Zarcos em Funchal

Very nice food on a terrasse covering the full bay. If you like good fish or long hanging brochettes well grilled in the bbq, this is a top stop in your plan. Nice people, with large choices including local traditional items. Well recommended, and affordable.

The Zarcos experience is mediocre (I’d give 2.5 stars rather than 3 if I could), and while the menu looks great I recommend looking elsewhere if you’re in the mood for espetadas. My wife and I tried the Espetada de Vaca and the Espetada do Filete – both had more fat/gristle than was enjoyable, came out very underdone despite requesting they be cooked medium. Most pieces came out deep-purple and cool in the center, not even the red of medium-rare. To Zarcos’s credit, food came out very quickly once ordered (because they weren’t cooking the meat long enough…), and servings are a good size. Aside from food delivery, service definitely left something to be desired. Our waiter had very little patience with us despite the restaurant not being busy, and our doing our best to speak Portuguese when possible. We asked about wine, and rather than being offered a wine list (which they definitely had) the waiter just asked if wanted red or white and then left to bring out a relatively generic wine (one that we recognized from having tried it elsewhere). We were largely ignored once the food came out, which was a problem when we wanted to order more drinks. The service issue wasn’t just our particular waiter as another couple behind us with a different waiter received similar treatment.