Recently, I had heard a lot of people talking about a new restaurant in the Lido area, called Leeno’s. It opened on July 14th and in the space of 2 months had gone to number one on Trip Advisor, beating well know favourites such as The Fort and The Vine. Intrigued, I decided to try it out and went along with a couple of friends so that we could try different things on the menu. The food was good with a good choice on the menu and very well presented, steak on the stone seemed very popular with plenty coming from the kitchen and sizzling as it passed, the staff are very friendly and service was great They were really busy with people waiting outside for a table to come free and this was a Monday night. They also do snacks and you must try the club sandwich. The restaurant is open from early in the morning till late at night, and you will always be greeted with a smile from Lino or Lee. The prices are very good for being in the popular tourist area of Funchal, and with this I can see why they are doing so well. I had a brief chat with Lino Abreu as he was very busy. The restaurant was completely full, and they do two sittings, so as you can imagine he was run off his feet! Lino owns the restaurant with his brother, his father, and Lee da Silva. Lino and Lee are front of house and dad and brother are the chefs. Mum sometimes gets involved in the kitchen too so it really is a family run business. There are a couple of other staff, Dinarte and Nuno but Leeno’s is mainly known for Lino and Lee. When I asked Lino about Trip Advisor, he told me that they were happy but very surprised by such a fast and positive reaction. He said that in all honesty, they were not aiming for that in particular, in fact, they hadn’t even thought about it. He said ‘I don’t come to work to earn points on Trip Advisor, I do the long hours because I truly love my job’. You can see this in the customer service, which was excellent. I have been there in the morning at coffee time, lunchtime and in the evenings and both Lino and Lee are there from early morning until they close, usually around midnight or sometimes later and they are consistently polite, hardworking, pleasant with genuine smiles on their faces. Leeno’s is situated just below the Melia Mare Hotel and is well worth a visit or 3! Book in advance though as they are really popular. All in all, it is good value for money, not expensive and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We will definitely be going back soon!
You can visit the website here www.leenos.pt
Hope you enjoy your visit as much as I did.
