Oceanic Café — Restaurant in Horta

I have spent so far 8 days in Sao Miguel, Pico and Faial and have eaten in 15 restaurants and cafes. The service by Virginio waiter here was appalling. He took the order and forgot to properly communicate it to the kitchen. They have given fish soup in 15 minutes but all other orders were given 80 minutes later. After one hour we asked him to check the status with the kitchen. He failed to give us feedback and made another waiver deliver the plates. No apologies apart from saying the kitchen was busy. But people at two table who can later already paid for their bills and left before we were served food (except fish soup). The prawns in garlic sauce were not edible. They were bland, not salted, the sauce was watery. The prawns were frozen and not cooked. they were rubbery. Rating 1 out 10. Veggie salad was had so much vinegar it smelled like pure vinegar and inedible. Both dishes were rushed to be served. The round steak was not edible and chewy. Rating 2 out of 10. I was so hungry I ate 4 out of 5 prawns even though this food should not have been served. The 2 other dished were sent back. My son had a burger which was OK (rating 6 out of 10). Goat's cheese was grilled nicely (rating 8 out of 10). When I complained to the waiter how food was served, how bad it was, he did not apologize. Worst client service. Kudos to them they did not charge us for inedible food. The kitchen does not service food on time and there is no quality control of food service to clients. Waiter Virginio unfortunately does not have softskills for catering business when he drops the ball. I suggest you go to Atletico which is a proper restaurant, Slightly more expensive but the food quality = the price you pay. I did not attach any photos as they are not worth mentioning. A dissappointing visit leaving...

Initially looked great when entering, busy behind the bar and looked busy in the outside area. Found a waitress who said it’s very busy and there isn’t room, she did go and check and found us a table next to some beer barrels. Not great but it was a table. We then noticed two tables leave and asked if we could move but was flat declined and told it would be too complicated???? At this moment we hadn’t even ordered anything… We asked for a couple of drinks from a member of staff and she said we needed to wait for her colleague..!?? I found someone else who was walking about with a hand held laptop thing so I asked her… She looked cross but took the order..Got the drinks delivered by another member of staff…We then had to order our meal from the same waitress with the laptop. She was the only member of staff taking orders for the whole place, it was ridiculous…Ordered a rib-eye steak and a tuna steak…waited an hour, watched a ridiculous operation of crazy staff running about, can’t order drinks unless it’s from laptop girl, and then the food was terrible. Rib-eye was a joke and more like a lame pork chop..The tuna steak was tasteless and looked awful. Worst service and food. We have eaten on five of the islands and all have been really well priced, fresh, tasty and great service.. Just don’t go here…Move along…You won’t...

I was lonely and miserable, plans to hang out with a friend in Horta fell through, and I wasn't sure where I was spending the night. I came in for WiFi and a drink to help stiffen my upper lip. I am so glad I found this place.

Spending every evening here very quickly became the best part of my visit to Faial. The staff are a tight crew, they work incredibly hard, and they enjoy it. The manager has great stories, and made sure I had everything I needed. He even let me request a bunch of random songs when things died down a little.

Even though it says the cafe closes at 2am on GoogleMaps, the crew is ready to be up all night so long as there's a sufficient crowd, so it is the place for you if you like late drinks. On my first night (a Tuesday), the place had trickled down to only a few stragglers at 1:30am, but the crew weren't winding the place down, they were arming up for the next wave. And it happened. Right before 2, a crowd of sailors came in, all thirsty and friendly, and they were open for another few hours.

If it weren't inconvenient, I'd consider visiting the Azores again, just to come back to the...