Alfama Cellar — Restaurant in Lisbon

The food was absolutely spectacular, and very reasonably priced. We arrived without a booking just before the dinner rush and were lucky to get a table.

Two things left a sour taste which seem worth calling out:

We were first seated at one of the two tables set side-by-side against the wall, positioned diagonally. In this layout, two guests will sit shoulder to shoulder with strangers, like on a bus, while twisting side-on to their food. The manager insists the chairs cannot be moved as the tables don’t fit otherwise (which makes sense, they’re really squeezed in). This was a little confusing at first, especially in an otherwise empty restaurant. It won’t bother everyone, but makes for an awkward experience if you’re seated there. After some initial reluctance, the manager moved us to a normal table, which was welcome.

The manager’s demeanour stood out for the wrong reasons. His tone with us was cold, dismissive, and controlling (perhaps understandably, we are annoying tourists after all) but more strikingly also with his staff. Most telling was an exchange over the rota: he made a change, then asked for feedback, before sneering that a staff member was about to cry. To us, that looked a lot like bullying. It’s not what you do, but how you do it, and it soured an otherwise outstanding...

We came on a Wednesday at around 4:00pm and the place was empty which was perfect for us. We ordered the octopus salad (10,40), oxtail (10,90) the seafood rice (19,50), 2 wines, bread and chocolate mousse (6,00).

The octopus salad was very refreshing. Not overly chewy and well seasoned. A lot of onion but it wasn't spicy at all. The oxtail was fall apart tender. Strong on the tomato flavour and went well with bread. Would definitely order these two again

The seafood rice was HUGE - the portion was too generous for 2 people. There was a good amount of seafood in it and the rice had soaked up the flavour nicely but I wouldn't order this here again as it's not the best I've had in Portugal.

The chocolate mousse might not look like much BUT it was surprisingly delicious. It's made with dark chocolate and covered with sea salt flakes and crumbs. This was strangely addictive. Even though we were really full, we still managed to finish the entire thing.

Service was okay - not super friendly or anything but was fast and did the job. I would definitely order the octopus salad and oxtail again. I would want to try some of the other things on their menu as it...

My husband and I went twice during our stay in Lisbon. We walked in the first night not knowing what to expect and were blown away. The restaurant features local wines from all over Portugal and the staff will recommend a wine based on your preferences. They're pretty spot on with their recommendations, but they'll let you sample it before pouring you a glass. The first night, we had the octopus salad, cataplana (shrimp and fish stew) and red wine ice cream. It turned out to be a perfect combination - the salad was light & refreshing, the umami flavour of the cataplana was incredible and the ice cream was genius (largely because of how they served it with cream foam).

We went back again for the oxtail starter, beetroot gazpacho, grandma stew and red wine poached pear. Equally delicious but we were so stuffed at the end because the oxtail was pretty heavy.

100% would recommend. We would have gone back again to try the rest of the menu but our last day is Wednesday and they're not open on Wednesdays. Reservations highly recommended unless you go at like 5:30pm for dinner like we did on...