The restaurant opens from 12-3pm for lunch, and 7-10pm for dinner. We arrived shortly before 7pm,…read moreand there was a line waiting already! The front of the restaurant is for take out customers, while the dining room is in the back. The waiter didn't give us any menu, because chargrilled chicken is all they serve! Not much choice for sides either - salads and fries, take it or leave it. No apologies. It's interesting to see big families having dinner here, hard to imagine, for an American, that they can all manage to be satisfied with the same dish, without some diet or preference in the way. As you can imagine, for a restaurant like this, they do one thing and do it really good. Tender chicken with a wonderful chargrilled flavor. My husband loves grilled chicken so this is like the 4th chicken place we visited on the trip, and this one is the clear winner. The fries and salad are just meh though.

Do one thing and do it well! Best peri peri chicken on our entire 2 week visit to Portugal. Arrive…read moreearly and prepare to wait but it's worth it.

Very disappointed... food was good, bread was stale, service was okay until it took a half hour to…read moreget our check. The waiter knew we needed to leave but was determined to reset other tables. Then to top it off he added a gratuity for himself, underhanded and sneaky. I would stay clear.

This place is recommended to us by a local, who told us, this is where locals go for seafood…read more The restaurant, along with several others, are located sort of under the bridge. You may be standing at the intersection and wondering where the restaurant is, and then look over the rails and see the sign. Somehow there seems to be a cluster of seafood restaurants in that space, but some of them are empty, with eager smiling ladies inviting you to go inside. Dona Barca not only has a bustling full house, they apparently took over more space across the alley. Even without my friend's recommendation it's clear which restaurant to go to. They have a large cooler displaying what fishes are available. And they do know how to cook their fishes. The sole we ordered was done to perfection, the meat still moist and tender. We also ordered the seafood rice. Sadly, maybe due to inflation, there was way more rice than seafood, and the broth tastes of tomato rather than the ocean's bounty. Only one prawn, a crab claw, plus a small amount of tiny bites of clam, octopus and shrimp that I had to dig around in the rice to find.

Very delicious and authentic portuguese food for a good price! The house wine is great aswell. Just…read morea few tourists, but many locals!

Great local food and clientele. Enjoyed our meal, pork chops for her and lamb stew for me. Place…read morewas packed and we waited 15 minutes or so to be seated at a communal table. Another couple seated with us, locals from Lagos, were delightful and helped me with Portuguese menu, although my wife had an English menu. Will return for another lunch, for sure. Wait staff was friendly and efficient, despite the large crowd. Prices were very reasonable, too.

Four of us visiting from California came across this gem. Newly renovated and great food…read more Service was fast. Lots of choices and the wine selection was quite extensive. Well lit. Tables were unfortunately a little tightly packed.

We return to this restaurant yearly! The food is so fresh and delicious. Love the cataplana! Our…read moreattentive waiter has been there for years and really works hard to please. Outdoor patio or indoor dining. We love outdoor. Can't wait to return next year...

Very disappointed with the quality of the food. I ordered chicken piri piri. I had to send this…read moreback as some of my chicken was not cooked . Also, I was served mainly chicken wings & drumsticks! This was a main meal ! I have had piri piri before. This did not have any heat to it ! My salad was poor too. It's clear that the restaurant is maximum profit. We would not recommend it. The photos of the food on the website are misleading. Oh also forgot to add we ordered Ives to start which were clearly cooking olives from a jar !!!

Outstanding service, very friendly. Quiet night.read more

We had an amazing meal here. Hubby wanted to share the Cataplana but I had my heart set on a…read moreskewer. He ended up sharing with a friend and I have to say that though my skewer was good the cataplana was outstanding! For those familiar with San Francisco cioppino, it is kind of like that, a fish stew. This was full of both shellfish and filets of fish. The flavor of the broth was one of the best we have had since dining in Portugal. We like it so much we were spooning it out and onto our slices of bread! For my main course I had the calamari and shrimp skewer. It came with fries and a salad. It was really good as well but I had to ask for some lemon to brighten up the flavor. They were more than happy to accommodate the request. Back to the starters though. We had some bread, olives, butter, sardine pate and an order of clams. Most speak for themselves but you can skip the sardine pate, it is just small pre-packaged tins of it, not home made. The clams though were really really good! Definitely get an order if you like clams. We loved our service. Everyone was friendly, eager to please and helpful. They assisted us in picking out a terrific bottle of wine and what to order. They didn't misguide us at all!

The best of the best!!! Great vintage decoration, cozy and amazing atmosphere to hang with some…read morefriends or to have a casual work meeting. You can reserve a nice and unique dinner by scheduling with the owner the goods. A must try!! (Opens 10pm, closes Sundays, dinner hour/date by arrangement)

Excellent customer service, the food is of the highest quality, prepared perfectly! And you can't…read morebeat the view! It is our go-to place when we want to treat ourselves or for a special occassion.

It's in a lovely location with a beautiful view over the beach in Praia de Roche. There was a man…read morehandling out information about the restaurant at the bottom of the stairs but we had made reservations. We were offered either a table on the enclosed patio overlooking the water or a table inside. We opted to sit outside and enjoy the view. The service was very good. We shared an order of shrimp in garlic butter and asked to have the heads removed. They were good. For entrees my husband had grilled fish. It did not have any seasoning and he had to ask for lemon. The fish required a lot of lemon and salt and it was still lacking in flavour. I had a grilled steak and it was decent but not that interesting. Not one of the better steaks that I've had. The prices are a bit higher that some comparable restaurants that we've gone to but the food although decent should be considerably better for the prices charged. We would not return as we found the menu to be somewhat limited, the prices too high and the food was a not as well prepared as one would expect for the prices charged.

Wonderful friendly service, great recommendations, and tasty tapas!…read more I'm not sure if this is a hidden gem, as we are here in the slow season, but it is pretty special.

One of the best meals we've had in years! The bread--nice crusty white bread and then a more…read morecrumbly one made with fat from jamon iberico--were outstanding. Served with compound "jamon butter" and "chorizo butter"!!! and with exceptionally good olives. There was no need to go any further, but we did. The expertly sliced bellota with three cheeses, and a nice older red wine from Colinas were excellent together. We also had great batatas bravas and some nice mushroom and cheese phyllo cigars. The service was perfect. We ate outside and there happened to be a nice band playing down the road. Made for an exceptional evening! The chef came out for a nice conversation at the end. Highly recommended!!!

This restaurant was recommended to my family and I by our boat guide. What a special place we would…read morehave not found otherwise. It is located in a quaint fisherman's town, about 15 minute drive from where we stayed in Portimao. There were 5 of us, and we are a group of sharers. We ordered the fried sardines and friend prawns as an appetizer, absolutely delicious! I am not a sardine eater, but so glad I tried. Would eat again! For dinner we shared the shellfish cataplana, monkfish rice, and a whole grilled sea bass. Everything was absolutely delicious! The sea bass was beautifully cooked on the grill and filleted at the table. Bruno was our host, he was very helpful and friendly with guiding us and explaining the meals. He was very funny as well! We enjoyed everything from start to finish. We ended the meal with a lovely port wine.

Everything about this place was fantastic. We started with the grilled sardines (we watched them…read morebeing grilled) and finished with the fisherman's stew for 2, which was one of the best things ordered all week. The bill was only moderately priced so very happy with this place. Could have used a finger bowl for the crab and prawns, so maybe bring your own wet wipes.