The Chicken Tavern — Restaurant in Portimão

I have ordered delivery and dine in. Both times have been very good.

The first time, we were entertaining some Portuguese friends who wanted easy and quick food, and delivery did not disappoint! They were surprised by the high quality and loved it, as did we. Everything was full of flavour with meats not overcooked. Fries were delicious. Finally, a place that does their chicken a little differently to everywhere else, and it is fantastic! The spices and oils with the addition of actual peppers go beyond basic peri-peri sauce used everywhere else. Sauces and sides were all flavourful. Chicken wings are the REAL deal. Crispy full wings, huge but not in the "pumped full of hormones" way.

The second time, we went to dine in. Wonderful to have a place here with lots of parking for customers. Staff were friendly and attentive. Customers were mostly tourists and expats but also some locals. Space is large, rustic chic, and comfortable. Everyone dining there seemed to be having a great time. Lots of laughter, so the atmosphere was positive.

Food was very good, but maybe not as much as when we ordered delivery. Portions are still large and filling, and takeaway is available if you can't finish it all.

The day we ate there, they offered samosas for 2€ each. They were cold and soggy. I thought they would maybe reheat them, but he served it to us right off the tray. Wouldn't get them again.

Desserts were excellent. There are lots of places that do desserts in jars, but none have been this tasty! I'd save a little room for them.

I'm glad to have this...

The staff were not friendly or welcoming and couldn't be bothered to push two tables together to seat a family even after we identified 2 empty tables (like they would do anywhere else in the world)...

The younger guy on the counter looked stressed and did not seem to enjoy his job at all and didn't even smile once...

The big screen TV on the wall give it a 'sports bars' feel and had a football match playing which got more attention from the staff than the customers did. We were never offered anything to drink despite having to wait around for an hour for what was told should take 15 mins....

I was back and forth to the counter 4 times because each time the food still wasn't ready which wasn't communicated to me and was very inconvenient as the food kept coming out at different times which meant we couldn't leave until almost an hour after the order...

My young daughter was upset her food was cold. The sea bass was incredibly salty as to be inedible, The bean burger didn't come with any bread bun(?!) was just a burger patty with cold chips and some rocket for 13 euros and the rice was raw and undercooked.

Please note this restaurant DOES NOT ACCEPT CARD PAYMENTS unlike 99.9% of other restaurants which is strange because how would they receive take away orders over the phone or from Uber? So make sure you are carrying cash or be prepared like I had to for a frog march to the euronet ATM a few streets away which will charge you for...

We had a table for 11 booked. Some of the party arrived before the rest. We were stood waiting to be seated for 10 minutes then ended up seating ourselves on a table outside while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive and waited to be greeted.

Eventually we were seated, it took another 20 minutes for a drinks order to be taken..... after this we had to ask for our food order to be taken, after another 25 minutes waiting. We were then told only half of the menu was available as the grill was broken and had been for four days. No notice of this was given at the time of booking the previous day, or when we arrived.

During our extremely long wait for orders to be taken, a few tables who arrived after us had been greeted, seated, drinks brought and starters arriving!

At nearly an hour waiting in total it was safe to say that non of the group were happy and we upped and left. The owner/manager did try to sweet talk us into staying, but by now we were all annoyed, hungry and quite frankly were not willing to pay for any service provided...