Restaurante O Monteiro — Restaurant in Tavira

You cannot leave Tavira without visiting.

I will start my review with the most favourable aspects of the restaurant: food and drinks. 1) We ordered squid, octopus, chicken and some beef and it was really delicious . Having said that, I need to point out that the food is cooked with extraordinary amounts of oil. Please be prepared and have a word with your GP before going or set up a by-pass treatment in the next couple of months after visiting. The chicken and squid are cooked exactly with the same recipe and ingredients, same display and taste. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are cooked together and somebody splits them at the end of the process. 2) the drinks are fine and very cheap, so utilise this bargain and have some good local wine or some pints of beer - trust me, you will need them at the end of the night.

The service is also great but in an odd way. You need to read this or any other of the reviews and take some precautions before going: 1) the wait will be long no matter what the menu or the waiter tells you - bring your holiday book, watch something on Netflix on your mobile or tablet or just chill out seeing how the waiters are mistreated by the annoyed customers. 2) the staff is just an apart spectacle. These characters seem to be taken out of a Woody Allen movie. They have no customer service/people skills whatsoever. The best part of our night was when one of the angry waiters shouted at me because I said I didn’t order an extra portion of chips: “Yes, you did ordered them!!!”, the waiter replied with very rude manners and almost yelling at me.

In summary, I think the place is great and nobody visiting Algarve should miss this...

Probably the worst experience I have ever had with a restaurant. Very disorganised staff. We ordered fried fish and octopus at 8:15 pm because it was supposedly faster than grilled or more elaborate dishes. The clams we ordered for starters were relatively fast to arrive and were good. After insisting 6 times that our daughter was hungry and sleepy they finally served us at almost 10 PM!! The food was awful and oily. My stomach was complaining a lot when I got home. They have a LOT of tables and waiters could not handle the situation. Empty dirty tables sat there for 20 minutes with groups waiting in line to be seated. People waiting for their bills for half an hour, leaving without paying. People leaving before being served due to delays. We tried getting some explanations from the staff and we understood the boss is inside and doesn't care about complaints. Good luck running a business like that. We, and a lot of people around us, are never coming back. Some places don't deserve a...

Food was good but far from being one gastronomic experience for which we would rate as great to put on our list to return. Especially, the service could be better.

Negative points: The starters included bread from yesterday. After we questioned if they could change and bring us fresh bread they mentioned that was the owners policy to use first the old bread. First, this is totally wrong because the customer shouldn't be the one impacted by food waste. Secondly, it was already 1pm and they still didn't have fresh bread.

We had to wait several minutes because 2/3 staff personnel were discussing with other customers the possibility to have lunch there and how to arrange the tables disposition. While we were waiting...

Nevertheless, food was good. Grilled octopus with sweet potatoes...