CombatCritic's TravelValue™

Monday, August 15, 2022

Olhão, Faro, Portugal: All Aboard ... Catch The Train To Petiscais Before It Leaves The Station

Petiscais

Av. Dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra

Cais Coberto da Estação dos Comboios de Olhão

Olhão 8700-440 Portugal

Phone: +351 918 707 936

Website: petiscais.pt

€€€€

Petiscais is located adjacent to the Olhão train station, so you might think that it would be very noisy, especially on their large, covered patio, but the local trains coast into the station and stop next to the restaurant, so the interruptions are minimally invasive. My wife did not even notice that two trains arrived and departed during our meal.

The menu is eclectic, having Portuguese classics with an international flair, pastas, meat dishes, fish, and even burgers. The prices are a bit high by Portuguese standards with entrees ranging from €10 to €38, but the food is tastefully presented and very good.

We started with the standard olives and fresh bread, accompanied by three spreads, butter, a mild tuna flavored butter pate, and hummus-style spread (€5).

For my main, I had the stewed pork cheeks (€16) in a plum sauce sitting tastefully atop a good portion of mashed potatoes and garnished with fresh herbs. The pork was tender, the sauce delicious and not overly sweet, and the potatoes firm, yet creamy. The portion was quite substantial and I left pleasantly satiated, but not stuffed.

My wife had the steak with beer sauce (€10), but being tomato intolerant, the chef kindly substituted the beer sauce, containing a hint of tomato, with a thinned, creamy gorgonzola sauce. The steak was good, the sauce a bit too runny, and the house-made 'chips', actually more like potato chips than fries. It was accompanied by a small, tasty salad on the same plate. For the price, she was quite pleased.

Our friends both had a pasta dish, bigoli pasta tossed with prawns and herbs in a unique sauce reminiscent of many Thai dishes I have had over the years.

The service was good, friendly, and everyone seemed to speak at least some English. The building itself appears to have been fashioned out of an old station warehouse updated into a comfortable dining room and large kitchen. The patio is also quite large with its own small bar.

Being just a short walk from our home, I was pleasantly pleased with our meal and wish we would have tried Petiscais much sooner than we did, having curtailed our restaurant ventures due to COVID and other unforecasted life events.

CombatCritic Gives Petiscais 9 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Nine Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "U.S. Marine Response To A Verbal Greeting Or As An Expression Of Enthusiasm"

MENU

Friday, August 12, 2022

Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz, Spain: Mehbe I Walked Too Far For The Mexican Food At El Villano

El Villano

Calle de las Magnolias, 37 11500

El Puerto de Santa María, Spain

Phone: +34 956 853 845

Wesbite: N/A

Prices: €€€€

I walked one kilometer to eat here because, first, parking was impossible to find near my hotel and did not want to give up my space, and, second, the menu and photos made it appear that the food was nearly authentic Mexican.

The server spoke a little English, so I ordered a small pitcher of margarita, a half-order of nachos (€4.75) , and the Tacos Tijuana (€11.00).

The margarita was too sweet and had little alcohol. Meh!

The server told me that I could not order just chips and salsa and I thought he said that I could order a 'half' order of nachos, but when the nachos arrived, it was a full order (€9.50), obviously a miscommunication, so I let it slide. The chili was not bad and it came with a small cup of green salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo, but the chips were not house-made as appearing in the photos I saw, they were Tostitos. Had I known, I would not have bothered. Meh #2!

The tacos arrived looking pretty good, four corn tortillas with a decent portion of carne asada and a liquified guacamole with small cups of green salsa and pico de gallo. They were pretty tasty, but four small tacos for €11.00 was not exactly a TravelValue.

Overall, the food was decent, not great, and the service good, so I will go easy on them even though I was told the chef was from Tijuana.

Meh...be I should not have walked so far for what I got.

CombatCritic Gives El Villano 5 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Five Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "Continue Mission"

MENU

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Cabanas (Faro), Portugal: The Golf Course Is The Last Priority At Benamor Golf

Benamor Golf

Qta. de Benamor 8800-067

Tavira, Portugal

Phone: 281 320 880

www.Benamor.com

Prices: €€€€

In my second year as a member, I liked the course and friendly staff at first, but course conditions have plummeted over the past year and management could care less.

The staff are still wonderful and many of the members friendly, but the sand traps have become unplayable with little or no sand under the ball, making bunker shots a nightmare. Bunkers are called hazards for a reason because even under the best of circumstances they are a challenge. The sand, if there is any, is routinely hard as a rock due to inaccurate sprinkler placement with water accumulating in many of them. When the grounds crew drag the bunkers, the 'sand' hardens and it is easy to blade a shot over the green. The sand is low quality and more like dirt in the first place with various size rocks embedded throughout. What a nightmare!

The course layout itself is OK, a decent layout, but the fairways receive zero maintenance (rototilling, verticutting, sanding, etc.) so what grass there is has become dense and plays like hardpan. The greens are the best part of the course with regular maintenance and are challenging, but fair.

The clubhouse and patio are old, but nice and the food is pretty good.

There is a golf club just five minutes away, Quinta da Ria, which has two fantastic courses, with wonderful sand, lush fairways, and excellent greens as well as a practice facility that is the best I have found in the Algarve. The annual membership is comparable in price to Benamor, but you can play three quality courses - Quinta da Ria, Quinta da Cima, and Quinta do Vale, another great Seve Ballesteros course - making it no comparison when I move my membership there next January.

Benamor management just does not seem to care about members or the course. They have been given ample feedback about course conditions, but ignore input from members and focus more on wasting time and money on menial and irrelevant tasks like building a croquet court, while closing the member's putting and chipping green for months, and raking dirt areas and removing grass unnecessarily. That is what happens when golf-ignorant people run a golf course!

CombatCritic Gives Benamor Golf 3 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Three Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "Situation Normal, All Fucked Up"

Pages - CombatCritic's "TravelValue"

Follow Me To TravelValue!

Vancouver, WA: Operation Schnitzel: Gustav’s Remains a Trusted Rally Point