Bastardo — Restaurant in Lisbon

TITLE: Excellent Experience

WHEN: We ate there October 2019

WHAT: The place is upstairs from the street level entrance to a hotel.

MEAL: Started with cocktails, which are highly creative here. I had the "Funny Bastard" and it came with potions to add to your cosmo - Hotness, Comfort and Serenity - delicious!

Continued with starters, the tartar, pica pau and shrimp. Pictures included - the fries/box coming with the tartar are indicative of the whimsy at this place - just brilliant. The pica pau was complex and intensly flavorful. The shrimp dish comes and is partially cooked table side. All are deftly executed.

The mains were simply awesome - the ossobuco, tenderloin and iberian pork each had a special quality about them. The ossobuco with it's grilled polenta was a hit with my sister in law. The tenderloin with the egg was a smash, and my pork with the coffee insion in the manioc puree was subtle and delicious and just blew my mind.

Dessert - another home run. The prada chocolate cake was as good as it looked, the lavender creme brulee was another subtle and masterful fusion of flavor. The hit of it all was the Fruto Proibido - Forbidden Fruit. It is styled in a Garden of Eden take, with the "apple" candy shell having the lemon and cinnamon moussline in it, with a chocolate tree, together with beets and dill in the sugar garden. It was INSANE!

SERVICE: A professional and gracious crew. The team works well together - and appears they genuinely like each other. I had made a date error for our reservation for 3 - and they found a space for us anyway, since we were happy to take dessert in the bar and free up that table for when they needed their 9:00 seating.

ANYTHING ELSE? MAKE A RESERVATION! Fine beverage list here. Take the advice of the servers for pairings at this place (can't say that...

This evaluation won't sound good, as this is also my workplace. However, I was a fan of this venue way before I started actually working there. Being the guest relations I get to actually experience first hand the reaction of every single guest to the food and service experience we provide. And that's the most rewarding part of the job. We have the most varied clientele, from pretty much all backgrounds and nationalities. Unlike most of the restaurants in the area where we're located (the heart of the city, between rua Augusta and the central Rossio square), that mainly have tourists as guests, here, exactly as it happens with our food, you get as many Portuguese locals as you get people visiting the capital from all around the world. Also, this is one of the few cases I know in this city where a restaurant located in a hotel creates a reputation that extends beyond the actual very good name of the international design hotel where it is located (on the first floor, actually, so you don't bump into the place, you only go there intentionally). I always recommend booking in advance, especially for dinner at any day, as we have a capacity of around 60-70 seatings. The views of both Rua Augusta and the Rossio square are stunning and due to the gigantic windows of this historical building, they also provide the world renowned natural light of Lisbon during the day and the already mentioned views during the night, regardless of where you are seating (it's one of the advantages of not being too big). The staff is young and really helpful and the food is surprising, to say the least, in a delicious manner. Nothing I can write here will actually describe the full experience. Just come and check it for yourself. Cheers and...

This was pretty disappointing. My bream fish was not fresh. It was loose, stringy, and"fishy" tasting. It was also bony. I was super hungry, but I still couldn't finish it. Somehow it managed to be both bland and fishy at the same time. The au gratin potatoes that came with it weren't even as good as frozen Stouffer's. I ate as much as I could because I was super hungry, but I couldn't finish it.

My partner got some kind of house "steak" dish, I think, that ended up having a fried egg on top and a piece of ham. Basically it was a small piece of prime rib in what tasted like a LOT of Lawry's seasoning salt. It came in an undercooked sauce that was probably port wine, butter, and some and garlic. The sauce wasn't fully reduced and boiled off -- no caramelization and still tasted like alcohol. The whole thing was covered in potato chips. She ate the meat because we were super hungry, but it was "meh."

The servers acted like we didn't exist. They only brought the two of us one menu and then disappeared. Maybe they were tired and overwhelmed because we were in the tourist district on a Saturday night. It still was pretty bad though.

The house red wine was unleasant and, to add insult to injury, they only poured a small amount. Of course we drank it anyway because were desperate and it was Saturday night, but, if you still insist on eating here, do yourself a favor and don't order the house wine.

Okay, it didn't kill us, but it was one of the worst meals we've had in our five nights so far in Portugal, and also relatively expensive compared to other places we have been to.

Maybe it was just an off night, but serving that old fish was unforgivable. You can take your chances here, but I wouldn't...