Orca — Restaurant in Porto Moniz

This is a very weird place. Seems like it used to be a high-end restaurant 40 years ago, but they don't seem to have updated anything properly for quite a while. At least half the chairs have been replaced, but it just adds to the confusion. The decoration, including the opening wall deco of the namesake of the place, the two orcas, is old and worn-out. Not a nice first impression.

The staff is also confused. There's at least 10 servers, but still everything's happening way too slow. We spent 5 minutes just standing around before being seated, and another 10 minutes before they came for our orders. The staff seemed busy but spent loads of times discussing things in groups of 4 - where to seat people, where to take food etc. Seems like there's 3-4 servers who actually know where food is supposed to go, and everyone else needs to ask them. We also had food delivered to us that we didn't order, and got us the food before the drinks, which was unusual. It's a bit of a mess.

The food was also unimpressive. We ate scabbardfish sandwiches, and the fish itself was nice, but the sandwich was very plain and dry. They literally added a single salad leaf and a single slice of tomato on the fish and called it a day. No sauce, no nothing, making it very dry. They did put some sauces in little plastic bags in front of us, but not nearly enough. Also, if it's a high-end place where servers put the cloth serviettes in front of you with silver tongs, why would they serve ketchup in plastic bags? I don't understand this place.

I'd recommend dropping the faux-elegance and focusing on updating the food and the service. The patrons are mostly tourists in flip-flops and sweatpants. We'd rather eat something fresh and juicy from the sea than being handed serviettes with silver tongs but dry,...

We got three courses for €10 as part of the North West Madeira Safari Tour (which was excellent, but that's another review!), judging by some other reviews here the €10 deal is pretty standard and the restaurant seems mainly to cater to those on tours rather than people just walking in - shortly after we got in a couple of coachloads turned up and filled up most of the tables, of which there were plenty (I'd estimate the capacity of the place at nearly 500). If you're sitting in the right place you get a great view of the sea.

The starter was vegetable soup and the dessert was a bit of banana with ice cream. Both were good. For main course there was a choice of various meats or fish or pasta as a vegetarian option. The mains focused heavily on quantity rather than quality: I'd have been happy with half as much pasta (and I'm a big eater!) had it come with some sauce rather than just mushroom and a bit of seasoning; my Dad had chicken, plus chips, plus rice, plus vegetables all spooned out onto the plate, and he too would have been happy with much less.

The staff were rushed off their feet trying to serve everyone. This plus the closely-packed tables resulted in a few knocked elbows. When we were done and ready to pay, attracting their attention was difficult so we ended up just going to the front desk.

If you're getting this as part of a tour, then it'll certainly fill you up very efficiently and cheaply. I understand the price includes wine (not that we fancied that before being bumped about in a 4x4 again) so you can certainly get a lot for your money. Given the vast portions the food waste must be criminal though; it's a shame they don't refine the quality of their offerings instead. There are probably better places available in Porto Moniz if you...

Sorry, I would have given 0 stars but 1 Star is minimum on this site. Our guide recommended this place and we went there although our experience is not to go to a place next to the coastline as Qualität normally is low. With the recommendation we wanted to given it a try. As a starter they served a a tasteless soup, which we didnt eat. Main dish was two small pieces of fish with pototaoes. Fish lasted to long in kitchen and should have been served at least an hour earlier. We asked for salad as side dish but were told they only to serve vegetables and potatoes. Unfortunatly vegetables were crude. This was the worst meal in Portugal and the first place in Europa not prepared or willing to serve salad... Besides low/no quality food waiters are not interested in costumers wishes and complains and didn't help. My...