Don Sebastião — Restaurant in Lagos

A brief story about this our experience at Don Sebastião. I apologize for not writing this in Portuguese, but I am not able to fully explain our wonderful experience with my limited vocabulary. We were visiting Lagos with family for the first time during the off season and someone had suggested we come here as it was a good restaurant that was open during the off season. We reserved a table for our group of seven. When we arrived, we were ushered to our table and shown the fresh catch of the day and also the specials. The décor of the restaurant felt like it was personally curated over several generations and I am sure if there was enough time, many stories could be told about each specific picture, painting or plaque. The waiters were very receptive and helpful to the needs of our table and made some excellent wine recommendations. Some of us ordered more exotic (to us) dishes while others ordered something simpler and more traditional. Before the food arrived, some of the members of our table were given full bibs and what felt like a small tool box worth of utensils while others were given the basic cutlery. Shortly thereafter, the waiter delivered a huge stock pot for those who had the toolbox of utensils! This stock pot could have fed almost our entire table but instead it was just for the couple who ordered seafood and rice. The dish definitely required the use of the aforementioned utensils and the bibs did not stay clean for very long. However, the effort needed to eat the dish only added to its flavour. The remaining meals were also delivered and were equally delicious. Remarkably, and with some extra support from the rest of the table, the giant dish of seafood and rice was finished, along with the rest of our meals. Over the course of the meal, we told stories, laughed, enjoyed our food, and had good wine. When we were finished, we realized that we were some of the only people left in the restaurant. Not wanting to keep staff there longer than necessary, we tried to make sure we exited in a timely manner. The waiters were insistent though, that we continue to enjoy ourselves, and while we couldn’t have possibly ordered dessert because of all of the amount of food we had just collectively consumed, fresh almonds were brought over for us to crack open and share. When we had actually finished our meal, some of our group had noticed that in the lower part of the restaurant, near the washrooms, there were other interesting décor and what appeared to be a large wine cellar. One of the waiters heard us discussing the wine cellar and took it upon himself to tell us about the history of the wine that was present in the collection as well as stories about some of the families and local wine growers. At this point, we were well passed closing time but we were treated like old friends that you hadn’t seen for a long time. When exploring the old town the next day, we ended up wandering past Don Sebastião and the waitstaff recognized us and made conversation about how our trip was going. Everything felt very genuine and like they were happy to see us. Our experience here could literally not have been any better! There are too many other micro stories and details to list out in this review but this restaurant was the highlight of our trip to Lagos and given the opportunity, we would love to come back and...

Very fancy nice place. Came here to cross Lobster of my bucket list and left pleasantly satisfied. I came in just before the tables started filling up and was placed in the back corner of the outdoor seating area which was out of everyone's way but still could see everything that was going on. I ordered Gazpacho for my started with some bread and butter, boiled lobster for my main and the Hawaii Cup for desert. The waiter let me choose my own lobster from the tank, weighed it and made sure I was satisfied with the size of it followed by taking him to the kitchen to be prepared. One thing I will say if you're ordering fresh Lobster for the first time is to make sure you have a starter or something to nibble on whilst you wait for the Lobster to be cooked as it does take it's time but is worth it. The gazpacho, bread and butter arrived first within good time and was deliciously refreshing. I spent the whole day out in the sun hiking through the cliffs on the coast of Lagos and it was exactly what I needed. The coolness of the blended tomato mixed with the refreshing taste of cucumber and hint of fresh onion was exactly what was needed to cool me down. After finishing my starter I didn't realise how long it takes to cook a Lobster so I ended up munching on most of my bread and butter however the local street performer was great entertainment with his amazing performance of some songs. Just before the lobster arrived I was given the tools, a variety of three sauces (prawn cocktail, piri piri and mayo) and a plate for the shell with a single packaged wet wipe. Once the lobster arrived it was dished on a plate full of lettuce, tomato slices, a whole raddish and a choice of lemon or lime for flavouring and to my surprise was precut in half. I am unsure whether this was because one of the waiters has seen me watching videos on how to eat a lobster during my wait (another great tip for first timers) or whether it always comes like this but it did kind of take the fun away from having a hack at it myself, either way it was delicious and it was great to taste how each and every part of the lobster tastes different from the rest. As I was having a hack at finishing off nearly a whole kg of lobster by myself the waiter came over to change my shell plate as it was getting full which is a nice touch as the pile didn't fall and go everywhere. After finishing the whole thing off, the table was cleared and I ordered my dessert which was huge (not complaining) and as I was slowly getting through it all on my already full stomach, I felt a bit rushed by one of the waiters as they were getting busy and I guess they needed the table. Either way besides that last hiccup at the end, I would definitely recommend coming here as all of the food that other tables have ordered looked amazing and my dishes...

Had dinner here last night after noticing it on a previous trip and thinking it looked nice. We couldn’t visit at that time as we were with quite a large group including vegetarians and vegans and like much of the area’s restaurants we noticed our friends might struggle to find something nice to eat here. No bother we came back a few months later and got a table. The restaurant itself certainly looked lovely- quite grand but still traditionally Portuguese. The first waiter who seated us was quite gruff informing us we couldn’t sit outside- only inside. That was fine. We ordered a starter of coquille st. Jacque and decided to share it as we were going for fairly heavy mains. The waiter scoffed when we said we were sharing it and it wasn’t until it arrived that we understood why. One scallop arrived for ten euros. The sauce was tasty but I have eaten at much nicer places and paid less for more. From this point all but one of the waiters became increasingly rude and difficult for us to get any attention to refill our drinks etc. We had ordered the slow cooked kid in wine and pork fillet with figs. The kid was great. It was served in a terracotta pot, had a delicious flavourful sauce and fell apart as it had been cooked so long. It was perhaps a little tiny bit dry but when covered in the yummy sauce was forgivable. The pork with figs however was absolutely disgusting. Not a fig to be seen just very thin, very over cooked and extremely dry and chewy slices of pork in a very sweet almost almond flavour sauce that had split and was more reminiscent of a satay sauce than anything to do with figs. It was also served with chips which is a shame and some quite nicely charred vegetables while the kid was served with boiled potatoes and no vegetables apart from a couple of carrots in the pot. The staff were so rude we decided not to linger and get a bottle of wine but rather down a beer and leave and go somewhere friendly asap. It was very strange that the staff seemed to be quite pleasant to other customers showing them to the door and even smiling occasionally. Not sure what happened to our service- maybe because we were young or the wrong nationality or they simply didn’t like the look of us but it was quite clear by how we were spoken to so gruffly, forgotten about so completely and ignored entirely that there was something about the cut of our jib they didn’t like. Rather wish we had read the bad reviews on trip advisor first (there are plenty) as these were really indicative of our visit. We visit the area around three times a year, more if possible and suffice to say for average to poor food and horrible service we shan’t...