To disarm someone—Desarma—could be seen as taking them by surprise. And that’s exactly what happens at Desarma. The restaurant is chef Octávio Freitas’s fine dining flagship on his native Madeira—the first locally-helmed and locally-owned Michelin star recipient on the island.
Desarma occupies space inside the four-star, family-friendly Views Baía hotel in the touristic Lido area of Funchal, which is part of the locally owned Views chain of big resorts and all-inclusives. Perhaps that’s not the place one would look for Michelin-approved gastronomy.
But that’s where the disarming begins. Reaching the hotel’s top floor and stepping into an artfully decorated dining room comes as a bit of a (very welcome) surprise. The visual centerpiece of the room is the large open kitchen—about 100 square meters—where Freitas and his team work over a custom Morrone stove. The work area is surrounded by counters made of Breccia Pontificia marble, where eight guests each night get a front-row seat on their meals being prepared.
Guests at that counter are served a 12-course tasting menu, nine of which are planned and three of which are improvised depending on the chefs’ market haul and moods. (Vegetarians are out of luck here.) In the main dining room, whose decoration celebrates banana cultivation in Madeira, guests have a choice of two menus: six or nine courses.
In either case, there are plenty of riffs on local gastronomy. The first “moment” on both includes bites of island staples like black scabbard fish, limpets, and tuna. But here it’s the fish’s roe rather than flesh, and the limpets are dried and paired with dry-aged beef tartare. More local fish, meat, and vegetables appear later in the menu.
Wine pairings are available, and the list is impressive. It’s made up of mostly Portuguese labels and has a special emphasis on the island’s namesake product. It’s said to be the world’s largest selection of Madeiras on a restaurant wine list.
For more information, visit the Desarma website.
Desarma
The Views Baía
Rua das Maravilhas 74
Funchal
Phone: +351 291 700 220
Email: info@desarma.pt
Seating Hours: Wednesday to Saturday – 19:00 to 21:00
