REVIEW: A Tasca, Ponta Delgada – December 2025

Cost: 60€, dinner for two
Rating: 5 stars

Sometimes, in Portugal, we’re just looking for a place that’s open, because we still eat dinner much earlier than Europeans. But other times, what we find is a memorable seafood meal that has us pinching ourselves and asking “How did we luck into this?”

A Tasca is a seafood restaurant midway between casual and elegant, where you don’t feel like you’re at a hole-in-the-wall, but you can relax about still wearing your touring clothes. We walked in just as it was opening, which seems possible in winter. By the time we left, the place was full, both of people and lively conversation, so I suspect you need reservations in high season. Our bill was around 60 Euros for soup, wine, entrees and coffee for two.

We began with the usual vegetable soup, which is a thickened assortment of winter legumes. If I say it was usual, it’s because you can get this soup everywhere in Portugal in winter, and it’s always good. So nothing stood out with this one but that’s okay.

I ordered the grilled fish of the day, which was lirio, a species I’d never heard of. It came with boiled potatoes and a lightly-sauteed cabbage salad. The fish was a revelation, skin lightly charred and lemon-sharp, encasing firm white meat. It’s a good thing the fish bones slowed me down or I would’ve inhaled it in 30 seconds. As it was, some surreptitious sucking fish bones clean might have happened. The boiled potatoes were just a little heavy, especially after the soup, but the salad was a nice texture balance.

The waitstaff were friendly and spoke decent English (not that it’s necessary, but seems worthwhile to note). Given the energy of the place when we left, I’d love to come back with a group for drinks and tapas sometime. A quiet, romantic spot it is not!

I would highly recommend A Tasca to anyone I know who’s going to the Azores, and I myself will be back someday for that fish. Five out of five.