Botequim Açoriano — Restaurant in Ribeira Grande

Food - Fabulous! Best Lapas we had in Azores, and we had it many times over 3 islands. Our mains were also great - we had octopus and steak, generous portions and very tasty. We were told by friends to ask for the pineapple cake (not on menu) and we were right to do so. We went home with happy, full bellys.

Service - A bit strange. When I ordered one steak he said he won't sell it me because it's too tough. So I got the other cut he said is the only one I could have. More expensive, which is fine, except then when we ordered the regional wine by the glass, he brought the one that cost a bit more because the "regional" one isn't really from azores, they bring the grapes from outside, so "they are lying to you". Okay....so why have these things on the menu? Once is fine. Twice starts to feel suspiciously like upselling to foreigners. Also of note, they only had two staff for a fully packed restaurant, they were overwhelmed and stressed.

Atmosphere - Dissapointing. This is a decent restaurant, not a tasca. Slightly more upmarket. Decor is good, locals all wearing smart clothes. So whyyyyy are we sat next to a big tv screen playing Jean Claude Van Damme movies? Watching dudes beat eachother up isn't really my vibe while I eat. I also feel, that despite our reservation we - a couple - were sat at this table set for 4, by the tv, because our table for two by a nice window was available but hadn't been cleaned yet (again, under-staffing) and it was the only clean one available.

I recommend this place purely for the quality of the food. Please get the lapas and ask for the...

Normally I don't give bad reviews but our experience here was really not okay!

First we had to wait really long. I can understand that we had to wait a little because they had one bigger table with 10 people but that's why we ordered a soup and some garlic bread for starters. Even for that we had to wait for almost an hour! Then we got the soup, carrotsoep with big lumps of binder or something in it. The garlic bread with Azorean cheese was recomendable. Then we got our main dishes. I'm a vegetarian and I ordered the chickpeaburger, which was really dry and had no flavor except for salt, and then some fried stuff on it. When I asked for some vegetables, it took more than 15min again to bring me 10 thick leaves of salad with a few unripe cherrytomatoes and raw onion, for which they charged me 3,5 euros in the end! I don't care about the 3,5 euro's but I think that as a vegetarian dish you can serve some vegetables too. When I said something about it, the waiter told me that it had vegetables: the fried sweet potatoefrizzle on top. I'm sorry but that to me are no vegetables... So I ate my "salad". Didn't eat my dish. My husband had a steak with a really salted meat-sauce, a few poorly baked fries and 1 little piece of red pepper, so much for his vegetables...

We both started having stomachaches quite quick after the meal.

I honestly hope that only we got unlucky...

Good food, bad customer service. Simple as that. If you don’t mind the server almost roll her eyes everytime you order, you might like this place. For people who appreciate to feel welcomed as well as eating good food when eating out, then this might not be the place for you. I certainly won’t be returning. After approaching our table in a rude way and barely smiling while taking our order, i asked if there was a cocktail menu, to which she just rudely replied “no.” I kept cool and continued smiling. Then i asked if it was possible to make one, she rudely said “depends.” I kept cool again. Then i had to look at the bar, i pointed to a Gin, and said “can you make me a Gin tonic with that Gin”? She wrote it down without saying a word. As i wanted to make sure she understood me, given the fact she was one wording me and acting like what i was asking for was such a burden to her, i asked “do you guys have tonic water to add to the Gin?” To which she cockily said “questions like that dont need to be asked.” Which finally made me mad. For the rest of the meal, every request our table had, had her reacting like were asking to eat for free. One of the rudest people that has...