Dona barca taberna — Restaurant in Portimão

I went to Dona Barca for lunch mid week in January with my parents and another couple after it being recommended by a friend that knows about my love for fish and sea food. It's a bit tricky to find it as it's in a small yard under the old bridge over the river and not spotted from the road. All that I can say is that all that I red about the food is true. The fish is as fresh as if it was still in the sea, and all the dishes we tried were well prepared and delicious. As we munched through olives, bread, fish pate etc, everyone was ready to order. My dad had soup of the day (vegetable) and I had fish soup. Didn't tried my dad's but he assured me that it was very good, as it was mine. For main, my friends choose dish of the day as they had to go back to work, so they had fried small sea bass served with mixed salad and boiled vegetables and razor shells/clams with rice and salad. They both looked fantastic with taste to match, and it didn't take long to disappear from the plates. Myself and my parents opted for the barbequed cuttle fish with ink, served with boiled potatoes and salad. We were all surprised how tasty and tender they were, given the fact that each cuttle fish was enormous when we saw them being weighted (All fish is on display). It's not something that we normally order as my mum cooks it at home as it's the best, but this one was right up there with my mum's. All was washed down with a carraff or house red. Assorted pieces of cakes made with local fruits and coffee to finish off. Excellent food, extremely friendly staff and all for £80!? What a bargain! Strongly recommended. Been told by staff that it is extremely busy in the summer, specially for diners when queues are formed outside. Will be back again in the summer when I will be in the Algarve and, even though it's an hours drive each way for me,...

We arrived there quite early for dinner so we were the first ones at 6pm. The waitress we had was (not to be rude) kinda odd, she had a really annoying face and attitude and when we had questions about the food she didn't understand us, we asked again and even tried to explain our question, she didn't listen to us properly and still gave us an answer we did not asked for, at some point she even interrupted us and did not let us finish our sentence.

The food came out quickly and was super tasty, but unfortunately a bit too salty. We had the grilled sardines and the sea food rice, as a not so big fish lover I still enjoyed the grilled sardines and the other companions I had really liked it.

After a while with more quests coming in we noticed that everyone got a paperbag with bread and a bit of spread, everyone besides the . At first we thought they ordered it but we could see that the waiter brought out the bread with the menu. We really don't want to be petty but it would've been nice if we would've gotten treated equally like the other guests. It really made us think if they just forgot us or if there was any racially motivation since we're clearly Asians, but there was a couple who arrived only 2 minutes after us and they also got a bread bag. We really really really don't want to be petty and over dramatic but it was also noticeable that all the waitresses we had were super friendly towards all the guest, including the tourist, but we always got a super negative and annoyed face, reaction and answer.

In conclusion it was really a shame that the service wasn't great, but the food was...

Walking up to the restaurant we were greeted by a friendly waitress and promptly seated. We ordered the tuna steak, the jaquinzinhos (small fried fish), some plain rice, chips and a pepper salad. Apart from the chips, which were undercooked and covered in oil, the food was cooked properly, however it was not seasoned and lacked flavour. You could argue that it's best to cook things plain and let the customer season the food themselves with olive oil, salt, pepper, but I guess we just expected more because we eat amazing Portuguese cuisine on a regular basis. We felt like this restaurant probably caters more to tourists as we found it a bit pricey for what we got. Having said that the staff were very friendly and attentive and the atmosphere was nice. If you have special dietary requirements do make sure to ask the staff because you will find they add chorizo and similar products to seafood and...