Ala do Castelo — Restaurant in Lagos

Visited here on the first day of our holiday, after reading the reviews we were a little skeptical but thought we would give it a go, as we thought what’s the worst that can happen. Well, let me tell you, and what happened exceeded our worst expectations. Upon arrival we ordered 2 beers and half a litre of red sangria. The beers were beyond flat, not a bubble in sight, and the sangria was the worst we’ve ever had. We were then served olives, and pate. The olives were frozen and wrinkled up, the pate came in tins, and tasted like what can only be described as cat food. However nothing could have prepared us for the following. When our mains arrives, what was placed before us was abysmal. The prawns had not been cleaned and were embedded with dirt and poo; see pictures below. The “pork” was a thin slice of frozen slop, smothered in an oily watery mess described as “creamy mushroom sauce”. But to top it off, the reaction of the team was truly despicable. After raising our complaints politely, the waitress, manager and chef all came out and screamed at us, threatening to call the police. We explained our lack of satisfaction in a calm and understanding manner, and were met with aggressive attitudes and dismissal. The waitress then started taking photos of us and continued to shout. Being our friends birthday, this was a horrific experience and a terrible start to the holiday. If you like this kind of service and food, visit the local prison, where i’m sure you would endure a better experience.

EDIT; Based on your multiple 1 star reviews, your response is insane. The only reviews higher than 1 star are clearly not valid and written by your pals. Do you think the 10s of 1 star reviews were also emotional and rude? No, you just can’t accept criticism. You are living in such a bubble of delusion if you think your food is good and you believe other customers think this. We watched the man opposite us take a sip of his beer and was disgusted, as it was flat as a pancake. You specify in your response that many customers were on your side and supported you? There were two customers in the restaurant whilst we were there and they were not pleased at all. Perhaps you have accustomed yourselves to a delusional outlook on a “resturant” that serves food you believe is edible, but you all need a wake up call and if the previous 1 star reviews weren’t enough, realise now your business is awful, someone with no culinary experience could produce better food and any person on this planet could provide better service than you. Grow up and listen to the reviews you have been given before you try and hide them with your grampa’s tripadviser...

We came here for some food on the first day of our trip and honestly couldn’t regret it more. We ordered a couple of beers to start and they came out warm and flat? (Two customers from another tables complained about the same thing while we were there) We have then ordered red sangria that tasted terrible for some reason but after ordering the white one it was lovely/ olives came our wrinkled and half frozen as well as the starters being in cans. When the mains come out they were unfortunately cold, incredibly salty and not suitable for human consumption. In addition the prawns weren’t deveined which we aren’t used to but after asking the waitress she completely ignored us. We tried to sort out our issue with the waitress but then she has decided to start an argument, brought out the chef and the owner who screamed at us and threatened us. We tried to resolve the issue, being happy to pay for whatever we had + drinks to which the waitress proceeded to take photos of us (???) and threatened to call the police which I was 100% on board with. She ended up just charging us for drinks while her chef and ‘boss’ shouted at us in Portuguese and made some upsetting comments. It was clearly a strategy meant to intimidate us for some reason It was my birthday lunch and me and my friends left very distraught and upset considering we were met with such an unnecessary aggressive response. We’ve been told we made a scene in front of customers (there was two other people there). The owner insisted we are the first people to ever complain which clearly isn’t true looking at the many other bad reviews

Avoid at all cost. Couldn’t pay me to eat there ever. White sangria was...

I emailed this restaurant a week before we arrived to book a table, despite a reminder I never got a reply. The only way to catalogue our experience is as a timeline. Approx 18.20 arrived at the restaurant and started to read the menu. It was fairly quiet when we arrived so we placed our order 10 minutes later. There was a TV on the wall playing pop music quite loudly. Three of the four drinks ordered appeared after around 10 minutes, the fourth - a bottle of water - had to be chased. The starters for the 4 of us were a bowl of fish soup, 2 portions of garlic bread and 2 shrimp pate. 19.10 the fish soup and pate arrived. Soup didn't taste of fish and the pate were two small foil packets on a plate with no bread or crackers. 10 minutes later the garlic bread arrived, which was quite tasty. 19.40 three of the main courses arrived, one of the party ordered a second drink. The fourth dish arrived 5 minutes later. The food was pretty good without being amazing. Five minutes later a second portion of garlic bread arrived, we sent it back but we're still charged for it. 10 minutes later we had to remind them about the second drink order as it hadn't arrived. By this time the restaurant was quite busy but the TV was still banging out the pop music added to the very loud atmosphere, quite tiring for all of us but impossible for my partner who has hearing aids. The starters were poor, the mains ok, the service dreadful, the price quite high and the atmosphere poor. Can't recommend and won't...