Central Café

Food was over cooked and over priced Skip this one Waitress was nice but food not worth it Too many other choices

Amazing service, Amazing food We sat outside on a lovely warm evening- staff were incredibly attentive and helpful- all food cooked to perfection- second time we have been to this restaurant in the evening and both occasions were faultless. We have eaten all over the Algarve and to be honest this restaurant is right up there - I don’t understand the bad reviews as price , quality and service was second to none - we will recommend to all - many thanks

Friends booked as r hey wanted to be near to the music in the square. As you enter, they had canned music inside competing with the live rendition outside. They also had a huge TV , watched by nobody, nut hard to ignore. Not a great start. Our female server was very pleasant but a tad untrained. Starters arrived and were generally good. Unfortunately when the main courses came, two ere incorrect and had to be returned. This meant that four of us ate whilst the others twiddled their thumbs, and vice versa when the corrected dishes arrived. The food was passable but the experience tarnished the occasion. As a previous reviewer has said, the bill was verbal, impossible to check and seemed high. To be fair, we were later told that all restaurants are following this system.

If I could leave 0 stars I would. Don’t waste your time, go elsewhere. Shocking experience from start to finish. Best part of the experience was leaving.

Went to this restaurant with good expectations. Staff were inattentive and walking around with sour expressions, impossible to flag down. Waited half an hour for drinks and longer for food. Had to ask multiple times for basics like cutlery, sauces, etc. Had to send back some food that was practically inedible. The other dishes were relatively nice it’s just a shame the service let it down so much. Will not be returning.

First the positives : attentive waiting staff, central position. Food was OK and served quite quickly. However, as mentioned in an earlier review, you are not provided with an itemised bill and told you have to pay inside at the end of your meal. Once inside, you are quickly shown a screen which shows your order but without any prices. You agree that is your order and then are verbally given the amount owed. The bill came in around 30 euros higher than any other meal we have had since arriving in Carvoeiro almost a week ago, despite ordering what can only be considered pretty simple, nothing out of the ordinary meals. We paid but left feeling slightly perplexed over the amount, considering that we couldnt remember ordering anything special. We got back to our our apartment and tried to calculate how the bill had come out so high. We worked out roughly the cost of the food as we were able to recall most of the prices as these were listed on the menu. But this still left around 30 euros unaccounted for. The only grey area was the wine. We had requested a bottle of house wine which is generally at the lower end of any wine list and certainly not 30 euros. So, without an itemised bill, we will never know. Yes, we should have challenged the amount whilst still at the restaurant but it was busy and we were keen to get somewhere else. Having read the other reviews, I am of the impression that this is not an isolated issue so I would suggest to anyone else going, that you note the individual prices of what you order so you can check the accuracy before you pay.

This spot is great if you like watching people go by and you can see the sea in the far distance. You would easily be able to spend the whole day here. Just order 1 drink and you're good for 40 minutes of people watching before it'll come and if you make the mistake of ordering food it'll take even longer to arrive. We only went in, despite the exhorbitant prices, because they served pizza for my son and we wanted something other than that. He has tried 3 other pizza restaurants nearby and loved them but he had one bite of this one and said it tasted funny and it made him feel sick. Our food started off ok, garlic mushrooms and garlic bread were fine but too big a portion of mushrooms, and believe me, I am generally into big portions. Now I never want to see a mushroom again. We counted six sad looking prawns in the pasta dish. I had a completely tasteless chicken kebab with an insultingly small portion of peanut sauce, accompanied by shrivelled dried up chips and a strange tasting salad that no amount of oil and vinegar could make edible. The kebab came on some kind of gibbet that the skewer hung from. Foolishly I expected it to be sizzlingly hot but it was only tepid to the touch and I had no problem picking it up and putting it on my plate. Incredibly it took them over an hour to serve up cold food! I gradually choked down the kebab by asking for more sauce (which also was pretty bland). I asked for the bill but you have to go inside to pay. They can't, apparently, print a bill until you have paid! Generally slow service from staff who clearly don't want to be there and hate pesky customers that come in and spoil their day, tasteless food and many tables left stuff on their plates that they couldn't bring themselves to force down. To sum up, it is the Fawlty Towers of Carvoiero restaurants. Do yourself a favour and avoid it. After experiencing this I genuinely don't think I ever want to chance eating out somewhere new ever again. The bill at 96 euros was the dearest we have had so far for dinner and we only had 2 diet cokes and a water to drink. The next dearest was 4 euros less and that time we had two portions of Fillet Mignon.

Lovely staff who were clearly run off their feet. However they told us it would be slow and the amazing black pork was worth the wait. Overall a good experience just felt sorry that the owners cant source more staff to prevent the ones there getting a hard time.

At the beginning wanted to leave 5 stars for being nice, after we ordered a bottle of Prosecco and they’ve charged per glass and bringing some old smashed croissants decided to leave this review, it is so disappointing that people looking in your eyes saying a thing and doing totally other ways, l mean it is so hard to be a normal person, it is so hard to stick ti the customers service rules ( and that not meaning that the customer is always right) and offer at least a pleasant service not talking about a pleasant experience!!!Thanks for nothing!!!

Stopped here for dinner last night, didn't start well in that we had to wait a while for menus. Ordered food and drink at the same time, my order of the tenderloin fillet pork arrived but without the cream and mushroom sauce, I asked the waitress where it was to which she just walked off up to the service area, no apology or explanation. Eventually she came back with said sauce, literally cream with a few mushrooms in it, and again no apology! The chips were overcooked as well. My husband had the Portuguese steak dish which was apparently very nice.

Looked like a nice location but quickly went downhill by poor service. Waited 40 minutes for a bottle of wine to be served. Eventually food appeared but that coincided with cockroaches appearing on the wall and seating of our table (inside) to which the staff reaction was to carry on serving food and try and kill a cockroach with a cushion. We left. There are so many better, brighter and more hygienic locations .. don’t eat here.

A lovely tasty restaurant, great choice of food and everything tasted beautiful, we ate on 2 evenings during our stay and each one was very nice, the first night I had the steak on stone which did not disappoint and the second I had the prawns which were outstanding, great food for kids also!

We enjoyed the food that we had and the ambience. We got the grilled tiger prawns which came with delicious French fries, and a Thai wild rice which included almonds and dried fruit. We also got traditional sardines with roasted potatoes and a tomato salad. The tiger prawns were very tasty and would highly recommend.

Came for breakfast which was quite nice . Staff however , were not friendly, particularly the guy who seemed to be in charge . Once seated and order taken we were pretty much ignored. The worst thing though were the number of flies that just didn’t leave us alone. Obviously can’t blame the restaurant for that but considering we spent most of our time there trying to swot them away no one from the restaurant came over to say anything at all about it , even to sympathise would have been nice! You would think that perhaps they could invest in some sort of fly deterrent device. After we had eaten no one bothered to remove the dirty plates so we just left the flies to help themselves to what was left . Not nice , don’t think I’ll be going back ,

We enjoyed the food that we had and the ambience. We got the grilled tiger prawns which came with delicious French fries, and a Thai wild rice which included almonds and dried fruit. We also got traditional sardines with roasted potatoes and a tomato salad. The tiger prawns were very tasty and would highly recommend.