not impressed at all!

[pato]

With two of the allegedly top places in CVO namely La Bella Vita and Maximes, mind you the old chef was off on our visit and Maximes was a disappointment, hope the fact that he's taken the Cvo bar on isn't affecting his reputation, he had a boy, yes he must have been about 14 years old acting as a waiter, we asked for the Wine menue and he wasn't sure what that was, we waited 2 hours to be served, I complained and they said they'd misplaced the order, not what I'd expect from an establishment with their reputation, when the food eventually arrived I felt it was inferior to their usual fare. La Bella, well, we ordered wine from the wine list and enjoyed it so much we asked for another, "sorry we only had one bottle" c'mon, in La Bella!, the food was mediocre when it arrived to be honest, I'd taken friends there to impress them, embarrassing! to say the least!

[Mike,Chislehurst]

What night of the week was this pato and which restaurant was the chef off. Great shame

[pato]

What night of the week was this pato and which restaurant was the chef off. Great shame

Wednesday at LBV.

[soulman]

Just returned from our trip to Carvoeiro. Thought the changes to the square were OK but somewhat out of character with the rest of the town, however we were amazed at the number of drunken teenagers wandering around the centre on a night. We remember Carvoeiro as more of a couples family type resort, but this seemed more like Albufeira.

Anyway we also visited Maximes this time, and were not impressed. The food was pleasant and nicely presented as we remembered, although a bit pricey, but our local morgue has more atmosphere. I think had we been able to speak Dutch we would have felt and been made to feel more welcome in the place, because the owner was nearly falling over himself to look after a group of four Dutch clients who came in and yet he totally ignored us, apart from when we asked for the bill.

We also went into the owner's bar (Carvoeiro Bar) next door and this was as bad, no atmosphere and the guy who now runs the place should realise that if you are a non smoker the last thing you want is to see him puffing away behind the bar, also the girl who works for him should allow her customers to sit down before pouncing and asking what we wanted to drink. Maybe they were so quiet because it was Sunday, or maybe they are desperate for business, but whichever it is we stayed for one drink and left. We remember this place as being very popular last time we were here with great 60's/70's music, and friendly staff... what happened?

We tried a few other bars during our holiday, Boa Vida (quite nice), Mungos (lot's of youngsters), Bradys (Irish but no Irish staff!!!!) and a massive new Irish place Black Stove (we were asked to leave the upstairs terrace at 10 o'clock and then have to stand indoors downstairs because they had some second rate musician playing and no seats available).

Other restaurants we tried, Casa Algarvia, A Rede, Happys and the Indian & Chinese at the upper end of Estrada Farol, all had good atmosphere and the prices were reasonable except for the indian which seemed very expensive, but during our two weeks stay I think we spent as much time eating and drinking at the villa as we did going out. Something of a first for us.

With so many luxury villas/apartments around, we thought that the infrastructure would be there to support them, but Carvoeiro now lacks quality places to eat and certainly good bars, and it is offering a 3 star package at 5 star prices.

Some friends who we came over with and who spend several weeks a year here said that they had noticed a drop in standards but a big rise in prices over the last couple of years, and thought Carvoeiro was losing it's charm.

[R.Wethereyet]

We have eaten in Maximes several times and it is always a quiet/hushed atmosphere, although we prefer that sometimes.
The food however is always very good, but I feel his menu is somewhat limited.
Edwin, his son, used to work in Maximes, but now runs Carvoeiro Bar.