A Tasca do Chico — Restaurant in Lisbon

Just went there yesterday (Sunday evening) following lots of articles of 'best live fado' an tripadvisor reviews etc. I will try to give some tips and warnings if you are thinking of going. Let me just warn anybody that has social anxiety, claustrophobia or any other condition that makes them uncomfortable in small and very crowded places - I advice you to not go there. It gets very crowded, there is no space whosoever for you to relax. Also note the staff is very, very rude and do not speak good English or they just don't want to be talking to you. Ok, now onto the process of getting a table. You can come at 7pm to reserve a table for 8pm or for the next day. Note: The actual singing starts around 9pm, but it is full around 8-8:30pm. If you wish to come later, then you can queue outside and wait for a space to stand or a table to come free. Note if you are a two person group then you will be seated next to someone or someonw will be put next to you to share the table. When we got our table, we were told it is 10€ per person with some food (excluding any drinks). Let me say that the FOOD is pretty bad. The portions are children sized and the quality is very bad. The bread and the olivea were good. The couple next to us couldn't even cut their chorizo sausage (a starter). Chicken sandwich is just friend chicken inbetween bread and the tuna sandwich was just canned and cold tuna with bread. Don't get me wrong, we read the reviews before about the food being bad, but because the waitress told us we can get food for 10€ or pay 10€ per person, we chose to have some food. The MUSIC was good, the atmosphere was great and the singers were sweet. The woman who only sang 3 songs waa incredible. She made the whole evening spectacular. The men that sang were OK, I guess it depends on what you are expecting. The problem was that they would sing 3 songs and then have a 15 minute break in which the doors open again and more people come in. If you are there from the very begining, it becomes very boring soon.

Overall, I would say that if you are a group of friends or family (4-5, no more as there is no space) looking to have drinks and enjoy some Portuguese Fado this might be a good place for you. If you are people that enjoy crowded and small places and lots of chaos - go and listen to some great music in a wonderful area. For everybody else, there is lots of live Fado on the same street thay sounded wonderful from the outside - so maybe try...

It is my birthday and my last night in Lisbon before heading to Porto tomorrow. We arrived 10mins ago 10.12.19, arrived at 19h37 entered, found an empty table waited to be SEEN, the waitress appeared, asked if we had a reservation, we explained that we didn't... However, we sat at a table that did Not have a Reservation sign. The waitress then looked at us, said the table is "all of a sudden" Reserved, and fetched the sign from her counter and placed the Reserved Sign ontop of the table and told us to stand at the bar if we wanted. (Singing would take place 45mins later whilst we are standing?!?!) At the time there were only 2 tables occupied, ofcourse if the table were ALL reserved then they could have made it ALL Reserved as they opened at 7pm!? Or said, "why don't you sit here until the Reservation arrives, right!?" Well, anyway the waitress was Not friendly at all, we left, I would give it a ZERO on here, as we are customers! By the way, the pictures on here are very deceiving, this Chico place is TiNY with camp tables and bench chair. When we left, I was ready to go back to the hotel and order a Pizza, but we were approached by the gentleman(maitre) across from Chico bar, he explained food is available and FADO is free with no minimum charge. It is called RETIRO Dos Sentido, which is across from Tiny Chico bar. At RETIRO Dos Sentido, they were already singing Fado when we arrived (19h40), we sat at a table and chairs of our choice, no waiting time at all to hear Fado. Yes, they sing 2 songs then take a break, it's normal as it's not a CONCERT, but then they are back again, and only if you want, you have the OPTION to buy their CD, and I thought they sang really really well and we felt their emotions. By the way their CD's make a wonderful GiFT. Look don't expect MasterChef food from Retiro Dos Sentido, BUT we had a lovely starters menu, soup, good wine and starters cheese and very attentive service from the waiter. The final Bill was correct when we paid. I thanked the gentleman outside for speaking to us, I thanked him as we had a great first time and it was our First EVER Fado Experience at Retiro Dos Sentido, so thank you very much RETIRO DOS SENTIDOS,...

Cash only!! 🪙

Was recommended this place. Walked past on a Saturday, queue was long! So went back on Sunday, queue was as long. So went back on a Monday, queue was still long! So we decided to just join the queue 😂 The place opposite the road sells cocktails for £5 in a large cup which you can have in the queue. We arrived at 7.30, queued for about 1 hour 20 minutes or so. Had some laughs with others in the queue, just made the best of it!

Once inside it was pretty cramped. You probably start at the bar, standing up. Then when people leave from a table those standing at the bar get to sit down.

Drinks are not cheap, not super expensive either. There is a food menu but it's all tapas and nothing vegan apart from bread and olives. So make sure to eat beforehand.

What I didn't like was that quite a few tables were occupied by people just sitting there for ages and not ordering/consuming any food or drinks. Why not ask them if they want something more, and if not, clear the table and kindly ask to make space for others. Then no one would have to queue up for 1.5 hours and the business would make a bit more money.

I personally loved the music. It was very intimate. Saw both a male and a female singer, they were equally good and sang with so much emotion. They sing about 3 songs, and then there is a 10 minute break to get food/drink orders in, and so on.

Another thing that I didn't appreciate was the presumably girlfriend of one of the guitarists, took a small stool and went to sit straight next to her partner, where another woman already had her stool! So the other woman (a guest) had to move to another spot. This was all done without any communication just a rude look in her eyes. Then the girlfriend was scrolling Instagram on her phone during the whole hour we were there. It was disturbing and not respectful. If she had sat in the back then not a problem, but pushing someone else from their spot to then spoil the view of everyone else trying to focus on...