A Carvoaria — Restaurant in Lisbon

So I think if we had ordered differently this could have been a 5, but I have to give a 3 because there were quite a few sub-par dishes. First, the highlight was the veal rib steak (see photo) for ~20 Euro. HUGE steak and their medium rare was like proper medium rare and not medium haha. Seasoned beautifully and simply and just truly delicious. Huge portion for the price as well. The middle of the pack was the House special fillet with sauce and fries. Sauce and fillet were good, but the fries were not good at all. Lacking salt and zero crisp to them. We also had the bbq rabbit which was okay, but I wouldn't order it again. At the bottom of my list was a side order of mushroom risotto which was honestly so awful we couldn't even eat it. It was sour tasting and so gummy in texture. Overall, this cost around 60 Euro, which was not a bad price considering how many dishes we ordered and how much food we got.

In conclusion, my advice to anyone coming here would be to please just order STEAK (BEEF OR VEAL), and maybe get some bread on the side. If I had done that, it would have been AMAZING.

One last thing... for other people from Canada (or US) please keep in mind that the custom is to serve up a bunch of extras. They leave the bread and things at the table, and bring the appetizers to your table before you have a chance to look at the menu and think about your choices. And none of it is free. So just be firm and tell them to let you take your time and to feel okay telling them no if you don't really...

Fantastic food!! We first came to this restaurant in 2010 during a weeklong stay in Lisbon and it was so good we ate there twice on that trip. Now we are back in 2024 and we were excited to go again and it’s just as delicious!! Our favorite is the Ibérico Secreto, which is tender, flavorful and has the perfect balance of meat and marbled fat. The owner told us he uses the same meat supplier since he opened the restaurant in the 1990s. Also, the sautéed/grilled vegetables were very delicious—not over cooked like many Portuguese restaurants. We also ordered the skewer with pork loin and vegetables, which was very good (and enough for two people) but the Secreto is our favorite.

It’s important to know that this is THE “A Carvoaria”—this is on Rue Maria Andrade. There is another restaurant with the same name in a different location that is not owned by this owner.

The wine selection was good and fair prices.

The only negative is that some of the staff were a little pushy and not particularly friendly but other staff were very helpful and friendly.

We...

Unfortunately, the worst experience in Portugal.

We managed to order after 30 minutes in restaurant (service forgot about us).

I ordered the speciality of this restaurant: mixed skewer "a la carvoaria" (veal and shrimp) for 20 euros and my husband ordered a steak. I asked for a medium veal and my husband asked for medium rare steak.

My skewer looked amazing but it was done rare/blue - so i asked to make it more like asked before. But the worst part was that even shrimps were made rare - and it's really not healthy to eat shrimps raw! I was disgusted and barely ate anything. In the pictures you can see grey areas on shrimps bellies.

My husband has steak more grilled than mine and we asked otherwise. We have a lot of experience with meat and steak houses and this was our worst so far.

Our side dishes were punched potatoes and grilled ananas. Grilled ananas was ok, but punched potatoes were not punched - they were just really expensive young boiled potatoes.

Overall it was very loud...