Restaurante NACIONAL — Restaurant in Ponta Delgada

My hotel managed to get a reservation for us at 2030 just an hour before. It was busy when we arrived and service was very slow once we placed our orders. We watched every table around us get their food while we were still waiting for our appetizers, and my friends finished an entire jug of sangria before we even got our soup which arrived lukewarm. Between appetizers and entrees was another hour wait. Our favorite was the grilled shrimp which was selling for 60€/kg. It was grilled perfectly and the olive oil it was plated with was delicious with the bread. Everything else we ordered was either too salty or too dry/overcooked - we had the grilled liver with cream sauce (not grilled and not a cream sauce), the fried pork fat (which was actually pork belly with no fat), the grilled fish of the day, cod with potatoes, and grilled mix meats (pork/chicken/beef, all overcooked). We ordered three jugs of sangria — all delicious. We easily spent more $ here than any other restaurant on our trip so far and only came away liking one appetizer and the sangria. Even though the kitchen was very slow, our waiter...

This was so disappointing. While the food was acceptable, the service was blatantly biased. The waiter was friendly and attentive to all the tables around us, speaking in other languages, but was blunt and dismissive with us. Our first night on the island... We even switched to English because he seemed to favour tourists from elsewhere over Portuguese guests.

Yes, Portuguese people may tip less than Germans or English, but that’s due to economic reality—this doesn’t justify rude treatment.

The bacalhau à Brás was dry, no olives were offered as starters, and when I asked for a local wine, we were served a Ribatejo wine. We would have tipped at least €5, but the service didn’t deserve it. At €43 per head, this level of service is unacceptable.

Such bias gives a poor image of the island—fortunately, this waiter was the only one showing this behaviour. We may speak Portuguese (our beautiful mother tongue), but we haven’t lived there for over 20 years, and our purchasing power is different, sad to have to switch languages to expect nice service. Your...

Enjoyed an excellent meal here in a January. The highlight was the service, extremely attentive and helpful. The young gentleman went above and beyond dealing with a very busy restaurant with charm and professionalism.

The food was very good quality and well executed. We had questions about the dishes before ordering which the waiter proactively helped with and everything that was delivered exceed expectations. Can highly recommend the seafood rice which was very generous with fresh seafood and a great portion. The beef kebab with pineapple and side dishes was excellent. Shrimps for starters were large, fresh and meaty, the sauce was more of a New England butter style than garlicky Azorean, which frankly we appreciated and worked well with the thicker prawn meat. This is not always the case in the Azores, so really helpful.

Wine choice was great and deserts were very fresh. Fruit salad was a delightful palate cleanser and very fresh.

Definitely one of my top 2 restaurants during my stay and hope to...