Aurora Steakhouse — Restaurant in Tavira

This was appalling.

Once arrived the restaurant looked good with a nice atmosphere, we ordered and all looked well.

Once food arrived it went down hill.

One person was confused with the menu and was reading Portuguese, then once finding the english menu, he wanted to rethink what steak he wanted, yet the server was like you’ve already picked your steak, and was also trying to force him to get pineapple as a side, when he said he doesn’t like pineapple.

Now it gets worse, 3 out of 4 ordered a rump steak, to be greeted with 3 thin long cuts of meat for each person, which isn’t a rump steak, a rump is usually thick and roundish.

When telling our waiter he denied this and said this is how we do it here, yet when showing on google what a rump steak is, he still denied and said this is a rump when clearly not.

Also 2 asked for medium and as they were flank steaks not a rump obviously they were overcooked.

2 out of 3 then swapped it for a ribeye after being offered, which i had as they wanted a thick cut of steak, they came out and looked nice yet one was undercooked.

Now it gets even worse, we finished our meal and asked for the bill, only to be greeted with being charged for the ‘rump’ steaks which wasn’t eaten, when complaining about this charge they tried denying and said what do we do with the meat, maybe call it the right cut of steak. The name is universal don’t make it your own thing.

Which steakhouse cuts there meat into three thin slices just ruining the meat.

That one waiter was rude and not helpful and just won’t accept their wrong. We felt really uncomfortable and wanted to leave.

They clearly give you a cheap cut of meat, get replacement and charge for both. People be careful if a steak is wrong and double check the bill as you will be charged for something you don’t eat, cheeky little scam.

The guy that came with the knifes was nice and was fun to choose your own knife

Overall total scam of a place...

They had a set menu which was news to us on new years. No print outs so had to read the menus on our phones. No clarity on that wines and drinks included on the set menu. Outside of the main server, none of the staff seemed to know what was on the menu, let alone what they were visually - one staff member mistook the duck for lamb twice even though corrected. The starter was supposed to be 'Ceviche' . Would suggest they look up what that means, what was served was an avocado puree with no flavor. Other starters our table reviewed were okay. Mains, embarrassing to be included in a 90e set menu - ribeye, was a minute steak served on a small bit of mash potatoes , everything completelu unseasoned. The lamb, 75% fat and has 4-5 actual bites of meat. The menu said 'Stuffed lamb' but no dishes of lamb stuffed. Again, the desserts were misleading versus what was on the menu, the 'Sponge Cake' was in fact a cheesecake. Which was nice, but just again just highlighed the lack of any clarity, detail. They had decent ambiance with good live music and the staff while clearly struggling were apologetic.

Unfortunately, our experience will put us off going again. Strongly recommend the management to review how they set up and prepares for that set menu with their kitchen staff. It felt nothing short of a scamming customers out of good money with bad food to take advantage of the new year's...

Extremely disappointed with our meal and I recommend to avoid this restaurant . I rarely post reviews however our experience at this restaurant was shockingly bad I feel the need to share.

We celebrated New Years Eve with a €90pp set menu. We were expecting top quality food for this price and what we received was far from that.

The starters were basic and lacking any flavour. The house wine was included in this price and was just okay.

I had to send my main course back as it was inedible. They agreed to change it to the Rib Eye and what I received was disgraceful . Picture included. The portion of steak was tiny, the thinnest piece of meat which was not seasoned , just covered in sauce. It came on a small serving of mash with no sides such as veg.

The deserts were overly sweet and again just poor quality with cheap ingredients.

It really left a dampener on our night and SHAMEFUL to charge such high prices for what they delivered. A truly terrible experience.

I’ve been coming to Tavira for the last ten years and the food quality in this town has always been top notch. Avoid this...