Fornos De Lava — Restaurant in Velas

By far, the best restaurant on the island.

Stunning location and view. Adjust your reservation time to catch the sunset and you won't regret it. Beautifully crafted food, with locally sourced and fresh ingredients. Great place for fish and seafood. It's worth mentioning the side dish consisting of different kinds of local tubers, simply roasted with olive oil and fresh herbs... but oh, so delicious. In general, cuisine is loyal to Portuguese traditions, although more representivative of the Southern Portugal than Azores themselves. There is a bit of a wait, but totally worth of the feast that will follow.

A must try if you are on the island. Book ahead.

PS On the dessert menu, you will find a portuguese conventual option called Encharcada. It is a delicious traditional sweet made with a sugar syrup and (a lot of) egg yolks. It is VERY sweet and if you are not used to it, it is likely you won't enjoy it. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of tourists ordering it, trying it and leaving a full plate. A lot was thrown away on one evening only :( Please be aware of that before ordering. If you still do, know it's amazing and quite rare to find it on restaurants (it gets expensive given the amount of eggs it takes to...

A culinary shipwreck from start to finish.

From the moment we walked in, the tone was set: the welcome was as warm as a prison door — barely a glance, let alone a smile. Hardly the start of what’s supposed to be a pleasant dining experience.

Then came the parade of disappointments.

The fish, supposedly filleted, was riddled with bones — a nightmare to pick through in near darkness. The lighting is so appallingly bad you can barely see what’s on your plate, which might actually be a mercy given the state of the dishes: overly salty, dripping in oil, and utterly devoid of finesse. We left the table thirstier than when we sat down.

As for the wine? Bland, flat, forgettable — the kind you’d find on the bottom shelf of a discount supermarket, yet somehow charged at premium rates. Value for money? Absolutely abysmal.

But the grand finale? Your barely touched plate is whisked away without a single word. No question, no curiosity, no concern — just a robotic “Would you like dessert?” as if nothing had gone wrong.

All in all, a place to avoid at all costs. No sense of hospitality, uninspired cooking, and a blatant disregard for the customer. Deeply, deeply disappointed — and we want...

This is probably the only very good restaurant in Velas. After the bad experiences in town we ended up coming here twice for dinner and we were extremely happy with the food, the service and the atmosphere. It's out of the town therefore you need a car (or taxi) but it is really worth the trip. It's a slow food place, if you are in a hurry or you are a nervous person this is not the place, you need to wait 20-40 minutes for your meals but who's in a hurry visiting Azores? While waiting for your meal the warm bread is great and you can have an excellent bottle of Azorean wine for 12€ (Faria's vineyards). We had excellent grilled fish once and another evening a fantastic fish cataplana. Surprise, there was even an excellent dessert from Alentejo region ("encharcada") which was simply delicious. The service is attentive and friendly. The room is nicely decorated, warm and welcoming. Excellent ratio quality-price. If we would have stayed more nights at Velas we would definitely come here more times. Forget the...