Casa da Maré — Restaurant in Portimão

OK, a group of 4 of us ate here on 2 occassions. First time, it was excellent and would get a 4 star review across the board. Good food and good value. We had a vegetarian in the group and in this regard choices were very limited. On 2nd occassion, we went for the Turbot (pay by weight) as a treat which was good, but the bill was double the previous evening! The vegetarian dish however was a chickpea curry which bore closer resemblance to soapy yellow water with some small lumps in it. Not even a distant relation of a curry! So it was sent back and a salad ordered in it's stead. Here's the kicker, we were charged for the salad AND the dish pretending to be a curry!! Waiters justification was that no one else had complained!!! So its a fine spot if you avoid the pay by weight dishes and you're a vegetarian with no taste...

So I don’t usually leave reviews but had to make an exception. With my daughter, mother and partner and sat for a table here. I’m not going to go into detail but it was probably the worst service we have had having had many trips to Portugal. The waitress serving us came across as impatient and rude - well she actually was rude. In fact I wish she had taken longer than the 10 minutes we waited for cutlery as the starters we ordered were very poor. I must emphasise that as a group we are always well mannered, polite and friendly. I personally get told off for leaving the tips I do so when you get something happen to you that is just so unnecessary it frustrates you and forces you to do what I’m doing now. For the first time in my life I had to cancel main courses in a restaurant. Maybe you’ll have a better experience but...

Glorious situation but we were sadly under impressed with the service. Quickly shown a seat & a waitress plonked down some slices of bread, butter, olives & sardine pate. We were unsure if this was complimentary or not. Then another waiter gave us a menu. We noted that the bread etc was itemised separately as part of the couverts option. We ordered beer & water but needed a little longer to decide on our meal. But no one came back to take our order. We eventually got the attention of a waiter and placed our order. I ordered grilled mackerel. Thankfully the food came promptly but I was dismayed that rather than having 1 decent sized mackerel, there were 5 small ones (more sardine sized!) so very fiddly with bones etc. And yes we were charged for...