CARNAL — Restaurant in Lisbon

Overhyped, Underwhelming, and Borderline Offensive

• Service: Over 40 minutes just to place a drink order. Staff were indifferent and completely disengaged. No apology, no urgency — just blank stares and confusion. • Food: They had run out of beef — at a Mexican restaurant. That’s like an Italian place running out of pasta, or a sushi bar forgetting the fish. You walk in expecting tacos and get excuses instead. I ordered the mushroom tostada — it arrived slimy, smelled off, and tasted like it had been prepped days ago. Even worse, my son became violently ill after eating the tuna tacos, chips, and guacamole. The staff showed some sympathy, but still accepted full payment without removing a single item from the bill. • The prices suggest fine dining; the food and service suggest a bad joke. A halfway decent margarita doesn’t justify the chaos. This place hides behind trendy décor and a Michelin Bib Gourmand badge, but the reality is all style, zero substance. Grossly overpriced, poorly run, and — in our case — a health hazard. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your intention to clarify your perspective, but your reply—missed the core of my concerns and, in doing so, reinforced several of the issues I had hoped to raise constructively.

At no point did I question the integrity of your sourcing. I respect restaurants that hold themselves to high standards. However, when a key element of your offering—beef—is unavailable, the issue is less about supply and more about communication. For a restaurant centered on fire and meat, the absence of beef is not a minor detail; it’s a fundamental disruption. The hospitality miss wasn’t the ingredient—it was the lack of forewarning, acknowledgment, or meaningful accommodation.

Your response also emphasized our dietary restrictions and noted off-menu requests. I’d suggest that framing deflects from the more important issue: your kitchen was unprepared to adapt when the moment called for flexibility. The substitutions we requested—sliced avocado with salt, a plain tortilla with shrimp (not fried)—were straightforward, especially given we were asked for preferences in light of unavailable proteins. A confident kitchen, particularly one aspiring to your level, should handle modest adjustments without diminishing the guest experience.

You also pointed out that we don’t eat pork. That’s true, but it’s not a preference—it’s a matter of religious observance. Highlighting it in your reply felt oddly positioned, as if it were an inconvenience rather than a basic accommodation that many global diners require. A restaurant with international aspirations should treat such boundaries with care, not as caveats.

You mentioned our late arrival. We were indeed around 30 minutes late, which we acknowledged. But the dining room was less than half full when we arrived and when we left. Framing this as a factor that compromised service feels misplaced. I would encourage you to reflect on whether that assumption fairly reflects the actual circumstances.

Most concerning, though, was your response to our son’s illness. To suggest the food wasn’t responsible because “no one else got sick” is not only scientifically flawed—it’s dismissive. Foodborne illness doesn’t work by consensus. A thoughtful response would have acknowledged the concern, not brushed it aside.

Finally, your response made no mention of the fact that despite a compromised experience, we were charged in full. That silence speaks volumes. When a restaurant chooses to charge full price for a half-delivered experience, it signals that the transaction matters more than the relationship.

Your restaurant has promise, and my intent in offering feedback—was to encourage reflection, not confrontation. But your response leaned more on defense than on accountability. I hope this becomes an opportunity for growth, not...

The tale of two visits.

On the first visit, our friends made the reservation, we went and had great service and a great meal.

For the second visit, I made the reservation. We started with one waiter but quickly a gentleman who claimed to be the manager took over our table and suggested that instead of ordering that we just allow him to pick some of the favorites. Ok. That sounds fun. Let's do that. After one round of cocktails we also asked for a bottle of white wine and while he clearly was pushing us to have more cocktails, he brought us a bottle and then proceeded to tell us all about the winery and that the winemaker was his friend.

Now if you've ordered white wine in most restaurants in Lisbon you know that wine is not generally expensive here, so you can imagine our surprise when we received the bill and the wine was 82€! EIGHTY TWO! To add insult to injury, it wasn't very good.

If you're a server and you're not going to bring a wine list – just offer to pick something out that you feel compliments the food – perhaps you should mention that it's 82€. Never ever would we have ordered it. Ever.

The "manager" also brought the tacos with the crickets on it despite being told specifically we didn't want that. I also think it was one of the more expensive things on the menu.

So what do I think the difference was between the two visits. The first reservation was under a Portuguese phone number. The second under a U.S. number. I think the manager pegged us as tourists (which we aren't – we live here), took over for the server we started with and took advantage of us – bringing us stupid expensive wine and menu items. We felt massively taken advantage of and while I LOVED the restaurant experience the first time and was telling all my friends about the place, this second experience has put a serious damper on my enthusiasm. I may or may not go back. So so...

Carnal is a Michelin rated bib gourmand Mexican gastrobar in Lisbon. The restaurant is owned by chef Ljubomir Stanisic, and the menu features a variety of modern Mexican dishes.

We recently had the opportunity to dine at Carnal with our family, and we were very impressed with the food, service, and atmosphere. We started our meal with the guacamole, which was made with fresh avocados and served with crispy tortilla chips. The carnitas were also excellent, and the tinga de pollo campesino was a flavorful and hearty dish. For dessert, we had the churros, the flan, and the buñuelo. The churros were light and crispy, the flan was rich and creamy, and the buñuelo was a delicious fried pastry (with amazing ice cream!).

Overall, we had a wonderful experience at Carnal. The food was delicious, the service was attentive, and the atmosphere was lively and fun. We would definitely recommend Carnal to anyone looking for a great Mexican meal in Lisbon.

The only negative we experienced was at the end of the meal when the waiter asked us if we enjoyed the meal. We said yes and he urged us to add a tip to our credit card. We were going to leave a tip, but I was taken aback by the pressure.

Overall, we had a great experience at Carnal and would definitely recommend it to others. However, we would suggest that you be prepared for the waiter to ask you to add a tip to your credit card at the end of the meal. Remember a couple bucks is fine...