Magma — Restaurant in São Roque do Pico

Sometimes you encounter service so blatantly exclusionary it could be used as a case study. We arrived around 8:30 pm, politely asked for a table for two. In front of us: five or six empty tables. The answer: “Sorry, we’re fully booked tonight – we have to keep space for hotel guests.”

Later, a few hotel guests wandered in – maybe four people. The tables still remained empty. When we asked about another day: Thursday closed, Friday completely booked.

All the while, he kept flipping through the reservation book, staring at it far too long, mumbling to himself – as if this little performance could make us believe there truly wasn’t a single seat left. And the empty tables kept staring back at us.

Then came the “helpful” suggestion to try their sister venue – a burger snack bar. So here, it’s not about reservations or capacity, it’s about arrogance, pretence, and deciding who deserves to sit at their empty tables.

The whole thing was so transparent it might have been funny – if it hadn’t been so repulsive.

A restaurant can have beautiful interiors, a great location, and an appealing menu – but if hospitality is reserved only for a chosen few, all that’s left in the end is: empty tables and the embarrassment of being someone who still chooses...

I love Azores and I love Pico, I love Santo Amaro, but for now I can’t love Magma. Beautiful architecture, mix of Volcanic stone and wood, breathtaking view. Service need big improvement, maybe raise of salary or tips incentives, because I feel like employees don’t care, me and my girlfriend we waited one hour to be served, to get a drink, I mean that’s the first thing you ask. Luckily is a beautiful view on the island and I talked with my girlfriend, but it’s incredible waiting so long when we had a reservation and the restaurant was half full. In general I think Magma has great potential but they need to improve the staff, have someone who knows about cocktails because they told me they don’t do it. Apart from taking so long, food was good and everyone was nice, also they got the food order wrong but it happens, they apologise and give us a discount. Hope to see you again Magma, but I hope you can improve the service....

We were there on Monday at 7pm, when they just open after 1h break. The reastaurant was empty, but all tables had this huge R on top .. oh 😒 but we asked if there is maybe a table free and lucky us someone canceled the reservation, so we got our table immediately ready 😊 we took a bottle of wine , rich fish soup and fish of the day which was a Barracuda today, served with grilled veggies and garlic butter sauce. Soup was in 5 min upfront of me, warm and rich with pasta and fish . Taste was different, which I thought, but worth trying . Our fishes showed up over 15min , huge huge huge portion , looks like I have all fish on plate plus all vegetable gardens .. we left a lot of veggies , but fish was perfect, fresh, and juicy . We had a great view as well, a wonderful place for romantic dinner or just to try some wines because they have a lot there . Minus is no parking slot , we left our car on the street...