Joao Belhi - Alcoutim

I've been to this restaurant on previous visits, but it seems to have changed hands. Not for the better, sadly. I ordered the octopus curry, but the presentation was, quite frankly, unappetizing. Just a chunky yellow puddle with a mound of rice in the middle. But I persevered and tasted it. It was quite tasty, but if I hadn't been told it was a curry, I would not have known. To me, there was no discernible curry flavour. And it was very light on the octopus, which also had no discernible flavour. To make my meal even more disappointing, I had chosen the wrong table. I sat outside, but the waiter (no doubt well meaning) stood in the doorway a meter away from me almost the entire time. I felt I was under scrutiny throughout the entire meal. I was so uncomfortable that I ate quickly and left...only 25 minutes from sitting down to leaving. One of the pleasures of a Tavira lunch is taking time over a meal. Not here. For the first time, I felt no regret NOT leaving a tip. Neither the food, nor the service, nor the price warranted one. A small (25 cl) water was €2, which is the most I paid in any other restaurant for a small bottle. Sorry to have to leave a negative review, but with so many fabulous restaurants in Tavira, I'll give this one a miss in future.

Adoramos o arroz do pó, o atendimento foi impecável e rápido

A cataplana de polvo é excelente. Como aperitivo comemos camarões que não eram muito saborosos mas estavam frescos. Sobremesas caseiras muito boas. Funcionários prestativos e atenciosos. Preços que eu voltaria

As can be seen from the photo of the outside this is not a fancy restaurant. However, the food was good and the staff friendly. The food is concentrated around octopus as the name suggests but there are other choices available. We had octopus stew with rice and fettuccini. Both were very tasty.

We stopped here for dinner our first evening in Tavira. It’s located on a busy spot on the waterfront. Not fancy but the food was delicious. We shared an octopus salad large serving easily satisfies two people and my wife had the traditional swordfish while I had octopus paella. Through miscommunication, we also had the octopus appetizer. The mistake was ours alone. Way too much food but each dish was really tasty. We paired it with a good white wine. Others were there because they had read about this place. We simply tripped over it.