Alma — Restaurant in Lisbon

Alma was one of the reasons why we travelled to Lisbon and I have to say I was fairly disappointed with my experience. I made a reservation for a party of 6. We had 4 adults and 2 children in our party. Their online reservation system only allowed to make a reservation for a maximum of 4 people, hence I emailed the restaurant to make my reservation. Through our email conversation, I was told that they can only accommodate large parties at their chef’s table which required every guests to order their tasting menu. I agreed and successfully made the reservation.

When we arrived, we were warmly greeted and directed to our table, which imo was not really a chef’s table but just a table in the main dining room where you can peek into the kitchen through an opening. There were no interactions with the chef throughout our meal nor did the chef came to greet or say bye at the end of our meal.

There were 2 tasting menu options, and I personally ordered their costa menu. Before we started our first course, we were presented with 7 amuse bouche in which we were already half full before we even started on our first course. The little bites were solid, no wow factor but it was good. For the main tasting menu, I appreciate most of the dishes were well balanced texture wise, and none of them were left feeling too heavy. However, I feel the flavors were strong and too salty. Some of the ingredients listed in the description were also lacking and I couldn’t taste it in the dish.

Now onto the red flags. When we went to the restroom, we noticed there’s another small room at the back which can definitely accommodate a table for 6. I did make the reservation months ahead which prompted us to question if the chef’s table is really the only table option for us or did they lied to us because they wanted to ensure everyone orders a tasting menu to maximize their profit for the night. I did noticed that most tables ordered a la carte and tbh, the tasting menu was too much for an adult let alone my kids who are 8 and 10. They were so full that they hardly touched the last 4 dishes.

I would say our service started out great. Our server was attentive, knowledgeable and spoke very clearly. But then our server changed mid way through our meal. I generally like to have the same person to serve our table throughout our meal and the server who served us during our second half of the meal did the bare minimum. We could hardly understand him when he explained the dishes to us and I needed to read the menu description myself to know what I’m eating.

Then came the harsh and bitter ending. When we were presenting with the bill, we were told of the “suggestive” 10% service charge. I normally would leave a tip even in countries where it’s not common practice but the way our server asked us sounded a little sketchy and was a little bit of a turn off. We’ve been to other high end restaurants in Europe and was never asked or would indicate as mandatory so there’s no surprises. Given all the red flags and the declined service, and mostly because our bill was similar to our experience at Azurmendi but with a much lower food and service quality, we decided to not give the service charges. And then everyone’s attitude made a 180 degree turn. We initially were told we can bring the petit fours home which no one touched because were too full and all of a sudden, there’s no boxes for us. In fact, the most ridiculous excuse I’ve heard was they don’t allow it because it will melt. I’ve been to many Michelin starred restaurants around the world and have never once been rejected in taking the petit fours home. This is also the first time I’ve been to a restaurant at this caliber and was not given a printed menu after we finished our meal. I think they should just explicitly state a 10% mandatory service charge in the menu if they are going to get upset about it.

Overall, the food was underwhelming, lacks creativity, and the flavors were too strong and salty. Service was subpar and I expected more. I am beyond disappointed and unfortunately cannot...

For those of you that follow me, you know it pains me to ever give a less than 5 star review. So let me begin by saying maybe it was an off night but it was a freezing cold March night and I don’t want to be picky but I think 10 of the 12 dishes we were served were cold and not hot. I would have enjoyed a few warm dishes but that is not what Alma serves in these chilly months.. I was told they change menus every 6 months so how can they serve this cold dish menu in the Winter.. But I am I am getting ahead of myself.

We were one of three couples waiting outside at 7 pm when the doors open. We were seated promptly in the long alley room adjacent to the kitchen and restrooms with absolutely no atmosphere and totally freezing. So for sure try not to sit in the long alley room. But then as I tried to warm up after surrendering my jacket, the phone rang loudly from the only other seated elderly couple in the alley and she cluelessly started to speak on her speaker phone. I called our nice server over and asked him to ask the woman to stop speaking loudly on her speaker and he seemed to panic. He told me that she would be off soon and he wouldn’t approach her. After three or four minutes as I watched him talk to three other staff considering my request to be moved, he returned to me and told me she would be off soon and ignored my request. I very low score if you sit in the very cold alley with echo and no atmosphere.

