Poças Café — Restaurant in Porto Moniz

Visited August 2021. I don't really write reviews for restaurants, let alone harsh ones, but I went today for a dinner with my partner, and something was horribly off and surreal with this place. First things first, the restaurant is situated in a beautiful location overlooking the wild Atlantic and the maze-like pools, which can be visited independently of the restaurant. After taking in the breathtaking scenery, we decided to stop by the restaurant for dinner. Upon arrival, there were two couples and one family already present. The waitress had no courtesy for a hi, hello, etc. and uttered a cold ''Can I help you?''. We asked for a table for two for dinner, were given a choice of inside or outside, and to enjoy the setting sun and scenery, decided to sit outside. We were shown to a very dirty table, with numerous wet glass marks and sticky liquids, and the lady didn't care about cleaning it up (what about COVID hygiene???). The (extremely limited) menu was given to us, and we made our choices. The lady came to take our order, and still didn't clean the table. So far, so good. Thereafter, the lady arrived with our drinks and cutleries, and casually placed them on the table without cleaning the dirty table. By this time, a family of four arrived and were sat next to us, and experienced the same disbelief at their dirty table not being cleaned (note: every damn table was dirty). They explicitly asked them to clean the table, and so did we thereafter. The food was strictly ordinary for the prices. It soon started getting extremely windy and cold, and we requested the same lady if we could shift inside, and that we could just take the just served starters and cutleries with us. A cold answer again - ''It is not possible. Inside is closed''. Let me remind you that 30 minutes ago, she had offered us the choice of sitting inside or outside, and there was already a couple sitting inside. So, we had our entire dinner experience shivering in the cold outside. Soon, we couldn't eat anymore, went up to the counter, paid and left. Never again. What an absolute waste of a beautiful location, and what an arrogant and unsympathetic...

Unfortunately, we had a bad experience at this restaurant. We had seen the negative reviews but decided to give it a chance. The food was acceptable but nothing special, and the prices were higher than the quality offered.

The service was disappointing, especially when it came to payment. When we asked to pay separately, the staff was rude, raised their voices, and made the situation very uncomfortable.

However, the worst part happened after the meal. There were 10 of us, and only two people tried a spoonful of the pudding, while one person ate the entire remaining portion. The two who tasted it had stomach pain, but the one who ate it all became seriously ill with severe food poisoning. Everyone else who didn’t eat the pudding felt fine. We are almost certain that the pudding was the cause, as it was the only thing he ate that was different from the rest.

We are not writing this review out of spite but to warn others. Something was clearly wrong with...

I would have given this place all five star but for one staff’s attitude. The food was good and has great atmosphere for a relaxed meal. I requested a staff clearing another table to let me know who I can place my orders with, he did not respond, not knowing if he heard me or not, I repeated my request to be responded with super angry tone to wait. While I respect the restaurant to support their staff, such polite request does not deserve an angry shout. Having said that, I would not stop you from enjoying your meal, maybe this person was not having a good day or may be there is a language issue though the guy had a smug...