The Black Anchor — Restaurant in Tavira

A very saddening experience. Came as someone who was friendly with Joy, the owner. Visited at the start of the off/winter season. Was speaking very nicely and friendly with the Portuguese staff. Then a black American staff member (short cornrows) came to challenge and question us on our patronage to the bar and town. He seemed to be slanting his questions and conversations around his sister and her friends which apparently (according to him) were patrons of the bar at the same time. He then proceeded to be Observantly rude, condescending and curt to anyone who (I hate to say this) was not white skinned. Originally I put this down to the understandable and excusable personality and character challenges he may experience as a black American of (as he explained to me being of Portuguese and slavery descent). As empathetic as I can be of such a demographic and scenario. He was very inhospitable of non white people to the extent that we left after 44-50 minutes to have dinner somewhere else. So we loved the geographic proximity and cheap(ish) bar menu we were turned off by the seemingly insecure identity issues of the black American server who made us feel unwelcome. This is NOT a racial discrimination matter because the bar staff from Nepal were delightful. Just the black American with some personal attitude issues wanting to be liked and validated by Caucasians and having something of an axe to grind against non white European patrons. Maybe he needs to travel more and understand...

Our visit to the Black Anchor yesterday was, in some ways, quite disappointing. This pub enjoys a privileged location in Tavira, right along the river, with a large terrace surrounded by historical buildings. The atmosphere at night is beautiful, they have live music, and a wide following of faithful english speaking patrons. Was it not for the beautiful decor, you could be anywhere in London. Last night though, the waiters were scarce and harassed, few and far between. The first one was welcoming enough, bit our drinks took 30mn to arrive at the table! Then he proceeded to explain the daily special, which was roast chicken and.... disappeared. One hour later, nobody had taken our order yet. We were starving. We.teies to attract attention of anybody. An hour and a half later, we fi ally got someone's attention! Oir first waiter had gone, never to be seen again, and the new guy informes us that there was no daily special. We finally managed to order....... Food came almost one hour after that, and my chicken curry was accompanied with..... french fries, instead of rice as ordered...... there was no rice In the house, was I informed by a very rushed waiter. He simply didn't understand that some people so not eat curry with french fries..... Anyway..... to say that we are not in a hurry to go back there again is an...

A very mediocre experience altogether.

We stopped for dinner one evening, and the outdoor seating next to the river was a nice option. There was also indoor seating available, as well as a back inner courtyard area as well. Not long after we arrived, the inner restaurant filled up for a live music event (Wednesday evening) and the kitchen got very backed up, and the servers looked to be too few and therefore not very attentive.

We shared the warm goat’s cheese starter, which was ok, but served with 5 saltine crackers which proved to be too fragile and flavourless as an accompaniment. Some crusty bread would have suited that share plate much better. My husband was pleased with his fish and chips and salad. My dinner of Sticky Ribs however was quite disappointing. A huge mass of ribs, drowning under a mass of what tastes like a bottled Asian sort of sauce. The sauce drowned out my salad, and that wasnt a pleasing combination at all. No side plate/bowl was brought for the rib bones, and as the plate was so full, there just wasn’t any space to work with the ribs. The ribs were tender, but simply tasted stewed, as there was quite a lack of any browning or char for flavour. I would not return, so go with reasonable expectations for a mediocre pub meal. Perhaps the food is better when the kitchen is not...