book it in advance.

We had stools at the counter overlooking the kitchen, which was great fun watching the chef's working at close proximity. By the end of the evening we could identify all the dishes as they were being prepared.

For starter I had a raviolo with corn, mushrooms, mixed vegetables. I wouldn't have ordered if I'd known it had mushrooms, as I can't stand them. But actually this dish was delicious, and the mushrooms were fine; probably different than the types I'm used to.

Main course unfortunately they'd ran out of pork tenderloin, so I had the ribeye, served on a creamy mash with mixed vegetables, and a sweet potato that was presented almost as the star of the plate, rather than the steak. The vegetables were fairly standard, but the steak was delicious, although slightly too rare in part.

Dessert was a quenelle of chocolate, avocado and banana. You wouldn't notice the avocado if you didn't know it was in there. Not bad. My partner had the honey cake cassata, which I think I preferred.

Overall the food and service was very good, and the best part was witnessing the kitchen at work. Probably our favourite restaurant we went...

Lovely little place in Funchal, recommended by a couple with whom we did a wine tour. So glad we went. They don't take reservations, and we showed up around 7 pm (they open at 6 pm), and waited just under an hour to be seated. They stopped seating guests shortly after 8 pm (so as not to rush the meal), and so the servers turned people away who were farther back in line (although did so in a timely manner, so they didn't waste too much time). So, plan to arrive early enough that if there's a line you can still make it in!

We ordered one plate to share, and an entree for my husband and I had another starter as my meal. We also shared a dessert--I felt like I had no room, but then some was found! Everything was delicious and beautifully presented. Best was the duck, then the ravioli, then tempura (which was great, but a tad under salted and I wish there was more aioli). We had the honey cake for dessert, which was a big quenelle of cream with honey cake folded in, drizzled with honey and what I think was pulverized dried orange peel. Really tasty!!

Wine list was incredibly reasonably priced (esp. by US standards), and we shared a great bottle of rose.

Overall absolutely worth the wait. Loved watching the kitchen while sitting inside. I wish there was a restaurant this delicious and well priced...

Saw great reviews and so we were very excited. Unfortunately we were so utterly disappointed.

Food was so mediocre. Some of our dishes were definitely pre cooked and then microwaved up (BBQ ribs for instance) - egg was a big portion for appetizer, but tasted so bland and flavourless, meat was at least tender... but I've had frozen ribs with more flavour.

There was a literal piece of plastic in the octopus dish. Otherwise, this one tasted alright. Not mind-blowing but decent, and a good portion.

Ordered lamb medium rare, literally got well done which was a farce. The flavours of this dish were not that harmonious, a bit too much at times and the lamb was just not tasty.

When we got the bill, the waiter asked if we enjoyed our food, we said it was okay but honestly we were expecting more from the food. He awkwardly seemed to not know how to respond and said something like "well hope you had a good night" and avoided it entirely. We went to several other restaurants on the island and the Julio Pereira ones were far superior in taste and quality. Same price point and more upscale too.

The casualness of this restaurant was originally a plus for me, but they didn't pull it off well. Seemed more cheap than "non stuffy".

Skip. Save your money for the myriad good restaurants on...