O Lopes em Funchal

22/07/2024: We stumbled across this place down a sort of side alley. When we arrived the staff were singing and dancing and were very happy as they were about to have a 3 week holiday. I was concerned they wouldn’t have much fresh food available but I was wrong. We all ended up having 3 courses, all the food cooked very well and good sized portions. Not bad prices and friendly staff

03/06/2024: To be honest I wasn’t expecting much and my expectations were realised. This is good, honest, homely cooking which is no bad thing but I felt it was overpriced for what you got. The food was fine- I started with lobster cocktail which had a good lot of lobster in it which I know is pricey, so there wasn’t very much of it. My main course of tuna was good and came in a tasty tomato-based sauce. My wife had a dorado from the catch of the day and this was good too. The vegetables that came with it were cauliflower, green beans and carrots so not exciting but they were fine. I was disappointed with the desserts. My passion fruit pudding was a light, non-baked cheesecake style slice with passion fruit syrup poured over it. My wife’s meringue seemed like a stodgy meringue mix which they had cooked in a cool oven, but maybe this is an authentic way of doing meringue-this is a Madeiran restaurant after all so what do I know? I just know it was not what we had expected as a meringue. The service was slow and, I felt, that the staff were not that bothered but maybe it was just because it was a Monday and they were fed up. In conclusion, it is not a bad restaurant it is just run of the mill;not pricey but there are better restaurants in the area where you’ll get a much better meal for only a little more.