Pestana Grand Trattoria de la Fontana em Funchal

26/12/2024: Managed to get a late table in this very busy & popular restaurant, would advise pre booking! Lots of people turned away as full. Ordered bruschetta, prawns in garlic sauce to start followed by two different risottos & we shared a pudding. Had a bottle of Portuguese wine & some water. Bill was about £60 (two of us) Couldn’t believe how reasonable it was, how tasty it was & how friendly the staff were, definitely recommended.

28/10/2024: Wanted to go here having seen rave reviews. Looked OK from outside when closed and someone adding to the specials on a board inside opened the door to let us make a reservation. We asked for 7pm which they said was fine, but omitted to say that they had 2 sittings and we would have to be out before 8.30, which we were only told when we arrived in the evening. Very clean inside, but tables crammed together as it is quite a small restaurant. I selected what I thought sounded straightforward, with a poached agg, asparagus and mushrooms, only for it to arrive in a bowl swimming with watery liquid which was almost vinegary. I'd been asked if I'd like the bread to dip, but not told that would be an extra €2. My other half had a chicken main, this also in a bowl with a thick mushroom puree under the chicken, and potato crisp scalloped around the edge of the bowl - quite tasty if not quite what we had envisaged. I had the chicken and mushroom pizza, quite large and tasty, but very little tomato passata under the cheese, so ended up being rather dry. We both felt the restaurant was a little pretentious. Not a bad evening, but not somewhere we'd rush back to.