Cookie Policy

1. What are cookies

Cookies are small text files that a website asks the user’s browser to store on their device. They allow the website to recognise the browser across pages and visits, supporting basic technical functions (session, chosen language, security).

Similar technologies are treated equivalently for these purposes, including localStorage, sessionStorage, and identifiers stored by the browser.

2. Legal framework and approach of this website

The use of cookies is subject to Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC (the ePrivacy Directive), as transposed into Portuguese law by Article 5 of Portuguese Law No. 41/2004, and to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

As a rule, placing or reading cookies requires prior consent from the user, except where the cookies are strictly necessary for the provision of a service expressly requested by the user, or to enable or facilitate communication over an electronic communications network.

This website uses strictly necessary cookies only, listed in section 3. For this reason, we do not display a cookie consent banner — there are no non-essential cookies for which consent would be required.

Audience analytics — we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a traffic measurement tool provided by Cloudflare, Inc., the same provider of the DNS, CDN and security services protecting this website. This tool uses no cookies, writes no information to the user’s device and does not rely on device fingerprinting. It collects aggregate data about pages visited, browser type and traffic source, and does not allow the user to be identified or tracked across different websites. As it involves no access to or storage on the device, it does not fall under Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive and therefore does not require consent; the processing relies on the legitimate interest set out in the Privacy Policy.

Note — we do not use: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta/Facebook Pixel, behavioural advertising cookies, embedded social networks with third-party cookies, interactive Google Maps (we use external links to Google Maps where applicable), reCAPTCHA, or YouTube/Vimeo videos embedded directly in pages (the videos shown on the website are served directly from our servers).

Should this approach change in the future (for example, with the introduction of an analytics tool that uses cookies, or with the inclusion of third-party embeds that use cookies), we will implement an appropriate consent mechanism in advance and update this policy accordingly.

3. Cookies actually used

3.1 Cookies set for general visitors

• __cf_bm — domain .fadoandfood.pt — distinguishing human traffic from automated traffic / mitigating abusive traffic (Cloudflare bot management) — 30 minutes — strictly necessary

The __cf_bm cookie is set by Cloudflare, the CDN and security service provider that protects this website. Cloudflare classifies this cookie as strictly necessary for service integrity. More information at www.cloudflare.com/cookie-policy.

Additionally, in dynamic sessions, Cloudflare may set the cf_clearance cookie (up to 1 year) when the visitor has completed a security challenge against bots.

3.2 Booking page

The booking page embeds the widget of the booking service provider (Zenchef), which may set its own strictly necessary technical cookies for the operation of the booking process. These cookies are only set when the user visits the booking page.

3.3 Languages

The website is available in several languages, served on their own paths (for example, /en/). The language is determined by the URL — no cookies are used to manage the language.

4. How to control and remove cookies

Even though only strictly necessary cookies are used, the user may at any time configure the browser to block or delete them. Warning: blocking strictly necessary cookies may cause parts of the website to stop working correctly (for example, the booking process, or bot protection in dynamic sessions).

To control cookies, refer to your browser’s instructions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).

5. Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated whenever there are changes to the technologies used on the website. The version in force is always the one published, with the date of the last update shown at the top of the document.

6. Contact

Questions about this policy may be directed to [email protected].