Dona Bela — Restaurant in Vila Real de Santo António

Some spoiled food and unacceptably bad service. We have eaten at Dona Bela a couple of time in each of the last few years. They started out great, but have been deteriorating steadily - maybe victim of their own success, or not needing to try anymore. Last year their popular grilled camaroes in ginger dish arrived at the table cold. Today one of the dishes we had was a kebab with grilled gambas and some pieces of meat - all 3 gambas were mashy, evidently not fresh. All went back uneaten. We told the waiter (in Portuguese), but for him all was fine. We told the same to the senior waiter (the older, short one who's always been rather unfriendly), but he also brushed it off. Not even an apology when we said that it was a very disappointing meal. This was the last time at Dona Bela for us. There are several better choices along the beach. Baia opened last year and is great, Agostinho also serves very good grilled fish. Just to be clear - it can always happen that there is something not right with a meal, but then you acknowledge it, maybe offer to fix it if possible or offer a replacement, but you don't just shrug it off and send the stupid tourists...

Dona Bela is so much more than a restaurant – we love it every time we come!

Always such a unique experience; from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave. I must say that this restaurant totally changed our perception about culinary in Monte Gordo – wow it’s just very different and the word 'superb' should be added to everything we say here!

This time in July, we came to celebrate our friends’ birthday and we really had an amazing time with friends and family. The food was out of this world, and the service was outstanding. They even got two little but very cute birthday cakes for us (ordered last minute over the phone), which we really appreciated.

Getting a table can be challenging, but the managers will always do their best to accommodate you.

We hope to be back soon, your fish soup is always our...

SAVE YOUR MONEY - DO NOT EAT HERE

Start to finish an awful place. 1/10 service, really disgusting attitude and rude - making us feel rushed when we didn’t order within 30 seconds. Expensive 30 euro steak was served with stale crisps, cuttlefish served up swimming in oil and flavours were just horrible. When asked how our meal was we kindly explained we didn’t enjoy the meal were a bit disappointed that expensive steak was served with crisps. The servers reacted badly getting aggressive and defensive saying it’s our opinion - I have never been treated so badly in a restaurant before. We have family living in Monte Gordo and will be sure to tell them and their friends to avoid this place.

We would recommend the restaurant works on listening to the customer and provides a...