O Franguinho — Restaurant in Olhão

We visited this restaurant on the 1st night in October and sat outside on a warm late summers evening. We ordered 2 dishes from a simple looking menu where brevity of the dishes was assumed based on the literal translation into English. My partner ordered a Tuna steak and I ordered a Swordfish (anticipating this to be a Swordfish steak based on the 15 Euro price tag!). Both dishes arrived promptly and initially looked aesthetically pleasing. Within seconds of the dishes being delivered to the table, the waiter requested his customary verdict of our meals. Before we’d even given him an answer, he began walking away assuming we had given him a positive verdict where in fact we simply smiled and indicated to him that neither of us we had tasted either meal. The swordfish, or should I say swordfish snout was practically all bone and the flesh, which was massively overcooked, turned into a mushy mess once prized away from the bone with a fork. The same could be said of the tuna steak which was also far too overcooked but at least barely edible. Clearly disappointed and upset with both of our meals we beckoned the waiter to inform him of our dissatisfaction and in particular with the swordfish. We showed him the evidence but he clearly did not have enough empowerment at the restaurant and instantly walked away to inform the manager/owner of the situation. The manager/owner duly arrived and immediately began accusing us of not providing any information on how we wanted the dishes cooked and that there was nothing wrong with either of the dishes. We explained that the waiter didn’t even ask us how we would like our meals cooked. Rather than apologise to us, the manager/owner became increasingly aggressive and argumentative and refused to accept that there was anything wrong with either plates of food. After some period of exchange and clearly at loggerheads with us, he snapped his fingers to a nearby waiter who immediately grabbed both of our plates and swiftly removed them from the table. The manager/owner then rudely resigned himself to asking us what we wanted instead but at this point we both felt as though we simply wanted to pay for what we had already consumed and that we didn't feel that we should pay for the two unacceptable meals. An initial bill arrived on the table which only had the swordfish amount waived from it. Eventually, after another exchange with the manager/owner to attempt to explain our intentions to not pay for either meal, he gestured his displeasure towards us with his hands and stormed back into the restaurant. At this point we called over to another waiter and handed him the cash amounting to the amended bill. Unfortunately, we had also ordered a bottle of wine to accompany our meal so were left uncomfortably exposed to finish our remaining half bottle before vacating a very unpleasant and disappointing experience. Moral of the story…be sure to know what you are ordering and be 100% specific on how you...

Preconceito !

My family and I visit this restaurant on Saturday 30th July. We arrived at the restaurant at around 6:45pm and sat outside ( esplamada) two adults and two young children. The waiter informed us that we had to wait for about ten minutes as the staff were having their dinner and soon will serve us which was fine. After a while the same waiter came with the entrance and the menu. While choosing our foods, which was fish, the waiter very rudely brought a raw fish to our table and suggested that we had that ‘big fish instead of two and split for both of us’ I was chocked and had no reaction, he then went inside which I thought we would have get the soups for our children that did not happen. Two more couples with small children arrived and were served straight away with drinks, soups for the small ones and their waters. We were the first one to arrive yet not served for about 30 minutes not even he brought us soups. I continue to observe the waiter, the same waiter and at one point I called him to ask for the soups and why was the service taken so long given the fact that we were the first to arrived, he dismissed what I said and served us soups in a much bigger dish than was is expected. The waiter that served us was a Brazilian guy. My husband is Brazilian and I’m black. All other couples that arrived after us were white.

The waiter was racist in all manner possible. Unfortunately, I had no action to call him off and speak to the manager or whoever was responsible.

This is an update as per today 14th August after the owner replied to my review:

You only apologised because you know that what I said is the NORM of your restaurant, than you tried to do the reverse blame here unsuccessfully. The waiter is Brazilian however, I cannot say by fact whether or not they consider themselves as to be ‘Black’ therefore my comment is from my horrible experience visiting your restaurant and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to gaslighting what I said.

Be professional enough to acknowledge what had happened to my family and all other family/ visitors that had experienced the same and change the racist culture in your restaurant. The fact that You came on here trying to blame me is sickening, disgusting. I’m utterly disgusted by...

The main meals we had were very tasty. However, I am knocking a couple stars off because of the courvert that is placed on the table. We barely had a chance to look at the menu and staff were asking if we wanted bread and olives, we hastily agreed. Unfortunately the bread was very dry, almost like a few days old. Olives were not very good, some were very dry and chewy, and at some point we found a pip in our dish (makes you wonder how a pip ends up in the dish with the fresh olives… are they reusing the not eaten olives brought back from customers?). And you are charged per item (each butter, pate etc is added to the bill, and only after leaving I realised they charged me twice for bread.. probably because we asked for it to be changed as it was too dry). We really enjoyed our main meals...