Tasquinha Vieira — Restaurant in Ponta Delgada

Arrived in Ponta Delgada after a long day travelling & stumbled across this restaurant - hoping for a peaceful and enjoyable dinner.

From the outset, the atmosphere in this place just felt off. We were ignored for some time, and when I explained that I was vegetarian to the waiter he was dismissive and irritated. My friend wanted to order wine a little later but he returned and removed the glass with what felt like attitude. Conversation, dialogue & attentive, natural service just didn't seem to exist.

Whilst waiting for our food, I noticed one member of staff using Instagram and WhatsApp. (Not something I've experienced before in a restaurant!)

Our dinner arrived, and my friend queried about the fish - it was cooked on top only. The waiter, (again) dismissed us and told us that it was "meant to be like that". We persisted, but also queried if this could be cooked slightly more. He snappily replied "no." This wasn't enjoyable so my friend ate the rest of the dish leaving the fish.

With attitude, he returns and asks us about the dish. He (yet again) is condescending in tone and offers to replace this and then offers dessert. At this point, the experience is overly uncomfortable - we say no thank you (many times) as we no longer want to be there. He continues to push, and then says I am "hard work".

Generally speaking, we wouldn't leave a negative review - but as 2 women travelling solo, equally wouldn't want anyone to experience similar as it tainted our first night and perception of the town. I think it's worth mentioning that we're pretty well travelled and have never experienced anything like this elsewhere. I...

All and all, the experience was pleasant.

My partner and I managed to find a spot here last minute, despite it being the busiest weekend of the year. You can't tell from the outside, but are like 3 chambers of seating in the restaurant.

When they took us in, they walked us to the very back which was kind of like an indoor-outdoor gardeny type of private terrace. There was a bar there, just a couple tables, a fresh herb garden and a beautiful cement-ish wall with vines growing up. Totally unexpected, and set a relaxing and intimate ambiance for the evening. Loved it!

The server was difficult to read, but exceptional in his craft. He appeared to be managing a number of tables, and was prompt and attentionned to each table.

They appear to change their menu daily or weekly. I selected the gaspacho as an entree, and a catch-of-the-day/clam linguine as the main. My partner chose a beef dish with millefeuille for his main. The food was good, nothing particularly special tbh, and quite expensive for the portions.

The gaspacho was watermelon, cucumber, tomato. It had light accents of garlic and small pieces of the cucumber and watermelon, topped with some mint. Fresh, light and flavourful. Loved it.

The main was underwhelming. Spaghetti instead of linguine were used, it was surprisingly bland, and the portion size was relatively small. I anticipated a dish with more character, but it was quite a generic palate.

My partner lovvvvvved his choice with a capital L. No complaints, only good things to say.

Positive experience overall, although not sure I...

The food was delicious. Service was a bit strange.

We called for a reservation and they said only 6:30 was possible, even though we preferred to come a bit later. When we arrived at 6:30 the restaurant was not open yet so we had to wait a few minutes outside and the restaurant was completely empty until people started coming for their 7pm reservations. So it was not clear why we couldn't also come at 7 🤷‍♀️

The first server who was helping us seemed focused only on my husband. He was leaning close to him and explaining the menu only to him, explained the wine choices only to him, said stuff like "we'll get the food for you sir." Just a bit strange as I was also sitting there but the server didn't seem to notice 😅

Later our waiter was a guy who seemed like the owner. He was friendly and energetic and clearly passionate about his restaurant. He wanted to pour the wine for us every time, but always spilled a bit of wine every single time 😅😅 he also answered his phone and had it on speaker, so we listened to a lot of conversations about how the restaurant was full.

We sat right next to the kitchen which was cool as we could see the chefs finish cooking the dishes. This is definitely the best table as some of the other tables were sandwiched very...