Estrela da Sé — Restaurant in Lisbon

I’ve been meaning to post this review for a bit, but my thoughts on Estrela de Se go well beyond simple, initial observations on food, beverages, ambiance, etc. All of which are off the charts here, more to come on those notes.

There are a great number of killer restaurants in Lisbon that check off all the above boxes, but what puts Estrela de Se into another category of greatness are the owners – Alex and Lola. He mans the front of the house, and candidly who gets in, while supplying a steady stream of remarkable blues music, and she deftly orchestrates the kitchen.

My fiancée and I stepped into the restaurant on our first evening in Lisbon wanting to get a bite after a long flight and were greeted with a glass of wine (despite being in a trucker hat, Vans and a puffer jacket [smile]) by Alex. We sat down on the only two barstools (now with our names on them) and a lifelong friendship began. Not just with Alex and Lola, but with a small circle of close friends that they invited us to join.

I appreciate most readers want to know they’ll get a good meal and fine drink – you will, in spades! Have the tuna and fries, for sure. And the burger. Drink anything Alex pours – red or white (maybe some Macieira) and make sure to save room for Lola’s chocolate desert!

But don’t just go for a meal, seep into the ambiance and history of the restaurant, look at the pictures on the wall, listen to the music, explore the separate dining spaces where many secrets, lies and other stories have been shared for the past 50 years.

This is not just a place to break bread, it’s a place to take a breadth, put down your phone, make new friends and find a little something new and interesting in yourself. ...

While the location is good, the ambiance quirkily cozy and the food satisfactory, the service at this restaurant was appallingly poor.

• The normal ambition to ensure guests are served food and drink concurrently was nonexistent.

• Only after reminding our waiter that we had also ordered a bottle of wine did it finally arrive, long after our food had been served.

• Instead of apologizing for the delay and pouring the wine in our glasses, our waiter just placed the bottle bluntly on our table and left again.

• There were no forks on our table so these had to be requested separately.

• Replenishing our tiny breadbasket took an astonishing ten minutes. The bread was not fresh, possibly a day old.

Maybe the waiter had a bad night. I sincerely hope this was the case. But it seems more likely that something else is going on. That it's perhaps time for this waiter to move on and discover some other, less customer-facing, service-oriented vocation. His unapologetic disinterest in providing us with a memorable dining experience was clearly not a priority. Therefore, I strongly suggest spending your hard-earned money elsewhere when eating in...

• I am updating my review after receiving a comment from restaurant * The restaurant replied my comment saying it was my fault to give 1star because everyone gave 4,5 star to them. The reason why google has this review system is to help people avoid restaurant like you. Look up my other views about restaurant in Porto and Lisbon. I am very generous giving good review. Please learn to accept what you did wrong and try to develop the food and service. However, you just blamed the customer who actually came to your restaurant, paid for the food and left comment on that. Leaving bad response to customer doesn’t add any value to your restaurant. I love Lisbon and come to the city next time. Hope this experience doesn’t hurt my entire experience. Cheers.

Not even 1 star Very very disappointing lunch. The tomato salad was just tomato with coriander. Vegi soup was nothing just mixing some greens and coriander. Calamari was worst I’ve ever had. I couldn’t find any clue about calamari but it’s just fried dough. I don’t understand how come people give 4.6 stars to this garbage restaurant. Total waste of money...