Pousada Zé Maria

We’ve been to Restaurante four times now, and I loved this visit. Our dish was Alquimia, with a beautiful Portuguese wine, and both were wonderful. Paulo’s recommendations for dishes and wine really helped make the experience even better. Rafael’s service was impeccable, and Wil was warm and understanding about our choices.

The care from everyone made our trip even better. A special thank you to Abi at the pool bar and Sandro at breakfast. The whole team worked hard to make the experience feel perfect. An excellent guesthouse.

The energy at Zé Maria is so good 😍 Our room was spacious and spotless, and breakfast was impeccable. Such a great experience.

The rooms are comfortable, though there’s no real luxury, which is fine for staying on a rustic island. The problem is the service. They open the restaurant to outside guests and leave hotel guests without attention. The pool restaurant doesn’t operate at the hours advertised, and even when the other restaurant is open to non-guests, there’s no room service. You pay for a “roteiro de charme” stay but can’t even order a sandwich to your room because the whole guesthouse is busy serving people at the restaurant. These days, Zé Maria’s guesthouse seems to be the secondary business, while Restaurante do Zé maria is the main focus. My tip: stay somewhere without the fancy name but with comfortable rooms, then come spend the day at the restaurant.