It might not look like it from the photo, but there was torrential rain in Funchal when I was there and so I decided to head into a restaurant for lunch. This smoked meat restaurant was well reviewed online and had some craft beer so that’s the one that I opted for.
The decor was modern and comfortable, but as I was the only diner in the restaurant I decided to sit in one of the more decadent booths. I remained the only person in the venue until just before leaving, so I’m not sure that this was one of the more profitable lunch-time services that they’ve offered.
The restaurant had a beer fridge so I went to investigate that and this is the Vila Maria from Oitava Colina. It’s a blonde beer from this Lisbon based brewery, the beer was soft, gentle and inoffensive.
I went for the blue cheese burger with bacon and this surprised and delighted me. The burger was tender, the bacon had a richness of taste and the gherkin added some texture. The chips were suitably salty and the blue cheese on the burger added some punch to the whole arrangement.
I went for some of the local lager on draft, this is the Coral, and it had some slight sweetness although was ultimately a bit generic and unexciting. I do like trying at least one local beer and Coral was the only one that I could find.
I really rather liked this venue and the atmosphere was comfortable even though it wasn’t exactly packed with customers. The service was friendly and the food and drink all met my expectations.