Caravela Restaurante

Went for a Valentine’s Day dinner with a set menu. The server asked us to choose our main and said the rest would be handled. I ordered the peri-peri chicken, but after soup and salad we waited 55 minutes only to be told that the chef had completely forgotten our table and hadn’t prepared our mains at all.

We were then asked to choose something else since the chicken could no longer be made. About 15 minutes later, I received a below-average fish dish and only a small discount was offered. The service throughout was extremely poor — servers were slow, avoided our table, and ignored multiple attempts to get their attention.

Overpriced food and very disappointing service. Won’t be returning.

Have dined in here years ago. Food was good but customer service was not great. I do agree on a number of comments/reviews posted here – unfriendly, impatient, unapologetic person (short guy in glasses) and yes, seems to be rushing customer when ordering and yet makes you wait for your food.

Recently, when called to order for pick up, it’s no different. I’m pretty sure it was the same person, unfriendly, impatient and not very pleasant at all. When food was picked up, he had the machine with him and blankly asked me if I want to tip the chef???? Isn’t it more polite to hand over the machine to the customer and let the customer work around it? It’s a customers choice to tip or not and NOT be asked point blank.

It seems customer asking questions is his waste of time. Sounding defensive at times.
There maybe lots of positive comments, but maybe because those are either their favorite customers or with Portuguese backgrounds or friends.

But even us, who cherish our stay in Portugal and have visited a number of times, didn’t find locals in Portugal to be as unfriendly as this guy in this restaurant. We love spending winter in Portugal, the reason we patronize this restaurant.

Business maybe doing well, but giving your customer the “attitude” is unacceptable in any establishment. Be gracious unless customer is yelling at you but that’s not the case.

And I can’t believe how the person responding to comments sounds defensive instead of being pleasant and apologetic.
It sure reflects the personality itself.

People who dine and chose your establishment are educated and decent people. But once treated indifferently, they too, get hurt and disrespected.

It would be appreciated if the owner speaks to their staff to be more tactful and respectful acknowledging their customers suggestions, comments/feedbacks.

Positive comments are great, and less positive should be treated as constructive. I’m sure customer and owners can always work together to a common cause.

Our first but not last visit to Caravela.
We were 8 and the evening was on point start to finish
I had the grilled octopus. Perfectly cooked with some nice sauces, a light tasty salad and rice. Good size portion
My partner had the Sea bass. Very nice. The house white was decent and stood up to the flavours of the Octopus dish
The Chorizo sausage au feu was tasty and brought some flare to the dinner.
Service was attentive and friendly thanks to Rico.
Espresso, port and cake closed out the evening just right.
Expect to be back!

I want to thank everyone at Caravela for providing a wonderful New Year’s Eve dining experience for myself and my guest. We attended the 8 p.m. service and all the courses came out like clockwork. I had the Fernando’s Platter and my friend had the Sea Bass. Both were cooked to perfection. My only regret is that I didn’t leave enough room for all of the dessert, although I did manage to get through half. (My friend had the other half.) The à la carte menu with champagne was well worth the price. Bravo and Happy New Year.

Had a great time we will return for sure. The food was so delicious, from the wine to the flavor, to all of our meals being cooked perfectly. I had the cod cakes and the shrimp and scallops, and a few mussels, which the sauce on the mussels was so good, all of the food was the best I’ve had in a really long time. The service was excellent. I loved that the owner was also there and serving customers.