Caloura Bar Esplanada

We were told about this place from someone else staying at our hotel in Furnas, and I am so glad they did.
First of all, the restaurant is situated in a little cove near Lagoa on the south side of the island. There is plenty of outdoor seating, and the view is awesome.
But the food is even better. They have a fairly limited menu, but they have daily fresh fish specialties. The day we went, the specials included fresh swordfish, barracuda, grey triggerfish, mullet, and 2 – 3 other varieties of fish that I can’t remember at the moment. If you order the fish special, it costs 12 euro and in addition to a really good sized fillet, there is a very simple salad bar where you can serve yourself.
The food was absolutely outstanding. I had never had grey triggerfish before, and thought it was delicious. But I was absolutely blown away by the barracuda. I live in Florida and here you can’t eat barracuda due to the threat of ciguatera (a toxin in coral reefs that builds up through the food chain). But because Sao Miguel isn’t in a tropical location and there aren’t any warm water coral reefs, there’s no need to worry about ciguatera, and I would have to say that the barracuda was probably one of the best fish meals I’ve ever had in my entire life. That and the fact that it was only 12 euro per entrée, in addition to the great view, makes this a restaurant that needs to be visited.

Pick a table with a view of the ocean, it is a quite stunning view from here. After being seated, your server will take you to view and make a selection of freshly caught fish. My wife and I each picked a different fish to try, but honestly we should have just shared because the serving sizes were huge! They were both deliciously grilled to perfection!

Wunderschöné Lage, sehr freundliches und um den Gast bemühtes Personal. Frischer Fisch, den man sich vor der Zubereitung ansehen und aussuchen kann. Salatbar zur freien Auswahl zum Hauptgericht eher einfach gehalten. Schmackhafte kostenlose Vorspeise. Sehr moderate Preise. Ordentlicher Wein.
Insgesamt, schon wegen seines maritimen Charakters unbedingt empfehlenswertes Restaurant.

By far our favorite meal while we were in Sao Miguel. It was so good that we decided to go back for lunch our last day before going to the airport. Everything was fresh. No print menu, just a board that tells you what was caught that day. I had the tuna one day and then the triggerfish. Both were excellent. We had grilled lapas both times and they were the best we had on the island. I highly recommend to anyone visiting. At 12 € a plate (including the salad buffet) you can’t go wrong.

This was probably our favorite dinner during our visit to Sao Miguel. It’s hard to say what was the best part — the view and sounds of the sea crashing against the wall where we sat, or picking the fresh fish from their case and enjoying it’s flaky fresh deliciousness!
It comes with the standard potatoes and salad bar that we found all over the finer restaurants of the Azores. We enjoyed the fancy presentation of our bottles of ginger ale poured into wine glasses. Finally, somebody didn’t look down on us for not ordering wine.
I was tempted to try dessert but didn’t bring a sweater, and it gets quite cold on the water at night (duh).
The check was presented in a book (all the Sao Miguel restaurants have unique check presentation — no little leather books here), and we couldn’t believe our eyes. 12 euros each for dinner, and a couple more for sodas. I wish we could eat like this in the US!
It got quite busy and our server was rather slow in collecting our dishes, but that’s probably how all Americans feel in Europe.

Located at the end of a small winding road and overlooking a tiny bay bordered by a sheer rock wall, Bar Caloura boasts one of the better views on Sao Miguel. During the warmer summer months I’ve a sneaking suspicion this is the place.
The food here is not extraordinary, but when you see the size of the business and especially the kitchen, that makes sense. They probably lack the space to host an extensive menu. So they settle on a few things and do them well.
Among those is their fish. From what I could tell, the offerings are subject to whatever the local fishermen bring in that day or the day before. On my visit, it was barracuda. The fillet laid before me would have been way too much for one person. That is not a complaint.
I was not a big fan of the limpets. They reminded me of tough oysters, although here you still have to spoon out the entrails, otherwise the taste gets ruined. But many tourists and Azoreans love them, evidently. To each his own.

Geniales Fischrestaurant und Bar.
Durch die Lage direkt am Hafen gibt es immer frischen Fisch.
Der Likör ist ebenfalls empfehlenswert.