Caldeiras e Vulcões — Restaurant in Povoação

We had an awful experience at Caldeiras e Vulcões, mainly from the bad service (and accompanied by the meh food).

Things started on the wrong foot when they brought our drinks. My wife received the wrong beer (initially we thought it was the correct one, later we realized it was from a different brewery). Then, the server proceeded to open the beer which caused half of the beer to fall out from the bottle as foam, spilling all over the table. The server made a joke about it, then wiped some of the beer off the table. He didn't offer to replace the beer or comp it, even though literally half of it was gone (we decided not to complain about it because it was just a cheap beer, not worth causing issues). The kicker is that they never tried to clean up more of the table, and left us with a damp tablecloth for the rest of the dinner.

Next, it was the appetizer. We ordered it soon after sitting. It was a simple garlic bread. Well, it took them more than 40 minutes after we ordered to get the bread. We think they may have given our bread to the table next to us as they got seated after us, but got theirs earlier. The bread itself was bland, barely had any cheese, and little flavor.

Finally we move to the main courses. I got a meat dish, which was overcooked. I had a side of mashed potatoes, that was pretty good. My wife had a fish dish which tasted ok, not very fresh tasting. It was accompanied by some sauteed veggies which had the flavor and consistency of frozen veggies. Honestly the food (and entire meal) had the same vibe as airport food.

We were not the only ones with issues tonight. The table next to us received 2 out of 3 of their mains. The girl had to ask for her salad that didn't arrive, which they brought after 10 minutes (the salad was sad looking).

Overall, avoid this place if you have other options. The service is bad and the food ok at best. At least...

I was genuinely looking forward to trying the renowned Cozido das Furnas at Caldeiras & Vulcões, especially given the restaurant's numerous positive reviews. Unfortunately, my experience left much to be desired.

Upon ordering the Cozido de Furnas for one person, I was surprised to find the portion predominantly consisted of pork, with a minuscule piece of beef—perhaps 50 grams at most. This was particularly disheartening, as the traditional Cozido is celebrated for its diverse meats, and I felt shortchanged.

As confirmed by the waiter that was at my table, ordering a portion for 2 people results in a more balanced and beef inclusive portion, while if you order 1 person portion you land with pork mostly. This raises concerns about fairness of the restaurant.

While I understand the challenges restaurants face, especially during peak seasons, transparency is crucial. If certain ingredients are limited or if portion sizes vary significantly between orders, this should be communicated upfront. I'd rather pay a bit more for an authentic experience than feel misled and fed pork instead of beef.

On a positive note, the ambiance of the restaurant is pleasant, and the staff were courteous. However, the main attraction—the Cozido—didn't meet expectations, which overshadowed the overall...

I will start off saying the green wine and tuna salad were good. The passionfruit soda was amazing.

The reason I'm giving one star is because the cozido stew smelled horrible and tasted exactly that unfortunately. When I asked if it would be proportionately 1/2 beef and 1/2 cow what we got was mostly blood sausage, pork feet, some beef but mostly pork. My partner only eats beef.

Others may find this dish enjoyable as a food preference but for my partner and I it was inedible and turned us off from ordering anything else.

It appeared a different server or perhaps the cool came by our table and with quite an unfriendly face and demeanor she asked us if everything is okay and we told us that honestly we didn't like the food. It didn't appear she liked the answer. We took another look at the menu and ordered the chocolate torte.

One odd thing we found is that someone new would come to our table and never saw the first server again. We hope we didn't offend anyone. We just wanted to have a good experience in Furnas.

Lastly, we were expecting an offer to replace the stew or take the item off our bill completely but none of this was done. In other restaurants if I've ever had a bad experience with a meal there would be a discount on the bill automatically or free dessert at...