Do Beco Estefania - Padaria Artesanal & Brunch — Restaurant in Lisbon

Beautiful space and the minute I stepped through the door I thought I would love it. And I still want to love it… But left with a bit of a mixed impression yesterday. Super welcoming and friendly staff. I was immediately asked where I wanted to sit. I chose upstairs and was led to a little table with a view over the cafe and in-house bakery. My waiter was a lovely guy called Simão who took my order quickly. I was drawn to the “Tornado” egg dish because it seemed to have a very interesting mix of flavours - eggs and a brioche bun stuffed with potato, broccoli, Camembert, Gouda and Sour Cream, served with their homemade coleslaw… I asked Simão if it was a good choice and he said that his favourites were some of the other dishes… Well that was good to know but I still stuck with my original choice. I also ordered an orange and carrot and ginger juice - brought up within minutes and very fresh. The tornado was brought a short while later. Amazing presentation… A large swirl of eggs, garnished with a few bits of red cabbage. I think this was the extent of the coleslaw serving and I did wonder where the rest of the ingredients were. I cut into the eggs and was surprised to find this black hard thing beneath their surface. Were the eggs served on an upside down ceramic bowl to give the dome/tornado shape? How unusual I thought! And then were the rest of the ingredients hiding under this little pot? But where was the bread? I was sure I read it was served with a brioche bun… I removed the rest of the tornado from the dark pot so I could turn it over and it was only then when I saw its edges which were not as burnt that I realised that this was not an upside down pot but the brioche bun… And sure enough, the rest of the ingredients were underneath this. I was shocked but maybe they charred the bun on purpose? Was this some sort of creative flavour concept? I cut into it, which was hard to do because it was so hard… And I tried a morsel but all I could taste was burnt bread. This couldn’t be right. I called Simão over and I asked him if the bread was burnt like this on purpose? He looked surprised and said no and he’d ask the kitchen to make it again. A few minutes later, a waitress or manager returned the plate, this time with a more lightly toasted bun and she said that they added two hash browns to say sorry. A nice gesture but was surprised to see that they just replaced the bun and didn’t “make it again”. I mean I’m all for not wasting food and the temperature was just about acceptable but it just meant that the eggs were not served as hot off the pan as you would expect. Regardless of the burnt bun situation, I found the dish quite bland… Maybe my taste buds had been affected by the charred flavour but all I could taste in the stuffing were the mashed potatoes and broccoli… Mostly potato… I couldn’t detect any cheese or sour cream… It needed more flavour. And I loved the cabbage but there wasn’t enough of it. If I were to redesign this dish, I would be more generous with the coleslaw and cheeses and maybe serve the sour cream as a sauce on the side…Perhaps add a sprinkle of chopped walnuts for texture. Just my two pence as a foodie/cook. The hash browns were much more flavoursome. I wasn’t hungry enough to try anything else so I just asked for the bill and was charged in full. Fine but if it were my restaurant, I would never have let such a badly burnt bun leave the kitchen in the first place but if one did, I certainly wouldn’t charge the customer for the experience. Or I would offer dessert and coffee on the house. Something more significant than two small hashbrowns… I am only saying this because as a customer for whom time and money are very precious, it felt disrespectful to be served burnt bread. I am sure it was not intentional but there are many choices for brunch in the area, where I’ve had nothing but flawless experiences and the flavours live up to the description on the menu. Nothing is unforgivable but next time I visit I’ll just try a coffee and pastry. Or one of the dishes that Simão kindly...

Looks nice but you have to wait quite some time and the portions are very small considering it’s already expensive.

I had a Shakshuka for 12€. First of all nothing like the Shakshuka I know that usually comes with bell peppers and a tomato sauce as well as feta cheese. This one had leaks and olives, but it still tastes fine. Regarding the price I would expect it to be enough to satisfy my hunger (btw I am a normal build women and I wasn’t especially hungry). I had the homemade granola and a coffee as well and I was still hungry afterwards. I am from Germany, there the price for Shakshuka is similar and the portions are significantly bigger in my experience.

Regarding the wait: I am fine waiting for a table if every seat is occupied and also the wait for the food was ok. What actually bothered me was waiting half an hour after being seated to be able to order. I guess it was very busy and there was only one waitress serving people/cleaning tables / seating people/taking orders and take care of the payments, so it’s not the...

I will rate the whole experience. This place in nicely located in a quiet neighbourhood in Lisbon. It has outside sitting and it is quite spacious. I ordered coffee and Viennoiserie. The coffee: I usually review specialty coffee in Lisbon and all around the world. The coffee over roasted even maybe it was not specialty coffee. Nothing special to mention. And as you can in the picture they have the milk consistency (this is very common in Lisbon, experience I guess) problem. Coffee did not worth it. The cinnamon roll was very hard on the outside. But I haven’t tried their signature eggs maybe they are nice. Space: as mentioned above they have a very bright and beautiful space. With high ceilings. There were only 4 fans for the whole space and Lisbon is hot during the summer. It wasn’t enough I was sweating the whole time. Add to this the wool covering of the sitting and 🥵 . Staff: lovely 🥰 very attentive...