Oxalá — Restaurant in Ovar

Oxala, Xala! I could not contain myself from thinking that perhaps I was mistaken for a wedding reception guest. Upon walking in, we were immediately greeting by a host holding a cleanly sabered chilled champagne bottle and serving it to us almost as we crossed the entrance threshold. I had to contain myself from saying, we aren’t here for a wedding. But this is their standard greeting for all their guests. The entrance looked like a wedding cocktail hour with hors d’ oeuvres spread out on multiple tables. While enjoying the multitude of appetizers there are several niche areas to take some photos. How cool! I’ve never had an experience like this at a restaurant. After we enjoyed our “appetizer” experience, we were seated at a table where we enjoyed a nice vista overlooking the marina. The staff were impeccable dressed and highly professional. The service was simply phenomenal. The waiter recommend the appropriate sized seafood platter and then when it came out he portioned it out and placed it all on our plates. We later found out that the server was in fact the owner. Amazing, this is the key to leadership where the servant is in fact the leader and there is no better way to convey customer service than to actually robe up and serve your customers. From the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out, we were treated like personal guests of the restaurant. Not just customers but guests. So the fact that it felt more like a wedding reception than a restaurant experience is quite fitting because they go the extra mile (kilometer) to ensure that you are valued more like a guest than simply a customer. I highly recommend this restaurant. You will truly fell like family...

Summary: food is decent, but high pressure sales tactics and extortionate prices make for an extremely uncomfortable experience.

Food is good and served in large portions, but the prices are insanely high (the most expensive I have ever seen in 10 years of visiting this region), and the service is EXTREMELY pushy on upselling.

Our waiter put us under massive pressure to order before we had even looked at the extremely expensive menu. Some examples of the unacceptably pushy upselling:

Pestered every guest to order without giving us a menu (there was one digital menu in the middle of the table), loudly pestered each person to order the most expensive item in whichever category they were interested in (meat/seafood) When I did order something (e.g. the ‘Oxala Barbecue’) , he literally said “no, forget it, you have to have the chateaubriand”…because that was €60 per portion… Same thing on wine, he asked me what wine I like, and I used Papa Figos as an example (this is usually ~€20 a bottle in restaurants in this region), he laughed this off and insisted i have to have a bottle costing €60. I had to firmly and persistently deny him to convince him to allow me to only buy a cheaper (and still perfectly lovely) bottle. He brought over a huge portion of clams as a starter, which nobody ordered, started plating them up and putting them in front of us, insisting we must try them. We assumed that they must be included in the cover charge so we accepted, but I realised later that he added it to the bill for €77!!!!! They were also full of grit, so absolutely...

First impressions are great, with sparkling wine and appetizers served at the entrance… from there on it plummeted to one of the worst experiences we ever had, at an exorbitant price … the restaurant looks and feels like a large factory canteen, with too many people, all shouting to be heard by their table members… the waiters are stressed out, even though they try their best to spend 30 seconds at your table … and worst of all, the grilled fish dish we had was bland, uninspired, uninteresting, plain… a slice of bland tasting fish cooked without any creativity, with just a few sterile steamed beans and broccoli and carrots… a big show piece for a way too high price, for food I wouldn’t even consider to serve at home … a child can cook better ! Stay far away from this place, if you are looking for a true Portuguese food...