Restaurante O Baco — Restaurant in Ponta Delgada

I really struggle to believe all the positive reviews on this restaurant. I will agree that the place is aesthetically appealing, and their music selection is good, but that is where the positive vibes end. Both of the servers that attended our table had as much personality as the table napkins, and offered the menu on a single iPad for the entire table. Obviously this was a decision of the owner/manager, and I am fully supportive of the green agenda, but this idea of passing around a single iPad for everyone to order from, clearly isn’t as “cool” as they think it is. Otherwise, this would be commonplace. As for the food, it was mostly flavorless, with nothing distinctive or complex about it, save for sweetness. If you like your grilled fish covered in sweet, creamy sauce, then disregard this review, as you will likely enjoy the food here. We had 3 entrees and found none of them to be flavorful. I will agree that the display of their plates is beautiful, as seen in the photos, but the taste doesn’t come close to matching the presentation. I don’t normally spend my time providing reviews, but when I come across a place that appears to have a bunch of questionable positive reviews, that lead me to a restaurant, but don’t live up to the reviews, I feel compelled to share...

the staff were nice, we came early and the staff accommodated us. I am severely allergic to shellfish / crustaceans / seafood. I had a chicken pot pie as a starter and it was ok but definitely wasn’t what you would consider a chicken pot pie (shredded chicken in pastry). There were 2 mains without seafood and no vegetarian options on the menu. I got the chicken breast and it was so dry it was inedible. The pumpkin purée was super sweet, and the vegetables were a mix of undercooked and over cooked. It was inedible. My husband had fish which he said was great. They had “collard greens” as stated on the menu in his dish, but were not actually collard greens. The waiters were nice, when they came to take away the plates and mine was still full, they offered to bring the menu for me to select something else but had lost appetite at that point. It took a very long time to pay (it took a very long time for the food too), but the waiter was nice and didn’t charge me for the inedible food. So - if you can eat seafood, this place would be recommended. If you cannot eat seafood - probably best to skip. Also - having a tv on the wall blasting sports doesn’t quite reconcile with the ambiance of...

We visited the restaurant 22.03.23. Service in the restaurant was great, unfortunatelly food wasn’t on a real fine dining level in our opinion. 1st dishes - Octopus carpaccio and veal tartar: carpaccio was lacking in taste and tartar was not resembling a tartar, it was more of a patee altough carpaccios presentation was nice.

-As a second course we both ordered Azorean tuna steak (medium rare) and we were explicitly asked what doneness we would like. Unfortunatelly we got well done tuna stakes that were very over cooked and dry : we sent them back and got this time perfectly cooked tunas. Dish itself was not making a much sense - hugh potato crocket with semolina potato pyree texture inside(strange) and a pile of steamed spinach in between.

As desserts we ordered mille feuille and tiramisu - my mille feuille was the only dish that was executed perfectly: the textures/presentation/taste - everything was there. So great for that.

As for conclusion I would rate the restaurant with 3 stars for all the mishaps and lack of conception...