Restaurante Coisa Linda — Restaurant in Tavira

The worst service I've seen in a restaurant in a very long time, the actual manager has absolutely no idea how to properly treat a paying customer. This is what happened:

We had a reservation and we arrived on time. We started by staying at the door for a long period time, waiting. There was no line or anything, so we can't understand why we stood there, the staff were passing by us and ignoring.

Eventually, a very very sweet lady sat us down and gave us the menu. After waiting for more than 20 mins, we were already getting desperate to make our order, and we started to literally call the lady again, because no one would take our order. She came, asked for beverages and when we started ordering the food as well, she just said "Food orders are with my boss".

We kept on waiting and waiting, and this "boss" was just a guy with a small tablet, going around in circles. We got fed up once more, and specifically raised our hands for him to look at us, we were once more feeling we were invisible. When he decided to look at us, he asked from the other side of the restaurant: "Did you make your order yet?". This question is what started annoying me, because this guy is the only one taking orders, he knows we arrived a short time ago and still decides to make this question when he obviously knows we didn't. He's the owner or manager, knows his clients are waiting ages just to make an order and still asks this. He took our order, and excused himself talking about how hot it was that day, not even apologizing for taking so much time, just saying some weird excuses. It's the Algarve in summer, it's hot everywhere. But well, all good, we finally make our order, he told us the kitchen was fast, so perfect.

The starters arrived shortly after. Everything was very tasty except for some rustic fried potatoes (this was the simplest starter item for sure, the other stuff were the gyozas and the ceviche, which again, were very good), which were completely raw, it clearly needed some more time in the fryer. They were pale, you could see they needed more frying just by looking at them. We tasted it anyway, they were raw and asked the server to take it back. He took the potatoes without saying a word and brought them back after some minutes. It were the same potatoes, not a replacement and the bigger ones were still raw. We again, ask for the potatoes to be done once more and this owner starts telling us how the potatoes are fine, and that we are not used to potatoes cooked in a restaurant, which are different from the ones we make at home. This answer shocked me because he didn't even apologize, just tried to invent the worst possible excuses. I tried explaining him how they may be different, but never raw, it's simply fried potatoes, but he never wanted to acknowledge their mistake.

After some minutes we were tired and concerned about this service, asked for the tab and left before the main dishes. The owner tried to to tell us we couldn't leave for some reason, but we paid and left anyway. While we were finishing our wine, this lunatic manager started yelling at us in the middle of the restaurant for us to go make a Google review and to be honest, so here I am doing what you asked.

We left and during this entire interaction we didn't receive a single apology for anything. He made us feel like we were the issue, and not the raw potatoes or the absurdly slow service just to order. This is exactly how to not treat a customer.

Let me remind you, manager , if you're reading this: if I go to your restaurant, you're not doing me any favor, I'm paying my money for your to treat me with respect and to serve me properly. Maybe you think you dont need all the customers because there's a lot of people in Algarve, but treating clients with this arrogance will be your doom. Try to learn something with the lady who sat us down, she'll teach you something about how to...

A beautiful place with a ugly and unpleasant person we never wish we never had met. Worse experience of our lives, do not recommend it to anyone. Arrogant and overbearing manager (the other staff were always very nice) Lack of organisation Violation of food safety laws Pricy restaurant for some pre-cooked food, not homemade.

The following words could be taken out from a bad comedy movie, but the scene was unfortunately very real.

We booked a table for 4 which was accepted. After arriving to the restaurant there were 3 people working for around 4 tables in total. No one looked at us and we stood there waiting for around 10 minutes until the manager came not very welcoming and simply indicated us the table. We waited again for around 10 minutes until someone came to give us the menu. A very nice lady delivered the menus and presented the chef's recommendations. When we were ready to order she informed us that she could only order the wine since the manager was the single person responsible for dishes. We waited again for a very long time until he came and asked if he had already ordered, which to our surprise we asked if there was anyone else responsible to take orders. He adopted a defensive and overbearing posture to tell us that he was the only one who had the tablet to take the orders. We then expressed our dissatisfaction with the delayed service so far given there were three employers in a room for at most 12 people. He again overbearing without any apologies told us that it was too hot and the restaurant was full and booked ( 12 people already eating/ waiting to pay)but assured that the kitchen service was very fast. We tried to keep calm and ordered the starters, which were not fast at all.

