Bistro 100 Maneiras — Restaurant in Lisbon

We had a very disappointing experience here, both with regard to service and to food.

Service: we arrived and were seated, given a food menu but no drinks menu for some reason. We waited for quite some time for anyone to come to our table to offer us anything. Eventually a waiter showed up, and without so much as a hello or good evening, let alone an offer to answer questions (despite many opaquely named dishes on the menu) or to get us a drinks list, he just asked "you have chosen?". His service continued to be indifferent, bordering on rude, throughout the meal. We also had some service at times from another waitress, who was better but still not great. They didn't seem to co-ordinate with each other very well, either: we would order something from one, then the other would show up and ask us what we wanted to order, and so on. Just before our main dishes arrived my partner ordered a glass of wine, which never arrived, and the wine menu was taken away before I had the chance to order a glass for myself. No-one voluntarily checked in on us or asked us how the food was, even when one dish was clearly not getting eaten (see below).

Food: we ordered the potato skins to start, which were fine but needed more salt. For our main dishes I had the turbot, which was mediocre - overwhelmed in a very sugary beet risotto - but essentially OK. By contrast, my partner's dish - octopus in a spicy, sweet sauce - was inedible. The octopus was overcooked and rubbery, and the sauce was congealed on the plate and completely lacked the promised spice. She wasn't able to finish more than a few bites.

When a waitress came to clear the dishes (long after I'd finished my dish, and with only a few bites of my partner's dish touched), my partner complained about her dish. The waitress didn't react very well initially, but to be fair, she took the dish back to the kitchen and then came back and said the kitchen admitted that the dish was not up to standard and that the octopus was overcooked. As an apology she sent us a dessert, which was a guava sorbet with a biscuit base and a cheese foam, and which was fine. The free dessert was a nice gesture, but when the bill came, the restaurant had still charged us for the octopus, which was not OK given that it was so bad that we couldn't eat it, and that the kitchen had admitted as much. We complained again and then they agreed to take off the charge for the octopus. Again, good that they did so, but we shouldn't have needed to insist.

Drinks: we ordered two of the supposedly famous cocktails, both of which were fine but fairly one-dimensional in flavor profile and lacked kick. As mentioned above, we never got to try the wine.

Ambience: the vibe, with almost clubby music, is stylish and works well late at night. There is a part of the bar/restaurant that allows smoking and there's no door between it and the main restaurant, which allows smoke to drift through to where you're eating, especially if you're seated toward the front of the restaurant, as we were.

Even if we bracket the saga with the octopus dish, the food was mediocre and the service indifferent, and the prices are really very high for Lisbon. We were sad to have wasted one of our meals in Lisbon on this restaurant when there are so many other great...

You will not need a "Monocle" to see the superior quality of the food at Bistro 100 Maneiras. But it is superior to Restaurant 100 Maneiras? In my opinion and for my experience it is still half a point bellow...why? One word...service quality details...but let's review the Bistro in 3 main pilars, food, service & space.

Food - from the first plate on the table the food shouted the same idea: amazing plate presentation hand in hand with top quality ingredients flawless cooked and flavours very well combined.

Space - in general you are imersed in a relaxed environment with a very clean and simple decoration that allows you to focus on what you are there for...enjoy good food. The only attention point goes to the only bathroom (for both man and women) on the upper floor that forces the clients to cue at the door if by any chance more than one decides to go there...not the best experience for this level of space.

Service - for me the Aquiles heel of a very pleasent experience...first you are received and served by one person of the staff but then different persons mingle in the process...worst than that is that a certain point of the night when the place is more busy you struggle to have someone to go to you and you don't have a single reference point. Some inexperience and lack of sensability from some of the staff to serve at the expected level of a place like this was felt in some negative details that were experienced...either you wait to order a desert up to the point you chase someone from the staff altough a person of that staff is more focused in changing a empty table next to yours instead of prioritising serving the client waiting first...or either you ask for someone from the staff to serve more water and she not only serves you water but she also serves you wine without your request...the only problem with that proactive move it's that she serves that wine in both glasses but only one person was drinking that type of wine...in the other glass she mixes different wine flavours and ruin completely the rest of the original wine in the glass...or finnaly you order the bill to the person A of staff and after quite some time waiting a completely different person from the staff brings the bill assuming that the bill was abandonned on the counter and she had the need to understand to who it bellongs...

In summary...a full house mixed with some less robust and anxious staff members can mark with a negative point a dinner that was combining a positive vibe space with some amazing food in order to drive the client to a memorable night.

At this level it is all about having quality driven staff...not about being fast by rushing what should be experienced and enjoyed by the clients at a relaxed pace and always at top level in every detail, service included.

And I can afirm this with both eyes open without any "Monocle" suporting my point of view...keep it simple but always focus on details...from the first to the...

When a restaurant gets pretentions of grandeur it is the beginning of a slippery slope. When I hear the word bistro I think of cosy, fulsome food, generous and comforting. This restaurant has links to a Michelin starred business and thinks it can emulate it or worse better it..alarm bells should already be ringing.

Designwise...the room is modern and tasteful, not overbearing just what you would expect, and the menu also offers European classics with a modern twist. This, sadly is where the positives end.

A Portuguese Stew should be exactly that, a nourishing warm dish....not 3 croquettes that contain the "distilled essence" of a stew. The Yugoslavian goulash was unlike any goulash I have ever tasted, (apparently a new recipe) and why oh why serve it with a side?!?! And "Bosnian roast veg" at that???? And generous???? Two tablespoons not even full......I smell a touch of Heston Blumenthal creeping in My husband faired a lot better, his fish was perfectly cooked and the seabroth rice was delicious and he has a Portuguese palate!

Now...the staff.... friendly and bi-lingual...but wholey unprepared for the task they are employed to perform. Three times they came to the table to say dishes were unavailable, they shouted across us at each other, we had to clear and arrange the table so dishes could be served. They served to the wrong person ( just 2 of us at the table and they had no idea who's dish was who's!- Just ask !?!?), whisked the food to within an inch of it's life while giving completely inadequate descriptions.....I know they wanted to leave to go home, but there are subtler ways of getting rid of customers....just turn off the lights and lock the doors.... we'd get the hint. BTW...there website states they stay open until 2.30am...this was at 10.30 pm.

When I ordered my coffee ( in Portuguese...and it was repeated back to me) I was presented with a half pint glass of it..... presumably their idea of value for money?!?

I need to mention the wine, my husband chose a delicious orange wine, just the right weight for the food we were having..he knows his wines.. apparently picking your own wine without the sommelier is not a thing here. The wine was incredibly good, and real value for money....and here is the rub...when your wine is the most reasonable part of your meal there are real problems with your business.

A quick Google and I found out who was behind this business. Ljubomir....if your students in Hells Kitchen behaved like this you would fire them for incompetence. I strongly suggest you start to practice what you preach.....put your own house in...