Dom Feijão — Restaurant in Lisbon

MAKE A RESERVATION!

Dom Feijão is a staple in Lisbon's restaurant scene, having been around for a long time.

A traditional, old school portuguese cuisine restaurant, Dom Feijão specializes in traditional national dishes.

It is not easy to get a table so my advice is to make a reservation.

On saturdays (lunch time) they don't take reservations, so if you're planning on going there make sure you go in early (before 12 am) to get a table. Otherwise you will have to wait for someone to vacate a table for you.

The staff are all hardoworkers and they keep going back and forth throughout the restaurant, diligently attending the clients.

I really have no negative things to point out other than the trouble getting a table, which is really not their fault (high demand).

Dom Feijão is a high quality, traditional restaurant with affordable prices and it stands out for it's adherence to an old fashion approach and it's consistency in delivering a good dining service.

A sure-footed choice...

It is hard to find in Lisbon today a restaurant that serves excellent food in traditional sizes. Frequently, you get one or the other. Shrinkflation has been the coping mechanism for many restaurants to growing demand and escalating costs.

So to find a restaurant that has retained excellent food and generous portion sizes…well it is worth a review.

I had Cozido à Portuguesa - no longer a popular choice but this one was delicious and traditionally sized. Thankfully I have a 30 minute walk to my hotel…

The atmosphere is open and pleasant but there is no view to speak of but who needs one when you are hellbent on making a dent in your lunch.

My dessert of Sericaia com ameixa (dense egg flan from Elvas served with a stewed plum) was probably a bridge too far after the Cozido but was so good I managed just fine.

This is not a place for those practicing portion control but if you need to experience proper Portuguese food just once then be prepared to queue and be the only foreigner...

Ate here a few times, trying to understand the hype about it and never really seeing anything remarkable about the food. But most intriguing is how self important is everyone in the staff, as the hype has clearly got to their heads.

Today the restaurant was going through refurbishments and another place was opened in a neighboring slot. I stoped by to check on the new premisses and since I had already lunched, sat down at one of many empty tables (it was past 2 pm) and asked for a coffee. The waiter told me they only serve coffee to clients that order a meal.

Now, in my rulebook, if you are in the hospitality business you don’t refuse serving a coffee, at 2PM, in a half-empty house, specially to a customer who has patroned the place before.

I’ll not return there because there’s just no reason to do so: no remarkable food, always an edgy service (when not blatantly inhospitable, like today) and much pricier than 90% of Lisbon’s restaurants of the...