Vagabondo — Restaurant in Portimão

Vagabondo came highly recommended from friends in Ireland, the only pity was that we saved it for our last night. We dropped by to see if we could secure a reservation for later that evening and were met by the lovely Sandra, who secured us a table. We’d read about Sandra on Google reviews and she’s so deserving of all the praise as I had gotten waylaid in the souvenir shops with daughter no 2 but she instantly recognised us and directed us towards where my husband and other daughter were already seated. It’s that kind of service that sets a restaurant in a tourist destination head and shoulders above the crowd. She left us in the very capable hands of Georgiana and 2 starters, 4 mains, 2 desserts and a lovely full bodied bottle of red later, we were all in agreement that our meal was outstanding from start to finish. Vagabondo has something on the menu to suit children, teenagers, Mum and Dad - happy children, happy parents = happy family. The toilets were spotless, the food was hot and tasty with good variety and the service was friendly and efficient. We were moving onto Lagos the following day and Rui kindly gave us some recommendations for restaurants down there. This restaurant is special, it’s slightly more expensive but let’s face it, wouldn’t you rather pay a little more and know that it’s going to be right and leave with a happy feeling in your heart?

Thank you Sandra, Georgiana, Rui and all at Vagabondo for a very happy memorable family evening, we really enjoyed our visit to your beautiful restaurant x

FYI - the goats cheese...

After going to the vagabondo for 10 years and absolutely adoring the place, I came to find my visit this year was met with unexpected change and not in the good way. The old huge crispy battered spicy buffalo chicken wings were swapped for these minuscule shrunken thread like wings, in what tasted like Heinz baked beans sauce ( not to mention the wings were freezing cold in hot sauce, anyone with a brain cell knows putting cold into hot doesn't necessarily make cold hot) . Whatever, we sent them back untouched after a half hour attempt to get attention of staff. Received our main course of spare ribs, chips and onion rings. The ribs were the most tough things I've ever put a sharp knife through ( my partner even got the ribs over the fillet steak because he thought it would be more tender, he was wrong). They were edible though and we are not picky so we are them. The onion rings were to die for. Then the chips, these soggy bowl of absolute fish. I'm not joking when I say that. The chips tasted like they were cooked in the oil of 2 week old fish. Which honestly I wouldn't have minded so much, if I was eating fish with my meal but unfortunately I was not and it totally ruined my meal of pork. The sangria was lovely, and the veranda is beautiful as always, but I'm disappointed to say I wouldn't return...

We were seated at about 20:50 and shortly after ordering were "asked" to move tables because they had a big party of 16 coming in. Actually told "we're moving you". The food took nearly 50 minutes to get 4 meals. The steak was actually a decent steak and cooked as expected. The prawn were cold and all had eggs, the rice was flavorless and cold. The burger was extremely greasy, the chicken kabobs were OK at best but very dry. At no point did anyone come by to ask if we needed anything nor did they acknowledge the fact the we graciously moved to accommodate the large group. Having moved us to a table in the middle of the floor resulted in being bumped by servers and one time by a chair as they were moving chairs to another table with no apologies. The servers didn't even offer to provide a dessert menu. Finally, we had to ask for the bill which took at least another 15 minutes to get. Completely disappointed with...