madeira4u - Leisure - Cafés, Bars, Pubs, & Snack Bars on Madeira & Porto Santo
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| Use the side bar menu to find your category, or use the search box. If you want to find a bar in Funchal, use the keywords BAR FUNCHAL |
| The Madeiran 'Café Culture' Cafés and Bars form a huge part of the social life enjoyed by many Madeirans and Portuguese people. As well as a simple and often practical way of feeding and hydrating yourself, the bigger role is the social environment it provides, with friends and family, business acquaintances and anybody else who might turn up! This life is generally a daytime affair, with little if any alcohol being consumed, but plenty of very strong black coffee in very small cups. Most of this socialising takes place daily outside the numerous cafes and bars that are spread out across the island, weather permitting of course, and mostly during the day. At nighttime, especially later on, it is more normal to see younger people, often with children but still sitting outdoors. Again, drinking mostly coffee and juices. The opening times of most the bars, pubs and cafés is pretty universal, and usually pretty early, but the closing times vary from town to town and from establishment to establishment, with the bars further away from residential areas usually having later closing times. All bars / pubs / cafes sell alcoholic drinks, but they would normally represent the smaller part of the days trade where coffee, juices and snacks give the owners their main income. Not so much these days (unless you ask), the staff will give you a dish of something to eat with your drink, known as 'dentinhos', something like the tapas bars of Spain do. Sometimes you will be given a small plate of yellow beans (tromoços), or salted peanuts or monkey nuts, others may give you something hot like tripe, or chicken hearts, or 'patinhas' (pigs feet). Many of the bars have TVs, but most people don't watch them unless there is a big football match on. The prices in bars, pubs & cafes vary enormously around Madeira, and going from one extreme of a café in a busy tourist area in Funchal, to a small bar in a small Madeiran village, exactly the same drink could cost you half as much, maybe less. At the lower end of the scale, a small beer should cost between 80 cents and €1, a large white coffee 70 to 90 cents, a bottled juice or cola probably €1 or just under, a large shot of spirits between €1 and €2, depending on the measure and spirit chosen. The food is limited in choice, burger and steak sandwiches being more popular with the locals on Madeira, but you can buy your lunch for between €3 and €5 as long as you don't stray from the regular menu or the dish of the day which should have it's own price marked up. The prices discussed above are the prices you should pay and those normally advertised or listed somewhere in view, but legally, owners of bars, pubs & cafes are permitted to charge a service charge if they take your order and serve you outside, and normally this would be as little as 10 cents a drink, but some owners or their waiting staff take this to new levels by adding 50% or 100% or more onto a drinks bill, and this is a big problem with foreigners whether they realise it or not. Normally with food there is never a problem, and most bars, pubs and cafés do employ honest staff. Another favourite trick is to take your €5 note, and 'forget' to give you the change, unless you ask for it of course, so you should keep an eye open for these small but annoying and costly tricks. The staff and the customers in the Madeira bars & pubs are generally helpful, friendly and understanding, and you will see this manifest itself in different forms, from the busy city centre bars & cafés to the remote snack bar in the middle of nowhere. You ought to experience this for yourself. |
| Tips To Avoid Being 'Had' 1. Use the bars / pubs you know and trust. The establishments with our pink 'madeira4u' stickers have agreed to our terms and conditions, which hopefully will help eliminate such bad habits. 2. Order your drink at the bar, and make a mental note if you see the price list (which should be displayed). Likewise, if you order anything from the menu. By law, these establishments are permitted to charge more for outside service. The chances are the locals will not be charged this, or if they are it will be 10 or 20 cents per drink. However, some pubs / bars / cafes will mark up huge amounts in order to charge foreigners more. See MORE HERE 3. Where convenient, pay your bill inside the bar / pub / cafe, and check your change. 4. If you don't see a bill and are unhappy with the amount charged , ask the bar man or pub manager for a 'recibo', and check that what is printed is correct. 5. If you want to ask for the manager, ask ..... "quero falar com o gerente" 6. As a last resort, ask for the 'Livro de Reclamacões' (complaints book), and that should resolve matters. A final warning, some bars / pubs / cafes & restaurants have tills that can produce different priced bills / receipts for the same item! |
| You may find information of interest under the sections 'Entertainment & Leisure', 'Excursions & Trips', 'Restaurants', & 'Major Attractions' on our advertising pages. |
| if there is anything you would like to see in this section for bars, pubs and cafes on Madeira, or have any new suggestions for a topic, please email feedback@madeira4u.com |
| Leisure - Cafés, Bars, Pubs & Snack Bars On Madeira |
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