Fernando — Restaurant in Lagos

We had walked past the night before and the unassuming restaurant had caught our eye.

Having been in the Algarve for a week eating a lot of beautiful fish we really fancied some red meat. We googled Fernando the next morning and saw the good reviews and so planned to visit that evening.

We called in at 8pm on a Thursday and enquired for a table for 2. We were extremely lucky that a table of 6 hadn't showed up for their reservation, so the kind waitress gave us their table. (It's obviously terrible form to not show up for, or cancel, reservations, especially when the restaurant is so small).

We enjoyed a fabulous and extremely well priced meal! We had the fried shrimp to start to share that were honestly perfectly cooked. Then followed by the chateaubriand (a steal at just €39 for 500g) with the delicious sides of Fries, cheesey potatoes and steamed veg. We paired this with a very well priced Reserva and the whole meal was a delight.

Usually we decline dessert but in this instance we had the cointreau poached pear and the hyper-local flambé fig cake. Both fantastic.

Our waitress was lovely, working all the tables on her own but still affording us due care and attention and we even met Don Fernando himself as the meal came to a close.

For the entire duration of the meal potential patrons were entering the restaurant in the hope of getting a table and having to be turned away. So absolutely make a reservation if you plan to attend, and make sure you stick to it or some lucky chancers like us might just...

Friendly restaurant with fabulous food

Tiny family run restaurant adjacent to the Taxi rank. Not your brash lights cold décor but a warm cosy place with the most friendly team you could meet. Having read that booking is best we phoned late afternoon and was called back in a few minutes following a no answer.

You are not rushed in this restaurant and don’t expect speedy service, everything is cooked to order, it’s a relaxing homely place.

The standard pre starter of bread, sardine pâté (chargeable), cheese and olives came with our order of water and Vinho de Casa Tinto, a perfectly enjoyable house red wine for €9 a bottle.

We had a main course of Prawns cooked with garlic to share as a starter, not necessarily the best tasting prawns, but body shells removed, ‘de veined’ and cooked to perfection in a totally delicious sauce with lots of garlic, yummy.

The main course of Roast Pork, Crackling and Plum Sauce with apple was scrumptious, a sirloin stake with Roquefort cheese sauce ordered rare was cooked to perfection and ‘melting in the mouth’ tender. These were served with a plate of Cheesy Potato’s (to die for) and vegetables, nothing went back on the plates, testament to totally delicious meal, not fantastic, just very, very good for a...

The restaurant was full when we arrived at 7.30pm and unfortunately there was a table of 10 people, so we thought the service might be slow. This is a small family run restaurant and, I guess has a small kitchen, but we thought we might get our simple salad starter part way through serving the big group and other diners, but we didn't. It took well over an hour before we got the salad, and there was no apology and mention of a delay throughout the meal. The steaks when they finally arrived were delicious, perfectly cooked, and served with nice veg and potatoes. The house wine was nice. It was very reasonably priced and had a nice ambience, and it was just unfortunate that a big group had such a negative impact on other diners. I do wonder if it would be better for such a small restaurant to have a maximum of maybe 6, so they are able to service everyone better. Would recommend it, but check that there are...