We ordered rustic fried fries that came completely raw and when we informed him he run through our table said "whaaat?! I'm taking them then" and took them. 10 minutes later he drops the fries in our table and we noticed they were again raw. We called him and he admitted the kitchen had put the SAME POTATOES TO FRY (in clear violation of safety food rules), he then also told us that it was out fault that we didn't knew how to appreciate the restaurant potatoes and if we knew better we should them fry them at home. He asked what plates we had ordered (he took the order!!) and arrogantly told us that the potatoes served with the meet dishes we ordered were not homemade (we are paying around 17€ per dish to know they are not homemade).

He left the table and we decided we had no conditions to stay there. When we asked for the bill he was offended and asked if we were like that just because of the fries. I informed him that his posture is not the way to act with clients, that we had never been so badly treated and that he had been disrespectful. He of course didn't recognise and kept his arrogant posture. We said we would be writing a bad review to which he replied "please, make several, I'm here to serve you well you are the ones who don't know how to...

Es nuestro último descubrimiento en la ciudad portuguesa de Tavira. Se trata de una especie de Gastrobar, donde tienen cabida las tapas y algo de comida portuguesa.

Es un restaurante bastante chulo aunque la zona en la que se encuentra no nos parece la mejor ya que la puerta de acceso está casi en la curva de una calle. El edificio consta de 3 plantas, dedicando 2 al restaurante y 1 a un bar en la azotea. Los tan de moda llamados «Roof Top Bar«.

Nosotros almorzamos en la terraza de su planta baja, bajo los pocos rayos de sol que nos ha regalado este fin de semana. Era una terraza espaciosa que nos permitió comer sin problema con 3 carritos de bebé, que no es poca cosa.

Nos ha parecido una gran opción para comer en Tavira aunque hay una cosa que os debemos comentar ya que nunca antes nos había pasado. Al ser un grupo de 11 (8 adultos y 3 bebés), nos hicieron pedir la comida con antelación por el teléfono móvil, previo envío de la carta del restaurante por parte de su personal. Nos extrañó aunque pensamos que sería acertado ya que la comida vendría con más rapidez pero luego comprobamos que no fue así y la espera fue tan normal como si hubiésemos pedido en el momento (algo lento el servicio). No le vimos ventaja alguna y pensamos que es un punto negativo que debemos destacar en este post.

La carta es típica de restaurantes de Europa, con pocos platos y todos individuales. Aunque también cuentan con 5 o 6 platos en formato tapa que os gustará a los que queréis probar el máximo de platos de cada sitio al que vais.

En la misma encontraréis carnes, pescados, las mencionadas tapas y algunos platos vegetarianos/veganos (tenéis su carta en datos de interés), poniendo punto y final con un merecido postre y café.

Nosotros probamos los siguientes platos:

En primer lugar, comenzamos con 4 entrantes en formato tapa. Tapinhas las llaman. Sí, lo sabemos. Típica traducción de «Los Serrano». La Burrata y las Gyozas son las tapas que más nos gustaron de estos primeros.

BURRATA COISA LINDA – BURRATA CON ENSALADA FRÍA DE VERDURAS CASQUINHA DE SIRI – “CASSOLETTE” DE CANGREJO Y BACALAO GRATINADO A LA BRASILEÑA + ENSALADA GYOZAS DE CERDO HUMMUS Y NACHOS

Continuamos con los platos principales del almuerzo. El bacalao fue el que más nos sorprendió (tanto que repetimos) y el tataki el que menos ya que nos parecía que estaba un pelín pasado de sésamo.

TATAKI DE ATÚN – Tataki de atún fresco acompañado de crema de aguacate O PIANO RIBS IBÉRICO – COSTILLAS DE CERDO GLASEADAS CON SALSA BBQ CASERA, PATATAS FRITAS Y ENSALADA CARNE TUPI – FILETE DE RIB-EYE CON SALSA DE PIMIENTA NEGRA JAMAICANA, PATATAS FRITAS CASERAS Y ENSALADA NOSSO BACALHAU Á PORTUGUESA – LOMO DE BACALAO FRESCO CON CREMA DE MAÍZ Y CHORIZO Y SALSA CHIMICHURRI

Para finalizar, pedimos varios de los postres de la carta para compartir entre los 8 que comensales. En líneas generales, estaban todos bastante buenos. Hay que tener muy mala suerte para fallar en los postres.

MOUSSE DE CHOCOLATE IMG 7769 CREME BRULEE DE NARANJA IMG 7771 COULANT DE DULCE LECHE CON HELADO DEL DÍA (VAINILLA)

Ya se encuentra apuntado en nuestra lista de repetibles de Tavira para volver en un futuro no muy lejano (todavía nos queda mucho por probar y descubrir de la localidad). Aunque algo corta, nos han gustado los platos de su carta. Con cabida para platos principales y para tapas, algo difícil de encontrar fuera de nuestras fronteras. Un lugar...