Restaurante Vale Das Furnas (Parque De Campismo) — Restaurant in Povoação

We called and made a reservation for corzido around noon, though I'd recommend doing so 24 hours prior

Serving staff completely ignored us at first, but once we had stood around for long enough, we were seated. Bit more of a culture thing, I think, coming from a professional kitchen myself. We ordered corzido for two, and my father ordered a soup of day with bread as well. Drinks took a bit to arrive, but after that, food was timely. Corzido was brought out first, a heaping portion, and when asked wgere our soup was, the server admitted he forgot, and brought it, then we asked for tge bread and hed forgotten it too. He was absolutely charming and sweet, I really enjoyed his easy smile and honesty, and it was a fond, fun experience, no trouble at all.

The food was great. A little low on salt and spice, but that's how corzido is supposed to be, and it does admittedly let every element speak for itself. I loved the yams especially, and the beef was my favourite. My father preferred the pork. The soup was a carrot cream soup, and though I don't like cream, i can admit it was nice. The bread basket was massive for just one person, had to be a whole loaf haha. We shared it with a French couple...

Nothing short of fraud. Paid by credit card and the printed receipt showed a 5% mark-up for being charged in home currency instead of Euros. The receipt said I was given a choice and I chose home currency. I was NOT given a choice. Told them right away, they admitted I was not given a choice and blamed it on a “glitch” of their machine and “never happened before”. OK, so say I believe that. It’s THEIR machine, THEIR mistake. Wouldn’t reverse the transaction and redo, wouldn’t give me back the difference in cash. So basically a “never happens” type of mistake stemming from something under THEIR responsibility that they can easily correct and they won’t do a thing to fix it? Is that believable? Meanwhile on closer inspection they also overcharged me on the bill. Tip for the very unpleasant owner or manager I spoke with: getting defensive when called out on one true attempt to overcharge confirms your guilt in your other overcharge act. Can’t believe I gave my money to a place with that type of business ethics (basically none when it comes to honesty). I need to take a very long shower to wash the dirt of that...

One of the top recommendations when in Furnas is to try the local Cozido das Furnas (stew cooked in the hot thermal underground).

I really enjoyed this dish and this restaurant gives HUGE portions. Me and my spouse got a 1 person serving to split and we had leftovers (3-4 total servings). It comes with lots of different kinds of meat, yams, potatoes and cabbage. It has a smokey and somewhat sulfuric smell. It comes with rice on the side that I think was cooked in a broth and was good. Definitely worth trying.

The soup of the day was a fish soup which was also delicious and very affordable.

The menu and reviews say reservations are required for the cozido since it is a set amount they cooked. I called the day before and they told me no reservations needed so that was confusing. Maybe because I was not here during the peak tourist season (I came at the end of May). I would call the day before to confirm though. I came around 3pm, close to the lunch closing, and it was not busy and...