Azorean Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Gloucester

This place was a very pleasant surprise, because we originally tried going to Passports Restaurant in the Gloucester, but gave up after sitting at our table for a half hour waiting to give our drink order. Luckily we quickly found that Azorean Restaurant & Bar was close by and loved the experience.

Upon arrival, we were greeted at the door by friendly faces who immediately sat us down in the dining area without a reservation. The place was pretty busy for a Sunday night, and the environment consisted of happy families laughing, the clinking of friends toasting with cocktails, and the beautiful wall to wall Portuguese decor. The whole vibe felt like a big warm hug.

Despite being extremely busy, our waitress greeted us almost immediately and took our drink orders. To our surprise, our cocktails quickly arrived and the waitress was ready to take our orders. I commented about how she must have her hands full, because I watched her check in with each table on her way out, and on her way back. But she had a great optimistic point of view, and said something funny to make us all laugh. She definitely contributed to the wonderful experience we had here.

My cocktail was the Cool As A Cucumber, which I've had at other places, and it was just as good here. Cucumber vodka, St Germain, and lime make up the core of this refreshing drink. Along with that, I decided to try the Linguica With Pineapple. To my surprise, it was very similar to kielbasa with a mild spicy finish, but it was not greasy at all. It was grilled beautifully, and each bite with a little bit of pineapple was an exceedingly pleasant experience. I would order this again in a heartbeat.

For my main course I had the Chicken Medallions with Butternut Squash Ravioli. It was prepared beautifully, in a wine cream sauce that had walnuts and dried cranberries. Definitely on the sweet and savory side of dinners, I really enjoyed this, and was practically licking my plate when finished. My friend ordered the Azorean Steak Tips with Portuguese Fries. Both were beautifully cooked, and me being a French fry connoisseur, I have to say that the Portuguese fries were pretty great. We're not sure if they should have been eaten with ketchup or some other kind of dipping sauce, but they were actually very good and crispy on their own.

For dessert, we shared what I believe was a Chocolate Mousse Torte. It was absolutely delicious, and kudos to the waitress who warned us there were only three left halfway through our meal. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone describe a dessert so beautifully, so much so that the table next to us also ordered one in the middle of their meal. And trust me, it lived up to the hype!

Overall, this was a wonderful experience. The Portuguese flavors mixed with a warm friendly environment, more than made up for the disappointing experience we had at the previous place. In fact, I should probably thank the other restaurant for inadvertently redirecting us to Azorean Restaurant, because we really had a...

Friday 4/25/25 - 430pm 6:15pm

We sat at the end of the bar by the beer taps, stools 3&4 probably. It was not busy when we went in, only 4 others at the bar. We were greeted by a young girl and there was one young man behind the bar at the time. We both said we needed a few minutes to decide on drinks. After 10 minutes we grabbed the attention of the young bar back and he attempted to make our drinks. I overheard the girl say that there’s no chocolate vodka for the peppermint patty martini so just use vanilla. He screwed up the first and tossed it. The 2nd he gave to me. It wasn’t made correctly. When she asked me if I wanted a second drink, I asked if there was chocolate vodka in it and she said yes, although she told the bar back that there was no chocolate so use vanilla. Our food came and it was great. Food is always delicious. No one ever asked how our food was or if we needed anything. They were too busy on their phones and taking selfies. All of your wait staff is hanging out by the beer taps talking and in their phones. We ordered 2nd drinks from Charles. Glass of wine and manhattan were perfect. We remember Patricia, Matt, Dan, and Matteus from better staffing days. Charles and CeeCee are the ONLY good employees that are left. On our way out, I spoke with the manager lady about our experience. I’m not sure that she was interested. We’ve been coming to the Azorian for years and years. Because of the horrible service for the past 3-4 times, We will not be back. Please contact me if you’d like to discuss this further. You need to rein your staff in. They are not...

This place really needs to figure out what it wants to be. We drove over an hour to try the Azorean cuisine as we are going to the Azores in the fall and wanted a bit of a prelude. We were mildly disappointed. Little to no parking (like a 6 car lot) when we arrived. On the one had, they didn't have a table for us despite our reservation. On the other hand, they seated us at a table for six (after a 15 minute wait) to accomodate us, which obviously cost them something. The server was really good--friendly and attentive. The menu, however, freaked us out at first--just pizza and pub food--until we flipped it over. Even then, however, the offerings are about 50% American--chicken nuggets, chicken wings, baked stuffed shrimp. You can't be everything to everyone so, personally, I'd shrink the menu to just offering what the sign says--Azorean (Portuguese) food. Anyhow, we had had the Azorean salad, which was good but dry until we asked for more dressing. Then it was nothing special. We both had the Cataplanas, which are basically paellas in various guises. They were large and tasty and well seasoned--very good. But when we asked for some bread to go with, it was an extra charge (basic sliced loaf). Kinda cheap IMHO. The cocktail menu was creative and had some really good offerings. Reasonably priced too. The caipirinhas actually used Cachacha, which was good. All in all, a good experience but not...