Estrela do Sul — Restaurant in Almada

Disappointing food and dishonest service

Unfortunately, our experience at this restaurant was very disappointing. We ordered a steak medium, but it arrived partly cold and undercooked. The French fries were also half-raw and clearly not freshly made. The overall food quality did not match the prices. Only seafood was actually tasty and well-prepared — we really appreciated that part of the meal.

But the worst part came at the end of the meal: the waiter suddenly added an extra 20% to the bill and claimed it was “a government law in Portugal.” As frequent travelers, we know this is absolutely not true — there is no such law requiring a 20% surcharge unless it is clearly stated on the menu or agreed in advance, which it definitely wasn’t in our case.

To make it even worse, the waiter took away the full printed bill and only left us with the basic receipt from the register — so we couldn’t even see how the extra charges were calculated.

This behavior feels like deception targeted at tourists, and it left a really bad impression. Portugal is a wonderful country, but places like this harm its reputation.

We do not recommend...

Went here after we got completely ignored by the waiters in the restaurant next door.

In hindsight I can see why this place was less crowded, but ok... Place has a lot of flies buzzing around. The first waiter barely spoke english, so we got got the attention of the second one.

Had to stop the waiter right away because they were bringing bread and olives to the table which we most certainly did not order - and would have no doubt had to pay for if we did eat any. (very shady business practices like this are NOT appreciated)

Waiter got our order wrong (ordered pork, but was about to receive chicken. no problem, they would fix it). That chicken somehow DID end up on the bill we received - so good thing I double checked it. Shady business practices number 2! I find it hard to believe they'd make that many mistakes.

The pork I received was VERY salty, but moist. The sardines were good and cheap, fresh off the charcoal BBQ outside. The crab was good, but questionable how fresh it was (since it was a cold salad) The potato chips were rather oily,. not great, but...

AVOID, avoid, avoid. (I'm portuguese, just ate there yesterday. Never again.) It's also expensive, for portuguese standards. :-( The owner is completely incompetent in managing the place, we had to grab plates and cutlery ourselves (after 45mins!), and then 1h later get bred myself, food took almost 2hrs to arrive (just grilled sardines), rude waiter, food doesn't arrive, some tables had food for just some people after 1h but not others, etc...

It's clear that the owner is not capable to run this place, from being too greedy with too many tables, to basic management of a restaurant (kitchen management, service stations, etc...). When I, politely told him that he needed to put out less tables so he doesn't get overrun, he actually blamed the customers ("they all come at once, at 12:30....") as if customers coming would be a surprise!

A lot of loud arguing with customers and no acceptance of responsibility, whatsoever.

On top of it, it's EXPENSIVE, by our regular prices. Just save yourself some grief and go elsewhere. Even if the place...