Cantinho do Avillez - Parque das Nações — Restaurant in Lisbon

Great food, but beware of hidden charges!

I recently had lunch at Cantinho do Avillez and had a great meal—the food was delicious, and the staff were professional and attentive throughout the lunch. Overall, the experience was very positive until it came time to pay.

I want to specifically alert both tourists and fellow Portuguese diners about a trick they use with the bill that can easily catch you off guard: They automatically include a tip on the bill without informing you, and it’s not clearly marked as such (and not translated neither). In my case, I rounded the total thinking I was leaving a generous tip, only to realize afterwards that they had already added a tip without saying a word—resulting in me paying over €16 in tips (200€ bill).

The person who brought the bill said nothing, which I found quite disappointing given the otherwise professional service. This lack of transparency is misleading and unfair to guests, especially in a country where tipping is not mandatory and should always be voluntary.

To the management: the food and service speak for themselves—there’s no need for these underhanded tactics. To future diners: check your bill carefully, and ask if a tip has already been added before rounding up or...

Went to this restaurant for dinner today for the first time. We ordered two cocktails, two starters and two mains. The cocktails were good, and one of the starters and mains were ok, but the other starter and main, which both had some fried bread crumbles were completely ruined because the crumbles had an intense smell of rancid oil. We still ate the starter, some eggs cooked at low temperature, because it was small, and as we split it, each of us had just a spoon of it. But the main (cod with cabbage and, again, the bread crumbles) we couldn't finish given the taste of the crumbles. The cod was actually quite good, so it was a shame that it was ruined by such a poor ingredient. We ended up returning that dish. The restaurant still charged us for it and to compensate us, they offered us a dessert (which was good).

I asked when paying the bill if there was a mistake in charging for the main that we had returned, but they said that no, that they asked us if we wanted a replacement for the main (which they did) and that they offered the dessert. Terrible way to handle the situation in my view and a shame that what could have been an ok dinner to have been ruined. Definitely not a place where...

I tried coming here for a late lunch, but many restaurants close for a few hours during the day. So, my friends and I met up here one night for dinner. When we arrived the place was packed and we hadn't made a reservation. Thankfully, we were about to be seated on the patio. We ordered the Deep fried green beans, prawns with garlic and chili, the meagre and shrimp moqueca and quite a few classic margaritas. The deep fried green beans and prawns were ABSOLUTELY delicious. The oft-recommended moqueca was just okay. It wasn't bad but I'm sure there are better options on the menu. The atmosphere was lively (maybe, because the bartender did his thing with the margaritas) and we stayed until past closing. For all that we ordered, the bill was really cheap. A good time was had and I'd most definitely...