So let’s move on to the wine pairing. It’s 120 euro add on but the kicker is you can’t share. It’s against the rules here to share. Now you are allowed to push the glass after you taste it towards your partner to taste but they can’t have their own glass.. I am not making this up. After every pour and there are 6, I had a taste and pushed it over and she pushed it back to me for the entire evening. It crazy. And the Som was interesting. Another young person. He talked about the wine for 5 minutes and never showed the label of any bottle. So each time I actually asked him to turn it around so I could read it and then asked him to show it to my partner. The staff is incredibly dedicated and hard working but hasn’t really been trained about fine dining. I think they could learn and they are super likeable but whoever really manages this place (the owner has 10 restaurants around the world and I think licenses his name) may not know themselves… Clearly the owner was not in the house the night we dined. But I don’t want to digress.

So on to the cuisine. It complicated but honestly most of the dishes done work. They are just too busy. Like the foie gras. It has coffee foam and chocolate and apple and served cold not hot and such a mess of flavors. I don’t get it. Should be incredible and served hot on better. And everything is over salted. The suckling pork is so salty it isn’t edible. And the sweet potato fries to dip into the delicious red humus also completely covered with salt. It’s almost like the chef whoever this chef is, as I don’t think the world famous chef flying around to all his restaurants approved this menu, is in love with gastronomy and not with cuisine. He just couldn’t have tasted what I was tasting. No delicacy of flavors. No nuance. And the grand total of 600 Euros later and about 4 hours in we escaped. Sorry but this was very sad for me from the beginning to the end and completely the opposite of what a Michelin two star should be. Not sure how they earned their reputation but today it is...

Michelin trap? Alma has good intentions but cannot make it happen.

It all started very promising: a beautiful building (although a bit dark/sober) and a warm welcome by the staff. And not only the welcome was warm, the extremely capable and friendly staff pulled us through the evening. However, we did not come all the way to Lisbon only for the staff. We wanted to find out why this restaurant was one of the best if not the best of Lisbon. The Alma tasting menu (with the signature dishes) seemed to be the best way to figure that out.

In other restaurants we normally choose the wine pairing if not with a group, but the price of the wine pairing at Alma was disproportionate to the price of the menu. So, we ended up with a nice bottle of Douro wine. We do not know the mark up of the wines, but we felt that it was on the expensive side. This was especially the case with the Portuguese sparkling wine. Although it was refreshing and tasteful, it was not as good as a glass of champagne. The price? 24 euro per glass. For comparison: we never paid more than 20 euros per glass for the real deal in other (even 2) Michelin star restaurants in Europe. It was nevertheless surprising that water was not overcharged (4 euro per bottle is not expensive if you compare it to the wine prices), although it is strange that you have no clue of how much you consumed: they keep refilling, and you will see how much when you receive the bill. We would recommend keeping the bottles on the table, or to work with a flat rate/forfait. To summarise: good wine list, very friendly sommelier, but definitely overpriced.

But then, the most important element of the evening: the food. I will not go into detail for every dish, but overall, we were super disappointed. There is definitely an issue with the portions (it is not normal that an amuse bouche has the size of a starter and that we were not hungry anymore after our first starter), but also the composition of the menu (too heavy, not enough freshness and variation, sometimes too salty and in general, not well balanced) needs an uplift. The one bright spot in the menu? The desserts (delicious, well balanced, and not too much)! Some other issues: the pace (too fast), the lack of a story (such as local ingredients, a theme, etc.) and most of all, the lack of creativity: although the Alma menu promised signature dishes, the starters and mains were a bit boring, tasteful in general but nothing more. We never had a “wow” feeling or an epiphany (neither in terms of flavours, nor in terms of presentation). The chef and his staff are clearly very skilled and are flawlessly using different and sometimes complex techniques, but it was just not creating the unique experience you might expect.

When we left the restaurant, we found out that 85% of the Alma clientele is American and that there are almost no locals (unless on special occasions). In our opinion, Alma is mainly focussing on keeping this foreign majority happy, at the expense of refinement and authenticity. It might be a good American experience, but in Europe we have other standards, especially when rewarded with two Michelin stars. Also, the price is not in line with what you get. This is the reason why I decided to write this review (what I normally never do). It will most likely not change the Alma strategy which seems very profitable, but it could help to manage expectations of future clients.

And then one other thing: adding 10% tip to the bill (even if not mandatory) in this kind of restaurants is...