Taberna Vicentina em Albufeira

17/06/2025: Ambiente lindo, pratos e vinhos de qualidade. Tivemos uma refeição deliciosa aqui e voltaremos novamente. Tivemos que esperar muito tempo pela conta, pois estava cheio, mas nossa mesa já não era mais necessária. Mas isso é sempre melhor do que esperar pela comida.

15/06/2025: Can’t say we were entirely happy. We booked ahead. On arrival we were escorted to a table that was full of food. Crab dishes, prawns, bread, salads and meat, cheese etc. We didn’t ask for any of this. When we sat down I asked is this for us and the waiter said yes, ‘anything you don’t eat we’ll take away’. We felt uncomfortable in asking was it complimentary or were we going to be paying for food we didn’t ask for or how much it would cost. We kinda knew we’d be paying but had no idea how much it would be. We thought this presumptuous and relied on us not asking. Who wants to make a fuss? Would we have been rude to ask for it to be taken away? How long had all this been sitting there? Anyway it cost around 60 Euros! We skipped starters. The food was good, I had the steak which came with chips. Note chips means home cooked crisps, not what I expected. Other dishes were tasty and rustic. All stew dishes are served on the bone and one of our party struggled to get the meat off the bone. Wine goes without saying was excellent. Place is very nice and with 1000’s of bottles of wine to choose from it’s impressive. Indoor dining. Place though lacked atmosphere and if we were a party of 2 (there were 4 of us) we’d have felt a bit lost. Waiter was good and chatty. Bill took an age to come and we had to cancel our Taxi booking. I eventually went up to the counter to ask and it still took too long to come. When it was delivered the waiter had the machine ready for me to pay. I asked for time to check the bill which felt uncomfortable, I wanted to see what all the bits and pieces at the start cost. I queried a few things. Reluctantly I left a 10% cash tip of €30. Waiter did give us a complimentary drink at the end which was nice and appreciated. My dessert was tiny but tasty. We had a nice time but all of us were not happy with the provision of food at the start. That said we did eat it and parts were very good. Not what we’d have chosen though.