Fernando's Hideaway — Restaurant in Loulé

Lured by glowing reviews we decided to give it ago. Maybe we were unlucky. Maybe the chef was sick. I don't know, but it was the worse dining experience in Quarteira we had in 10 days. After waiting for about 1 hour (few people before us got their order first especially Portugese) the medium streak arrived well done and piri piri chicken was dry. After complaining about the steak I've received another which was medium but poor quality, more of a casserole meat than real steak. For a steakhouse this was an absolute discrace. As for the waiters one lady was friendly but was mostly ignoring guests inside. As for the other one (blonde), she looked very unhappy be working there. The decor was very nice and the wine glasses were nicely polished, wine was nice too. The service and food...

Pro: 1)Wonderful waitress who was pleasant. 2) nice ambience

Cons:

1. The prawns we ordered were overcooked and tough. It was obvious that it was frozen, not fresh.
2. Extremely long waiting time: my mother-in-law and i were the 2nd to arrive to the restaurant for dinner. We waited for 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES to get what we ordered. Didn't think of our dish as a complicated dish. Fried prawns with sauce, served with fries and salad.
3. too much vinegar in my sauce which was poured all over my prawns and salad, but I couldn't return it since I had to get home to my young kids and didn't want to wait for another hour for a new plate of food. Would have been nice to have it on the side instead, then I could have decided on how much to have...

Rather a steakhouse than a seafood place, however there are several local specialties on the menu, besides the huge selection of steak varieties. Fernando's steak is a must have, T-Bone was less of a joy. If you'd like to have any of the mixed seafood specialties, you should order ahead, so that they can get all the ingredients fresh (which is reassuring about the quality). Unfortunately this also means, that if you'd like to have some immediately, they may not be able to serve you that...