Peter Café Sport — Restaurant in Horta

It was 1980 that I sailed to Horta faial on a 39 ft.Peterson boat,which was designed for racing.We( Doug Fogg, from Boston,Dominique & 1 other guy from France)Left Coconut Grove Florida to deliver the boat named ACCIDUOUS. 8 days later we were approaching Bermuda.Captain Dominique wanted to park the boat in Hamilton Harbour but we were bucking strong winds,so we docked at St.Georges. 10 days later it was the Azores on the horizon and we pulled into the small dock @Horta Faial. The next morning we awoke to a Huge Whale being gutted on the dock. Saddened,but understanding it was part of the local economy ,I made peace with it. That evening we had dinner with the crew from another sailing party.I wish I could remember who they were? We ate at PeterCafeSport. I'm quite sure it was the only dinner establishment on the island? Could be wrong. I ordered squid and then wondered what I was thinking.? Growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,i watched my father catch Brook trout with a Fly rod & we ate it for dinner. I am spoiled when it comes to seafood. So the squid was not close to anything I had imagined.A kind guy from other boat's crew offered to exchange his chicken with me and Dominique said,in his arogant French accent, "No, she ordered it,she can eat it" I will never forget that,its a permanent picture in my mind. I purchased 2 Souvenir's during our visit,a Peter Cafe Sport T-shirt & a small 1&1/2 inch Whale charm carved from a Whale tooth. I still have shirt,but 3 yrs ago I took my beloved Whale out of safekeeping & attached to a zipper pull on my backpack,then while on my Bicycle going to Walgreens for medication for my son who was ill, my Whale fell off.I went back the next day and spent an hour or 2 looking for it. No luck,so if anyone from PETER CAFE SPORT reads this and wishes to contact me so I can order another, PLEASE do so and I will be forever Grateful! To be...

Service was lacking and non-attentive. My only contact was when ordering and paying. And it was not because it was busy. Food was mixed. Fish was nice. 4 little bite-sized potatoes only. Salad was under the fish so was warm. It's famous garlic toast was cold and mushy. Cheese was prominent but not very much garlic flavor. I know it is reknown for its gin but I would have hoped for more than one type of beer as it is a bar. So I can now say I tried this famous place but will not return anytime soon.

I visited with tourist friends today even though I tried to talk them out of it as per my initial review above. Well my review changed but not in the way I would have hoped. I was happy to see a variety of beers but unfortunately it should have been colder. My friends had different gin drinks and none of them were anything to "write home about". As we had lunch earlier we only wanted something salty with our drinks. We asked for french fries but ONLY if they were hot. Well guess what we got......soggy luck warm fries. Mentioned it to the server but he did nothing. Speaking of doing nothing...that appears to be what most of the servers do quite well. I know why our fries were not hot and it was because our server was out with several colleagues have a smoke break....while they were very busy. Once again, the service lived up to what I expected......very poor. As a retired manager, I saw maybe only 2 or 3 of the 12 or more employees that I would keep on staff. Since they seemed to have so much down time (in their minds) maybe they could have cleaned the dirtiest bathrooms I have seen on the island. My wife walked in and walked right back out and they bathrooms were disgusting. Too bad that management doesn't do a better job of just that - managing...

I stayed in Faial for a few weeks and visited Peter’s cafe several times, Peter’s cafe is one of my best memories on this island. 💖 Let’s talk about food first. 🥇 Their banana caramel taart is my favourite, I ordered it every time when I went there. 🥈 My second favourite is seafood curry, first of all, seems like they were the only place I could find curry on this island, and the amount of seafood in the curry is CRAZY, I found at least 7 fresh fat shrimps on the plate. 🥉Third favourite, limpet plate. The Limpet from Açores are fresh, fat and juicy! The steak was also very delicious.

Inside the restaurant has flags and decorations from all over the world, so imagine how many sailors and visitors have been there in 105 years. If you are interested in history, don’t miss their museum upstairs (entrance is next to the counter), they have some incredible collections.🤓

In one of the days, I joined their wale watch group aswell. I heard October is not the best season for it but we still managed to see a few whales and MANY dolphins!!

Lastly, me and my boyfriend got a super cute wale keychain from their souvenir shop next door, I am very...