Maria Matos Mariscos - Nazare

I understand that a lot of reviews about this restaurant were not great. I would like to provide a different view point. The restaurant is located in a bit of a back street of the main restaurants in Nazaré beach. We found it because one of the other restaurants in the main stretch just waved us away and boy we were so happy the manager at the other restaurant decided not to serve us because we found a gem. The lunch specials had grilled Sea bass Grilled sea bream at €10 each and grilled sardines at €9. There was a pork special at €10 as well but we decided to order the three fish and a squid prawn skewer for the 4 of us. The specials came with salad and roasted potatoes whilst the skewer €17) came with fries. We were served some amazing bread with 3 different types of condiments and olives with crushed garlic and herbs. The service team spoke very little English but they did their best to communicate with us. When an order didn’t go correctly misunderstanding between bottled beer and draft beer), I corrected them and they happily accommodated. The grilled fish were simply sensational and my family said it was the best meal we had in Portugal since we arrived few days ago. They really knew what they were doing with the fresh produce. We only then checked reviews online and so when the bill came, we studied it. They gave us bread and charge 1,1/2 serve for the 4 of us at €2,50. Olives were €2 and the condiments tuna spread, cheese spread and butter) were €1 each so that the paraphernalia came to €7,50. We thoroughly enjoyed every single bit of that. When we were in Lisbon, the service staff learnt enough to ask if we wanted bread and olives whose prices are clearly listed in the menu. I think you can turn back these side dishes at Maria Matos if you don’t want them. Considering their lunch special is at least €5 less than any other restaurants that is with a 300m walk from them. I would happily pay for that bread and olives in a group of 4 any day.

We were walking around Nazare with many options of restaurants. We decided to sit and have a beer. Within a brief time, we realized that Dona Maria has this restaurant to share here food. Excellent food and everything was reasonably priced.

The mariscada was supposed to be for two people, it was not even for one. The waitress laughed at us when we complained about the situation. Very rude staff, small amount of food, very salty and expensive. Please do not come to this place

We went to this restaurant twice when staying in Nazaré. It was so good. We had the fish soup to start with, then the mixed grilled seafood (kebab style) and the grilled squid. My partner commented the fish soup was the best he’s ever had; I tasted it and agree. Everything was fresh (including the freshest bread I’ve had in Portugal) and really tasty. Big thumbs up to these guys. The staff are lovely and tried to teach us a little Portuguese. We didn’t do great. Unsure why some of the bad reviews, but we had a great experience.

María Isabel friendly and sells a great seafood platter , but when it arrives, it is more like an onion soup with a couple pieces of seafood. The bread was good, but were charged for 3,50 per person for the bread, butter, olives power person.