Restaurante Lavrador — Restaurant in São Vicente

Food was great but if you’re looking for a nice experience, go elsewhere.

At 7:30, we were told we’d get the next available table (2 people) and were given a seat and menus outside the restaurant. After 20 minutes, another couple who hadn’t booked walked straight in and were given a free table. 5 minutes later, a different member of staff came out and rudely asked what we were waiting for. After we explained, she told us she wasn’t aware of our previous conversation with her colleague. 10 minutes later, we were given a table outside. Our order was taken straight away, but the items we chose were unavailable. This could have been mentioned when we were given the menus. As there was a large party inside, both waitresses were very stressed and service was extremely slow. All other customers were disregarded. Just before our food arrived (1 hour after sitting down), we ordered more drinks. When the food came, we again reminded our waitress about the drinks order. Just before we were finishing our meal, she brought the drinks to us, with no apology. At this point we just wanted to leave the restaurant, having been there for 2.5 hours. We paid and left with our bottles of soft drinks in our hands. Just before we drove off, the waitress came and asked for the bottles back because she wanted the deposit money back. This was ridiculously embarrassing as she brought plastic cups out for us to take our drinks away.

Despite this, we must say the food was excellent. But the service completely spoilt our experience, and we had equally good food elsewhere on the island (try Lilly’s in Machico if you...

On our vacation to Madeira island we made reservations for this local restaurant, according to the reviews we've read about it. So we took the hike from our hotel up to the place on higher ground (25min walk). Of course the location is easy to reach by car but we didn't choose the easy way 🙂. On location we were warmly welcomed by Anna, who led us to our outside dinner table. Enjoining the awesome view we choose for Espetada, a local dish of various meat on a stick, accompined by a rice and a grilled corn side dish. Anna recommended a very nice red Portuguese wine which she very professionally presented and served from the bottle at our table. It didn't take long at all before we got our order and started our excuisit dinner in this beautiful scenery of the mountains of Sao Vicente. All the dishes we had were absolutely delicious, so we did not leave any leftovers. From starter to dessert, everything was more than satisfacting, as well as the red wine Anna perfectly picked out for us. And last but not least, we came to a pleasant surprise again at the counter as we saw what we had to pay for this wonderful dinner experience. So we could not find any negative points to discribe this overall dinner experience at Lavrador restaurant. Highly recommended on every single account. I promised to leave a comment here on Google, which I gladly took time for. So a big shout out to Lavrador in...

The worst dining experience in Madeira. I was expecting so much of this place (given the reviews), but: the staff was inattentive and not very friendly, apart from one male waiter who was lovely. We had a reservation and were seated straight away, but had to wait for nearly 30 min to order. Also after we waited for this long, the waiter came and attempted to take an order from a Portuguese couple sat next to us who have just arrived. They kindly pointed out that we were here first. Then, we have to wait for over 30 mins to get the mains after we finished our starters. To top an already unpleasant experience, my tuna on hot stone was extremely overcooked - hard and chewy (a shame to waste a beautiful piece of fish). I told the waitress that I wanted it rare but she didn’t instruct me appropriately how to cook it (not sure if this was due to poor English). I ate half a steak and complained when they asked why I’ve not finished. The male waiter apologised and said he got us a discount however when we got home and checked the bill it turned out we paid the full price. All in all, a very unpleasant experience. Had much better service and more exquisite food elsewhere in Madeira - don’t understand what all other reviewers are raving about. Wouldn’t recommend. Please educate your staff on how to treat...