A Azenha do Mar — Restaurant in Odemira

Update: After three years, I came back to this restaurant that I loved as you can see in my first review. What a big disappointment 😔 I heard that there were changes in the restaurant ownership/management which probably is the reason for such bad food and service. I went there on a Tuesday evening and there was no fresh fish because according to the waitress "the fishermen partied too hard in the weekend". Nevertheless after this statement she tried to sell me fried fish anyway. I asked for clams à bulhao pato, prawns à guillo, and sizeable crab. Everything tasteless. Most of the waiters/waitresses were immigrants with no experience at all. Although I think is great to give opportunities to everyone, it is the restaurant's responsability to train the staff. One of the waiters remove the clams shells off our plates rather than changed them, despite being completely dirty with sauce. Most of the prawns went back to the kitchen and I mentioned to one of the waitresses that I was not satisfied but I'm pretty sure she didn't understand me (she was very nice but her Portuguese was poor). Again, I don't think it is the waiters' fault, most of them were trying their hardest, however, they were not familiar with Portuguese restaurant basic etiquette and language, and that's on the restaurant management. After the crab, I asked for the bill because I was too sad to see such a great restaurant being so awful this time. The first waitress came with the bill after spending most of the dinner chatting with the guys on the table by my side rather than working and I repeated my complaints. No apologies, no mention to the owner of the restaurant as it would be expected in such place, nothing. Just a sprint to bring the bill for me to pay. An expensive dinner to forget and a review from 5 to 1 star. I don't recommend at all 😔

First Review: Great seafood and fish restaurant in the calm village with the same name. The quality price ratio is ridiculously great. We ordered a nice and fresh mussel salad as starter, a 1kg crab (sapateira), some lemon sole (linguados) with açorda, and two bottles of green wine Muralhas and the bill didn't reach 50€. But more importantly than the price, the freshness and quality of the crab and fish were amazing. Be aware that the sapateira is cooked on the spot so it takes around 35 mins to be ready and comes slightly warn to the table as well. The staff was friendly. The place can get crowded easily so it is recommended to go early. We arrived around 12h30-13h and there was no problems in finding a table but afterwards there was some waiting. The restaurant is worth the detour and afterwards you can always have a little walk on the cliffs and enjoy the landscape. Highly...

We went in the morning to make a reservation because someone recommended the restaurant to us. They refused to take our reservation, saying there would be no problem to get a table, even outside. When we returned at 14:00 for lunch, we had to wait for 20min to get a table inside. Outside we would have had to wait even longer. We ordered rice with seafood and fried squids (two adults, one child). Asking if that would be enough they told us that maybe a starter might be suitable.

The food: the rice was nice, had lots of seefood but had too much of a cilantro, which can be quite dominant. By the way the portions are very generous, in the end we thought there was no need to have ordered a starter. The squid was not edible because it was full of sand. We tried one and a half but gave up then. The starter (octupus salad) was ok.

Despite our complaints about the squid they insisted on charging us the full amount, saying it is impossible that there was sand in there.

Summary: the place seemed totally...

This restaurant was recommended to me by a friend who lives in Lisbon and seeing this was my first time to Portugal I had to take advice from someone in “the know”.

First off, this place doesn’t take reservations, so it’s “first come, first serve”. It sits atop of a cliff side overlooking the Atlantic Ocean so the dinner view, especially at sunset is spectacular! There’s outdoor seating and it’s very kid-friendly. Most of the patrons are locals, but that might be because it’s the only place in town…

When it comes to the food, it’s fantastic! We had the Octopus Salad, the Clams and the Sapateira. All of the dishes were fresh and probably the best seafood we had yet!

The service was very friendly and atmosphere was as well, as we made friends with some of the locals sitting next to us!

I would HIGHLY recommend this restaurant if you’re in...