Casa do Abel — Restaurant in Lagoa

Just left there as a table of 6 because there was so much hype about this restaurant. We had a reservation and were seated at table 12 right in front of the washrooms. It seemed like it might not be a good experience when after 10 minutes of watching other people come and get seated and their orders taken our waitress finally came. Then we ordered a ribeye to share which is €35/kg but comes with a huge bone through it. We asked for it to be medium well as in our experience steakhouses are notorious for undercooking. We were told that it is cooked medium and if we don't like it we can send it back to be cooked more. When we got the ribeye is was cooked rare or medium rare at best. Then after that our waitress never came back again. I would have liked some of my pieces of steak to be cooked a little bit more but she never came back to check. It seemed like all of the service was given to the back of the restaurant with the front of the restaurant being forgotten about. We all finished our whole meal and continued to watch others get their checks and pay while we were still sitting there. Even our waitress seemed to be purposelt avoiding us. Eventually I flagged down another waiter and voiced our concerns and all he said was "I'm sorry I can't do everything and be everywhere." The point was our our waitress hadn't even been back to check on us once. No apology and even as we were paying our original waitress continued to avoid us and said nothing. Also don't be tricked into thinking that the salad that comes with the steak is good enough. Its like two pieces of lettuce. I wouldn't recommend this place. There are way better steakhouses...

Firstly, the staff were really outstanding. So attentive and helpful. However, I was really let down with the food.

I had read all the amazing reviews, but my experience didn’t match up to it and I felt a bit bitter about having to pay an expensive bill at the end which was a shame as I’ve only had incredible dining experiences so far in the Azores.

We ordered the rib-eye, medium and the mushrooms, broccoli and truffle mash as side dishes.

The side dishes came first. The broccoli was ok, but nothing special, as were the mushrooms. The truffle mash however, was a luke warm kind of slop. To me it resembled Smash that you get in a packet years back. It was gelatinous and gloopy- not buttery and delicious like you would expect.

Then came the rib-eye- and as soon as it was placed down the waiter explained that it was not cooked medium like we asked, and was very rare and said if we wanted it cooked more we could ask….but by the time a steak has rested and been served, to recook it completely ruins the texture of the meat. So having to send it back and get it cooked as we ordered, the meat had tensed up and become tough and not enjoyable at all.

We explained this to the staff, and I was annoyed that we had to pay full price for steak that was not cooked as we ordered, and was ruined once it was recooked.

They tried to compensate by giving us a coffee and a digestif on the house- but I didn’t think it was fair.

It was by far the most expensive meal we’ve eaten in Azores, and for certain the least enjoyable.

The deserts however were absolutely delicious/ the passion fruit panacotta especially! And just want to say again how lovely...

Unfortunately we didn’t eat here so this is only a review for the staff to take as service feedback. Our front desk at the Caloura Hotel suggested your restaurant and that it should be fine to go early without a reservation. We walked in at 6:08pm on a Monday and your restaurant was empty. The young man who walked up to us asked if we had a reservation and started shaking his head before we answered. He was very excited to say there is no chance we could dine there. I suggested we could eat very quickly. He shook his head again seeming more focused on enjoying his moment to turn us away rather than even exploring a solution. I’ve walked into many good restaurants when they are very busy and the host will at least take a moment to review his tables and see if something might work. Even pretending to think about a solution for a moment would be better than what this young server did. Maybe I know my steak and could order so quickly you would get us fed and out before your 7pm reservations? Again your restaurant was literally empty so either all your 6pm guests were late or you could have figured out an option for us to eat at a table that we could vacate on time. Why not try sell an extra steak? Lack of effort to create a solution so we both lose. I don’t get to try your delicious food and you get this negative review. However I do hope it helps you upgrade the staff’s approach to...