NOT Food Reviews

EDITOR, Hi I would like to respond to letter from an anonymous reader.

1. I write RESTAURANT reviews (that’s also the title above the reviews), and not FOOD reviews, as this reader has written big above his letter.

2. I rate the restaurant on 4 points: 1. Ambiance 2. Staff service, 3. price level, 4. food. The average of these 4 is my final grade. So food is only 1/4 part.

3. The fact that I would give restaurants where you can buy meat (which is the case with 99% of the restaurants on Hotspots Algarve) a bad rating is provably nonsense. My top 100 consists of 99.9% restaurants where you can buy meat, and they have high ratings from 8 to 9.8.

4. His comment that I only review expensive restaurants, is nonsense! 50% of the restaurants on Hotspots Algarve is $$, 30% is $ (mains under 12.50) and only 20% is $$$$.

4. He indicates that I would only do Michelin-star restaurants. But there are only 8 of them as you know.. And I now have 216 restaurant reviews on hotspots...

5. That I can’t review all aspects of the menu: No reviewer can. No one eats EVERYTHING from the menu. You try a main dish, and maybe a starter and or dessert. That’s how I do it.

I make reviews about the nicest RESTAURANTS, in terms of atmosphere, staff, price and (for 25%) the food. Nice places where you can eat, whether you eat vegetarian or not. I enjoy sharing my experiences. I am not paid by anyone for this work. Food is just my passion, so I do everything for free and voluntarily.

Peter Cruiming - HotspotsAlgarve.com

Septic Tank Cleaning

Editor, Further to a letter from Andrew Cartwright regarding his tank cleaning.

Living up in the hills above São Brás we obviously have no mains sewerage. We have been told by the Câmera, (after months of asking), “No we cannot do the fossa its too dangerous for the men”.

I then went to the private contractor who told me they are getting a lot of people in the hills in the same position. Maybe get the environmental officials involved because having overflowing sewerage on your land is disgusting.

Julie McGill, By email

Re: Navigator wants more eucalyptus plantations in Portugal

EDITOR, Eucalyptus is a thirsty plant and Portugal is not a tropical country where rain is abundant all year round. With hardly any rain in the summer, eucalyptus plantations are making the water scarcity crisis worse. Then there’s the forest fires. If Nautilus wants more plantations, they should build a few desalination plants first.

James, Algarve

EDITOR, Corporate greed. With all the profit they have, what have they done to help prevent forest fires? It’s their loss too. With all the profit they have, how much did they donate to fire departments all over the country? All take and no give...

Valter, Beiras


Let him grow them beside his/her own house. Not destroy areas others live in with fire and zero wildlife.

By Steff (location withheld)