Wait Time review insights for Portugal

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.

A disappointing experience overall. We ordered our coffees and 3 açai bowls with a friendly waitress and everything was going well. Unfortunately the açais took 40 min to arrive, however the big problem was when I addressed the situation to the manager… She cut me off and told me to eat first and then we could speak… before coming back and accusing me of lying, saying we’d only been waiting for 10 min. This wasn’t the case. After this it was just an exhausting back and forth with her, and we didn’t get anywhere… My advice: please listen to your customers, and just be honest about waiting times. It’ll save you a lot of stress.

A little overrated, super slow (almost two hours for four tapas), fine dining ish. Hence, tiny portions and not too much taste.

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!

2 days of reservation. At 4 pm reservation made for the same evening half past eight. Were sent away at half past eight with the comment come at nine o'clock. Waiting at the door at nine o'clock for 15 minutes and then someone goes in for me. It was said anti-socially wait until everyone has made a reservation. We ran away angry. Not worth 1 star yet.

30 minutes waiting, the order partially arrives at the wrong table, 5 euros the mini Evian Guacamole is empty, chips bag Brief tourist scam

We had to wait 50 min for our very simple dishes during lunch. The menu is quite different and promising for Porto but their kitchen is extremely slow. Yes its their slogan but our experience was much more than slow…

Review rating: 2.0

We booked this restaurant in advance after reading reviews online. We really wanted to like it, but to us, it was an average restaurant during our week in Portugal. The meat and cheeses were fabulous, but all the dishes after that were just "okay". The Portuguese sausage recommended by the server was not good, the two toasts were ok, but honestly there was way more bread than the things on the bread. The wine was delicious. The service started out great, but as the restaurant filled, we felt like we were abandoned. We waited over 30 minutes for our check once we were finished & requested it. It just wasn't our favorite place, but others have certainly enjoyed it.

Review rating: 3.0

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%

A disappointing experience overall. We ordered our coffees and 3 açai bowls with a friendly waitress and everything was going well. Unfortunately the açais took 40 min to arrive, however the big problem was when I addressed the situation to the manager… She cut me off and told me to eat first and then we could speak… before coming back and accusing me of lying, saying we’d only been waiting for 10 min. This wasn’t the case. After this it was just an exhausting back and forth with her, and we didn’t get anywhere… My advice: please listen to your customers, and just be honest about waiting times. It’ll save you a lot of stress.

Signal: 0.0%

A little overrated, super slow (almost two hours for four tapas), fine dining ish. Hence, tiny portions and not too much taste.

Signal: 0.0%