Text José Silva | Translation Bruno Ferreira

The Monumental road makes the connection between the Funchal centre and the Lido area. A place where most of the 5 stars hotels and some of the most sought out resorts are located. Confined by sea, with a rocky coastline provides us beautiful walks and amazing views, among which the local sea water pools that are directly connected to the sea.

It’s also a modern area with several shopping centres and a great variety of restaurants, whether belonging to hotel complexes or the independent ones. Also many bars most of which are open throughout the night. There’s great professionals of the sector in Madeira, many of them in the business nowadays .

One of those professionals assembled some years ago, on Monumental road, a space that rapidly turned into an icon of Madeiran gastronomy, the Chalet Vicente.

This space results from the careful renewal of a small palace, which was well adapted to the restaurant sector. Has various rooms, each one with its specific functions. Some of them are really beautiful dining rooms, nicely decorated, with warm tones, traditional furniture and well-set tables.

There is a big terrace, very welcoming, where you can also enjoy a good meal. Behind the counter we can find hundreds of bottles and a griller always red hot where fine pieces of meat are cooked. Across, another counter that opens for lunch, on a daily basis, with a nice buffet. The service is impeccable and is in charge of good professionals, very well guided.

The menu is extense but nevertheless on this Blend visit we started with the traditional Caco Cake, with plenty of butter and garlic, still hot and delicious accompanied by a salad of tender and tasty octopus. The wine was “Madeira 5 anos Rainwater Reserva”, a great match.

Then we had two types of fresh salads, very well achieved: one with broccoli, carrot, corn and zucchini – all boiled – the other had a base of arugula and lettuce, surmounted with banana, papaya, mango and pineapple, accompanied by a simple mayonnaise.

One of Madeira’s traditional fishes is tuna. It was served to us very fresh and in generous chunks, stewed in a thick and tasty sauce along sautéed sweet potatoes with cane honey and fried corn cubes. A delicious combination.

Then came two meat dishes, already traditional when in “Chalet Vicente”: Stewed rabbit and stewed goatling, both quite tender, with tasteful and tempered sauce, baked potatoes and choice possibility of white rice.

Both were served on the table in iron pans that kept the food warm – a tradition which is being brought back with great success.

We drank a red “Terras do Avô”, very balanced, secure and with great structure.
For dessert we had a trilogy of some of the house’s treats, chocolate eaten with spoon, delicious passion fruit mousse and Santo cottage cheese with pumpkin and nuts.

Next was a traditional milk custard, toasted on top.
This is a restaurant where Madeira wines are constantly divulged so we couldn’t end the meal without tasting another one of these nectars. This time it was a 10 years Mid-Sweet from D’Oliveiras, one of the houses with larger tradition when in it comes to Madeira wines production. Refreshed, served with rigor, an ending full of tradition.

Contacts
Restaurante Chalet Vicente
Estrada Monumental, 238
9000-100 Funchal
Madeira, Portugal
Portugal
Tel: (+351) 291765818
Mobile: (+351) 967793903
E-mail: chaletvicente@sapo.pt