We’ve had our share of good and meh restaurants in the Azores, but Faial had it all. The service is very peculiar here, we had one restaurant begrudgingly let us back in after dinner to sit at an empty table with a bottle of wine during a sudden rainstorm (why not take additional money from paying customers?). Another very nice place had the most inept, untrained staff, where our experience started with ’we have no fish of the day’ (we were sitting in front of docks where the fishermen unload daily), to the inability to get lights to work as the sun set, leaving us to eat by the glow of the swimming pool (they eventually found us candles). No restaurant has carried our favorite local wine, even though they list it on their menu, and it’s on the shelves in the mercado across the street. You learn to smile at island life and move on.
Two restaurants, however, stood out. Taberna do Pim, at the edge of the beach, found us seats at 9:30 pm in their cozy dining room (who needs the view, we see the water every day). We proceeded to have the best alcatra (pot roast specialty) I’ve had anywhere in the islands, and a steak in the most amazing beer-brandy-mustard sauce that had us licking our plates.
The other was Pasquinas, on the other side of the island with the most spectacular view of both Sao Jorge and Graciosa islands. Mark and Minda’s local friends George and Lijia took us there one night, to show just how good local Portuguese food can be. It was all fabulous, but Minda’s caramel almond mousse and Trip’s passionfruit mousse sealed the deal.
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