Service review insights for Portugal

2026 opinion: WARNING: Potential food poisoning hazard!! We had Octopus & tomato rice, an hour later both got extreme food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhea and fever that lasted for several hours. We are here before and loved it. I truly hope this was a singular situation, but your food put two adults through hell. 2021 opinion: The best seafood ive ever had in my life. The octopus is to die for. The staff is crazy nice. Spare a dime and treat yourself.

5 course meal that emphasises SLOW cooking. Service is inconsistent between diner groups. As a solo diner, I was seated at the bar next to a pair of friends. At first, the server that guided me to the seat was friendly but as the night progressed, it gets progressively harder to get any server attention except when they are serving food. For my 7PM reservation: 6.45PM - Arrived 6.53PM - served bread and spreads 6.58PM - explained about “surprise menu” and given the drinks menu. Asked for recommendation with the food. She offered white wine. 7.05PM - couple next to me arrived 7.31PM - served tuna tartare (very yummy) 7.44PM - served this pork & tuna meatball - like starter (interesting, I like the flavour) 8.08PM - served clams (nothing special, not particularly delicious) 8.30PM - served codfish with pumpkin purée (can get at any other Portuguese restaurant) 8:55PM - served braised beef cheeks (super tender, but not flavourful nor fragrant enough) 9:38PM - served dessert - lemon mouse (10mins after I asked for it, and it wasn’t great) From the timeline, they seem to serve food at 20-40mins intervals. Very inconsistent and for most part of the evening, it was spent waiting for food to arrive. Yes 5 courses, but manageable serving sizes (even for ladies). I really don’t understand the great ratings and reviews. Will not recommend for solo dinners. They seem to thrive off group energy. For solo dinners, they pay you no attention and it was hard to get their attention. The difference was striking to me as they kept making conversation with the loud girls next to me and when explaining dishes, the servers always want to do it for the group of 3 at the bar but the whole time, they only make eye contact with the 2 girls and chit chat with them. This felt rude and off-putting. Even asking for a small dish for the clam shells was challenging. Either the server’s English proficiency is lacking, or she simply could not care less to help. At checkout, the server asked for feedback but it only seemed procedural. I commented that food is good but was much slower than expected. She only replied that it’s a 2-hour dinner. (lol I got surprised when I saw the timestamp of my photos)… Also, the bar seat is a bad idea as your hair and clothes will stink of the kitchen smells / torches for cocktails.

1 hour of waiting in full sun.. then 2 people arrive in front of the restaurant without respecting the queue and the restaurant manager lets them in without respecting the waiting order. Very unpleasant staff to avoid!

45 minutes waiting for young children. Run away. After two claims. They can't provide the service. They should warn of wait times.

Unfriendly service, unhelpful, incompetent, slow, poorly organized...

Review rating: 2.0

AVOID!!! WE GOT ATTACKED BY THE MAN IN CHARGE OF THE KEYS. The concierge of this appart hotel is outright dangerous, rude and very condescending. He kicked us and tried to hit my husband with a sharp object. We wanted to check out on Sunday morning and called him several times on the fix and the mobile without him responding. Also sent him an sms without an answer. He finally called us in the late afternoon, shouting like crazy on the phone that we had to give him the keys immediately. We went back to the appartment and when we wanted to hand over the keys he attacked us, kicking us, called us the f* words, and even tried to hit my husband with a sharp object. He finally walked off as the whole neighbourhood got alerted. This man is very dangerous!!!

Review rating: 1.0

2026 opinion: WARNING: Potential food poisoning hazard!! We had Octopus & tomato rice, an hour later both got extreme food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhea and fever that lasted for several hours. We are here before and loved it. I truly hope this was a singular situation, but your food put two adults through hell. 2021 opinion: The best seafood ive ever had in my life. The octopus is to die for. The staff is crazy nice. Spare a dime and treat yourself.

Signal: 0.0%

5 course meal that emphasises SLOW cooking. Service is inconsistent between diner groups. As a solo diner, I was seated at the bar next to a pair of friends. At first, the server that guided me to the seat was friendly but as the night progressed, it gets progressively harder to get any server attention except when they are serving food. For my 7PM reservation: 6.45PM - Arrived 6.53PM - served bread and spreads 6.58PM - explained about “surprise menu” and given the drinks menu. Asked for recommendation with the food. She offered white wine. 7.05PM - couple next to me arrived 7.31PM - served tuna tartare (very yummy) 7.44PM - served this pork & tuna meatball - like starter (interesting, I like the flavour) 8.08PM - served clams (nothing special, not particularly delicious) 8.30PM - served codfish with pumpkin purée (can get at any other Portuguese restaurant) 8:55PM - served braised beef cheeks (super tender, but not flavourful nor fragrant enough) 9:38PM - served dessert - lemon mouse (10mins after I asked for it, and it wasn’t great) From the timeline, they seem to serve food at 20-40mins intervals. Very inconsistent and for most part of the evening, it was spent waiting for food to arrive. Yes 5 courses, but manageable serving sizes (even for ladies). I really don’t understand the great ratings and reviews. Will not recommend for solo dinners. They seem to thrive off group energy. For solo dinners, they pay you no attention and it was hard to get their attention. The difference was striking to me as they kept making conversation with the loud girls next to me and when explaining dishes, the servers always want to do it for the group of 3 at the bar but the whole time, they only make eye contact with the 2 girls and chit chat with them. This felt rude and off-putting. Even asking for a small dish for the clam shells was challenging. Either the server’s English proficiency is lacking, or she simply could not care less to help. At checkout, the server asked for feedback but it only seemed procedural. I commented that food is good but was much slower than expected. She only replied that it’s a 2-hour dinner. (lol I got surprised when I saw the timestamp of my photos)… Also, the bar seat is a bad idea as your hair and clothes will stink of the kitchen smells / torches for cocktails.

Signal: 0.0%

1 hour of waiting in full sun.. then 2 people arrive in front of the restaurant without respecting the queue and the restaurant manager lets them in without respecting the waiting order. Very unpleasant staff to avoid!

Signal: 0.0%