JJ - Santa Cruz Da Graciosa

This is a good restaurant on the island that is just next the peer. evryone is nice and the food is good quality for the standards of the island.

When considering Azorean restaurants, especially those on small islands, please remember that basically the choice is fish or meat. And that everything is dependent upon availability.JJ is found behind a small bar - in fact you enter via the lobby for the toilets. However, the welcome was friendly and the food fresh and good. As we were staying nearby for 5 nights we ate here 4 times. And we were treated really nicely. I'm sorry, I don't know the owner's name, but on discovering that there was no alcantara on the menu which he wanted us to try (a local speciality) he was really disappointed. The next night there it was - and it had clearly been made by a local and was very good.This is a very very traditional Azorean restaurant, and I give it 100% for being good at it.

The café in front serves snacks until 19.30ish - waitress was kind of grumpy the times we where there, and the sandwiches she put together was not exactly made with love and care :)Anyway, the back restaurant is ok, we had a good fish of the day and the owner was really attentive and nice. The glasses weren't clean which made the overall impression lower.

Just for the record. This restaurant is actually in S.Mateus/Praia and not in Santa Cruz.The location is spot right in front of the sea but you don't see it because of a wall that protects the street from the high waves. We found the space ok with it's two different back rooms. Nothing fancy but that was not our expectation. The service was really specials. There is an extremely nice lady that rally gives very good smiling service. As most of the day specials were no longer available we ordered the Red Fish assuming it would a good option given the location. It was indeed. Very good and served with a nice variety of vegetables. The price was not on the menu. After ordering we were told the fish were big and if we thought ne would be enough for two. We ordered that one fish which was, let me say it again very good. In the end we paid over forty euros (with 2 cokes and 1 desert). It was expensive but then most things on the islands are way over priced and we were aware of that. Now, reading previous reviewers we realise that this "fish by the kilo" seems to be a routine...Anyway there aren't many options here...so...but it was definitely too much for what we had...in spite of the good service.