Varanda do Alentejo — Restaurant in Marvão

We loved this little bed and breakfast for its location, price, comfort and free parking right outside the hotel. Fernando, our host/bartender/waiter/tourist information guide was very friendly, obliging and warm. He made us feel very welcome and at home here.|| ||This little place has 5 ensuite bedrooms over 2 floors. One of the bedrooms opens onto the little lobby downstairs. There is no lift. We had booked a double room and were shown a room (Room 2) right at the top of the stairs and given an option to switch to a bigger room. We declined the offer as the space in the room was adequate for us and we had a fantastic view of the surrounding area from the room window. Both the air-conditioning and the hot water shower worked very well. The room was very clean and the bed was comfortable. The downside was that the wi-fi signal was very weak in our room so we couldn't access the internet. It is also advisable to bring a pair of earplugs if one is a light sleeper as the sound isolation within the building is rather poor (a feature of many of the hotels in Portugal). There was a faint musty smell in the small lobby but this didn't reach the rooms. ||||Breakfast was typically Portuguese with bread, ham, cheese, butter, jam, yoghurt, a piece of cake, coffee, milk and orange squash, served in the restaurant opposite the hotel. The impressive castle is a gentle uphill walk of 7 minutes from the bed and breakfast. There is some upgrading work being done within the walls of the castle (installing of public toilets, etc.) but visitors still have access to the castle. Entry is free (for now) and it is open 24/7. || ||Marvão is a lovely little village built on a high point in the Serra de São Mamede mountain range near the border with Spain. It is a village that is worth the visit. The whole village sits within a fortified wall of which the castle is the main lookout point. Exploring the castle, walking along the walls that form the perimeter of the village and taking in the magnificent views, one can imagine living in the era when Spain and Portugal were nations at war with each other. It will also make you stop and wonder at the tenacity and ingenuity of the people of that era in building the fortified walls and castle from the jagged rock.||||We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and wouldn't hesitate to stay at the Varanda do Alentejo again. For €54/night (Carnaval period) it was good...

This is a restaurant with rooms in Mervao, which is the highest town in Portugal. Mervao is wonderful. Shame about the Veranda.||||The rooms are a new investment by the rather jolly owner of the restaurant, and are a converted terrace house just across the street. The street is narrow and cobbled, but the restaurant is opposite a tiny square with parking, and fabulous views. ||||The rooms are small, with en suite showers etc. Ours was clean and reasonably comfortable, apart from the mattress, which had been covered with a plastic under-sheet. I find these things uncomfortable. The shower was very small, and any sudden movement was likely to nudge the thermostat lever, leading to a dramatic change in water temperature. The view from our room was wonderful.||||The only other comment to make about the rooms concerns a rather distressing “toilet” smell that pervaded the hallway. The owner had lit a scented candle to mask the smell when we arrived, so it was more pronounced when we got up next morning.||||The restaurant was poor, maybe suffering from the “Lonely Planet Syndrome”, where a positive reference brings in a stream of visitors, and the place stops trying. Breakfast was poor. Bread, jam, honey, no fruit. This was the only B&B we visited in Portugal where local cheese and ham did not get offered for breakfast, and why, in a country where oranges grow on trees, would we be offered orange squash for breakfast? At least the coffee was OK.||||At 45 Euros this B&B was at the cheaper end of the general price range, but it was also at the lower end of the quality spectrum, and we...

This rating is for the restaurant.

We stopped by here on 29September 2019 around 9 PM. Most of the other diners were couples, like us.

After being seated, the waiter brought menus and bread and olives. We were impressed. The bread and the olives and the olive oil was a good appetizer.

When it came time to order, we each chose one of the fixed-price menus, which cost €13.90 per person. My wife had the migas, and I had the pork with clams. Both dishes were quite tasty. With our meal we had two large bottles of sparkling water to drink. This fixed price menu also included desert. You can see this on the web site for the restaurant.

Then we asked for the check. That is when the fun began. As I looked at the bill, I noticed there was a separate charge for the appetizers. But wait a minute, we did not order those. We thought that they just came with the meal. This was an extra charge of about 8 euros. When we pointed this out to the waiter, he modified our bill. But while this was taking place, I noticed that two other tables were having the same discussion with the same waiter. If I didn't know better, I could view this as an unseen way to pad the bill for this restaurant. Because of this sneaky effort to bill us for items we did not order, I cannot recommend this restaurant, even though the food was very good.

Should you dine here, make sure that you look at your bill ...