Restaurante O Silva — Restaurant in Ribeira Grande

My family and I had just gotten to our rental. After settling in, we were starving. We took a 5-10 min walk straight down the street to O Silva’s. It’s beautiful inside. White interior with warm wood. We all started with the cheese plate app. I believe there was 3 cheeses. It was a good app. I got the bacalhau dish (1st photo doesn’t do it justice because there’s a ton of caramelized onions on top of the cod). It was THE BEST cod dish I’ve ever had and I’m from New England. No kidding. It was cooked perfectly. Seared perfectly. The skin was perfectly seared. Crispy skin. The meat was flaky. Cooked in a garlicky butter. The potatoes weren’t quite sweet potatoes but they were sweet, but not too sweet. I ate them like locals - a bit of vinegar and piri piri sauce. It enhanced the flavor of the potatoes.

It was so good that we back 2 other times. I ordered the bacalhau again. Other members of my family ordered it too. It was just as good as the first time I had it.

The 3rd time we went I tried another dish, but wasn’t as memorable as the cod dish. It was the boca negra fish dish (2nd photo). It was good, but the cod gripped my heart.

The only word of caution I have is to double check your receipt. Only happened...

Good food, good priced! I had the grilled squid and it exceeded my expectations both in flavour and in texture. It is chewy but not in a bad way. Bonus that it came with some greens!! My partner had the grilled octopus and the sauce was delicious. I found the octopus to be a bit too soft for my liking (soft as in almost mushy, not tender), but I think this may be my personal preference. Because it was soft, i felt it was slightly dry as well, but the sauce made up for this. For dessert we had their home made ice cream. It looked very underwhelming to be honest, but the taste was surprisingly good! It was thick, creamy, milky and just the right amount of sweetness. It seems like a neighbourhood favourite as there it was getting busy as we were leaving (we booked a reservation for 7pm on a saturday). They have a very spacious dining area, however I would recommend booking a table just in case. They do not have online booking abilities and I emailed the restaurant owner to secure my table (response time ~24h). Parking was along the street (public parking, no designated lot or spaces) but you should be able to find parking...

I went with my wife and daughter. We were greeted as if we were longtime customers, Mr. Silva made sure we felt at home. We had limpets and barnacles for starters, the barnacles were very fresh, of the day, the limpets very tasty. After the starters, we had grouper rice, a specialty of the house and i can understand why, was divine!!! To accompany we drank a white wine from the region, Barrocas do mar, recommended by the guy who served us, so good! Finally we ordered bean pudding, chocolate pudding and molotov for dessert, as it couldn't be otherwise, they were divine, I didn't ask but I'm sure they were homemade. Note the pride in the restaurant, the fish showcase was impeccable, the aquarium as well and the highly helpful and extremely friendly staff. What an experience! Whenever i come to São Miguel, O Silva will be a mandatory stop. Lots of love to all the staff, thank you!! (Sorry for the lack of photos, the experience was such that I only remembered to take pictures at...