Canalha — Restaurant in Lisbon

I left the meal with mixed feelings. During my very short trip to Lisbon, with time to try two restaurants, I chose Canalha hoping to taste several plates and get a sense of what the city has to offer.

The food was remarkable: thoughtful ingredients, solid execution, and some briliant combinations. But my experience was somewhat tarnished by a few serious service missteps. Here’s my honest and detailed take on the whole experience.

Service-wise:

Unfortunately, the service didn’t hit the mark. The waitress forgot my starter (cod cakes), and when I told the bartender (I was seated at the counter), he had it sent in, but by then, I had already finished the squid. I’ll admit I didn’t follow up right away either.

When ordering the pork, I asked for a smaller portion (100g-150g instead of the recommended 250g) since the price was per kilo and I wanted to try several dishes. The waitress said she’d see what she could do. No one came back to confirm anything, and when the plate arrived it looked larger than expected. I was charged for the full 250g I didn’t ask for. There was no follow-up, no confirmation that the smaller portion wasn’t possible. I ended up not finishing the fries or salad, and had barely enough room for dessert (which is specifically what I was trying to avoid). When I told the bartender what happened and mentioned I was too full for dessert, he kindly suggested I get a half-portion, which I appreciated and accepted.

The bartender took care of the rest of the service after the first course and was impeccable; helpful, attentive, and professional. But despite that, there was no real apology or small gesture from the house to acknowledge the earlier mistakes.

Having eaten in restaurants from casual spots to high-end, I’d say a basic gesture of goodwill is the least one can expect when service errors like this happen. The overall experience lacked the polish and attention to detail expected at this level.

Food-wise:

The codfish cakes were delicious. The squid was excellent — a flavorful dish, with perfect cuisson and texture (so tender!). The sheep’s butter sauce, emulsified with an acidic base like a beurre blanc, complemented the squid wonderfully and made the dish feel impeccably composed.

Then came the Iberico pork steak. The meat was juicy and incredible in terms of flavor, but I would’ve appreciated a light sauce or condiment on the side, just a little something to dip the fries in. I probably could’ve asked for ketchup, but in a place like this, a small house-made condiment would have been more in tune with the overall experience.

The cuisson leaned more toward medium than medium rare. Maybe that was intentional, but it left the meat a bit firmer than expected.

For dessert, the peach was again very tasty, and I loved the contrast in textures with the sabayon and the ice cream. I loved the combination, and I’ll definitely be recreating this dessert at home.

Besides that, wines were really good and paired nicely with the food.

Overall:

I would’ve left 4 stars, but went with 3 to make sure this gets noticed. I really enjoyed the food and would gladly return if the service issues...

We had an incredibly disappointing experience at Canalha during what was supposed to be a special dinner celebrating my 30th birthday. I had flown in from New York City to spend a meaningful 24 hours celebrating with friends who had also traveled from various places. We chose this restaurant because of its reputation for amazing food, but the experience was completely ruined by their poor management and outright rudeness.

While we were aware of the restaurant’s policy to vacate the table by a certain time (which was fine with us), the service was so poorly handled that it destroyed the evening. Instead of serving the dishes (all to share) in a timely manner, they brought them out individually with long, unnecessary gaps in between. For example, we waited an absurd amount of time between the dry-aged steak and the catch of the day. Their disorganization dragged the meal out far longer than necessary and left us scrambling to finish because of their inefficiency.

Then came the disaster with dessert. The waiter never gave us any notice to place a dessert order before the table limit was up. By the time we were ready to order, he told us it was too late with no heads up. This was entirely their fault, as they failed to manage the timing of the meal. When we asked to speak to the manager, he was shockingly rude and dismissive, taking no responsibility and simply telling us we had to leave because the table was no longer ours.

What happened next was even worse. Instead of letting us choose a dessert to celebrate, they slammed a random dessert onto the table. It felt like a last-ditch effort to avoid the outrageous scenario of a birthday dinner ending without even singing Happy Birthday. But it wasn’t what we wanted, and by then, the moment was completely ruined. No one felt like celebrating anymore, and the entire evening ended on an abrupt and sour note.

We are used to dining in cities like New York, London etc where table time limits are common, and we understand how they work. But this was a complete failure on the restaurant’s part. The pacing of the meal, lack of communication, and rude handling of the situation by the manager ruined the night.

I would strongly advise against booking this restaurant for any special celebration. Their mismanagement and lack of care for their customers are unacceptable. How...

Small restaurant that requires reservations in the evening. The menu is presented with all items "sharing plates". We were given a recommendation on number of items to order, but we had researched the menu and reviews prior to dining, and we had an idea of what we wanted to eat, which is how we ordered. The Tuna Sashimi is very flavourful and delicious. Great on its own or on top of the super fluffy sourdough bread. Next up was the razor clams (priced by weight - we ordered 2 per person), which were also delicious. Served "bulhão pato" style, they were very fresh and tender and of course the sauce was perfect when sopped up with the bread. Then on to the Zamburiñas (scallops on the half shell) again priced by weight, so we ordered 3 per person. We then had THE BEST DISH, the Line Caught Squid with Sheep Butter Sauce. The squid was super tender and the sauce was one of the best sauces I have ever had in my life. I don't say this lightly, it is really THAT GOOD. Lastly we shared the octopus, which was very good (cooked perfect and tender), but paled in comparison to the squid. We didn't love the sweet potato served with the octopus, it had some sort of peanut flavoured paste on it and the flavour didn't work for us. We did not have any of the "main" courses - various types of fresh fish and meat prepared by weight, but we look forward to going back and exploring more of the menu. Being in our neighbourhood, we will definitely return. ps. while I really enjoyed the food and appreciated that the music wasn't too loud, I didn't love the lighting - it was too bright for dinner service. But OVERALL a...