Restaurante Marisqueira O Barqueiro — Restaurant in Funchal

I would give it 1 star only that the staff Urbino and Amarina saved the day . This seafood restaurant was recommended by our hotel . We arrived with great expectations and at first not disappointed. The venue very attractive and modern. Beautiful seafood display . Also it appeared very busy as it was a Saturday night and expected such . We had booked and were given a lovely window seat. Our waiter initially was pleasant and recommended the seafood platter for 2 as a house speciality. The house hors d oeurves were plentiful and a nice start to the meal. We had a Lobster cocktail starter and the Marie Rose sauce was delicious. Similiar to what my mother used to make. !! The platter arrived on a massive impressive plate along with another 3 smaller plates of rice and vegetables. We were amazed.

Unfortunately the fish was extremely disappointing. The sword fish fillet was so dry it could have been used as a weapon of mass destruction. The rest of the fish was equally dry and bland. We were absolutely gutted. The vegetables were Luke warm and tasteless. The rice was way over salted . We left 75% of the food behind.

I mentioned this to the waiter and we were shocked how he delt with it. Instead of apologising ,he visibly controlled his temper and glared at me . As a result , I asked to speak with the manager . Instead he sent over within 3 mins , two waiters to get the payment from us ( the bill which we had earlier previously asked). We paid immediately ,obviously leaving no tip.

On leaving and by accident a lovely gentle waitress called Amarina noticed my sad face and asked what was wrong. She appeared concerned and genuinely listened to us. She called her colleague Urbino and he sorted the matter promptly and professionally. The manager Hilton was too busy to over see our complaint. This is why I give it 2 star .

Otherwise I would rate it probably the worst dining experience I have had in a long time. Hilton should be proud of those 2 long term staff. They saved the day and gave a happy rather than depressed experience to our night...

We went to this restaurant and as soon as we walked in the sight of the fresh fish counter at the front of the restaraunt was a site to behold. Lots of seemingly fresh fish laid out to tempt the hungry customers.

As soon as we had been seated we were told quite enthusiastically by the waiter about the special, a seafood platter. We had looked at the menu, and although going a la carte would have saved 50% of the food bill, as seafood lovers we decided to go for the platter.

When the food arrived we were very disappointed, the selection of fish was not good, with it being mostly bland and over cooked white fish. There was no tuna (which is caught in abundance in the Atlantic off the coast of Madeira). The fish was all over salted and the shellfish was tough and rubber like.

We decided to at least inform the staff of our experience to at least let them know they had been serving food that was not up to the standard expected, but this fell on deaf ears. Once we had paid we decided to talk to the manager/owner (seemed to be the owners son) about our experience. They offered all sorts of excuses and we felt they didn't really care about the quality of the food served. In the end we were given some money back, but this felt token and like a ploy to get us to leave (not that we had made a scene).

Overall the experience was very disappointing, but with this being a tourist island the owners don't seem to care as they won't be getting a large amount of repeat...

Huge portions!!!!!! All the pictures (except the mussels which were a starter) are of ‘mains’ for one person so you can see how generous they are. The seafood platter came with 4 types of fish, 1 mussel and 1 prawn (was just over €17).

we opted to order a fair few things rather than get a larger platter and we definitely over ordered with 2x 1 person platter, 2 prawns, 1 squid and 2x mussels to start. We also got the paella which was massive - could easily have fed 2-3 people! What was annoying though (and this is partially due to my own ignorance) is that the paella had chicken in - I didn’t know this was a thing and it was under the fish part of the menu so be warned! I am a pescatarian so found this a bit upsetting as it wasn’t stated on the menu. I didn’t eat much of it and it was nice in all fairness and others in the group enjoyed but Felt a bit too much vinegar was added (a local thing that they do). It also took an hour so pre order If you want it or be patient, this is normal though and shows that it’s fresh!

On top of all the food, they gave you boiled vegetable and potatoes to go with the main and also garlic bread, fish pate and fish croquettes to start.

We ordered 3 bottles of wine and it all came to just over €200 so the value for money was amazing and would highly recommend!

Service was ok but didn’t take away plates so we were left with loads for ages which didn’t like but...