Canto da Doca — Restaurant in Horta

Table was prebooked by our travel agency.

Reservation verbally confirmed by the Head of Service for this evening when walking by yesterday.

Today no reservation was to be found. However: our 3 first names (quite uncommon combination) where in the quick fill of their E-mail-app. We were sent away, no sorry, no attempt to accomodate other than to come back tomorrow (after our departure from the island).

Strong recommendation: stay away from this place, especially the people.

Hopefully this recommendation saves someone else the disappointment of coming in vain and then having no evening reservation.

To this restaurant: the initial reservation may not have been registered, but: why is there someone telling us there is a reservation listed for today? This is really bad.

You solved your little problem of getting us out the door? Congratulations on that 🙃 !

This complete failure and / or self-conceived "white lie" of the host or combination of incompetence or impatience to find the missing link (e-mail search or call last night's colleague) might call for straight 1.0 stars. But I am happy to give them every chance in reporting my full impression. For completeness sake:

Food: I give them the benefit of the doubt: ingredients we saw in served tables looked good quality. Decent meats and seafood place. Would I be able to cook my fish on point like a chef could? No, therefore the base is a good 4.3 stars. People had individual hot stones in front of them. Limited selection of sides and sauces (-1 Star).

Ambience: Tables and chairs less than comfy. Setting: good spacing. Upper tables guest sit in the cooking fumes (ew!) - bad ventilation and strong odour even though the evening was only just beginning. Lighting: too dim but not in a cosy way! -2.3 stars. Vibes among people with working reservations: busy and happy overall. No stars deducted here.

That makes for a total of 7 stars across 3 categories, i.e. 2.3 stars. = Misses a mediocre 3 stars...

We were a group of 4, one has a severe gluten allergy. The waiter was friendly and assisted with checking what was without gluten.

Unfortunately, we were served food that contained gluten and had a strong reaction, once we made them aware of the reaction and talked to the manager in order to identify what it was. He simply insisted nothing we had was with gluten. We then proceeded to ask for ingredients for all food and still nothing.

Later looking at the mixed plate we discovered that one fish seemed to have something on it. We asked again and the waiter started listing the ingredients in the marinade (that they did not mention was on it) and when she came to the beer she realized the mistake.

The waiter was very friendly and obviously did the best she could. We can not say the same about the manager (possibly owner?), he apologized but did nothing else, we paid full price for everything with no reductions even thou a week's vacation was now partly ruined for one of us having to stay at home in pain the following two days. He asked us on the way out why we did not stay for dessert and he could offer us a piece of cake or a coffee as an apology.

Mistakes happen, it is how you handle the mistakes that matter, in this case, it seems they believe that serving gluten to someone they know has a gluten allergy is on the same level as giving coriander to someone who does not like it.

A very disappointing experience and the manager possibly the owner of the place, should be ashamed of their behaviour and lack of taking responsibility for their mistake, instead of just...

We decided to have dinner at this restaurant based on the positive Google reviews. Usually, with hot stone cooking, you can’t do anything wrong. Lamentably, the whole experience was disappointing, if not dreadful. First, if the whole dining room is free, don’t start filling it by putting all your arriving guests in the same corner, at adjacent tables. That’s just awkward… Before we could order, the waiter already put the sauces and butter in front of us. The sauces, arguably home made, were looking like they already spent quite a bit of time at room temperature. Not sure if this is very hygienic. We ordered a plate of chicken, one of vegetables and one mixed (meat, seafood). As a side we asked for rice instead of French fries. The meat and seafood arrived, with a side of fries, which we sent back. We also reminded the waiter about the vegetables. We started cooking our meat (btw, a small plate would be a great help to cut your meat and add salt and sauces, in particular if you are not allowed to put the sauces directly on the meat on the stone). Almost 10 minutes later, the rice arrived, but still no vegetables. Only after asking twice more, from two different waiters, they managed to bring the vegetables which we could not really enjoy since the hot stones were too cold to cook them properly. I’m a bit sorry for the younger team working there. The whole hot stone concept is good (see O Cachalote in Angra do Heroismo, for instance), but here, the whole implementation and personnel training need...