La Serra — Restaurant in Lisbon

Max here, your local guide with La Serra, a place you definitely should try out.

Summary: (5/5) Authentic, great napolitan style pizza with interestung combinations for an overall adequate price.

Detailed below: This place proudly states on instagram to have the best pizza in Lisboa. And they additionally advertise quite a lot. So, I was critical but after reviewing reviews and pictures, I was confident that they could deliver on their promise. And low and behold they did. After living in Rome for several years and making proper Pizza at home regularly as on of my staples, I am confident to judge a pizza well. In the end, it's always hard to say if there is a single "best", especially with more simple foods like pizza that rely on craftsmanship and only a few ingredients but this place gets the maximum out of tier pizza.

Food: (5/5) I tried a variety of things, not all of which was pizza. But I will start off with the pizza nonetheless. The pizta is made in a proper oven, you can judge that easily by the quality you receive as well as the time it takes (around 5 minuts maximum, probably way less). I loved the combinations they offered with quality timato sauce, yellow tomato sauce, or even 3 spicy meat selections. I went with the La Serra, a great sweet and savory combination. Definitely by far one of my favorite pizzas in Lisbon. I loved the dough, being a perfect balance between soft slightly crunchy. Also, the yeast dough is definitely slowly grown, very good stuff altogether. I could have easily had a second one because it was really good. The non-pizza part: Was still very good, albeit not on the same level. The starter was some toasted bread with dips. The dips were self-made and quite good but I did not like the chocies (they serve 3 dips, only one of which is proper italian). The olive dip was good, the cocktail-sauce dip a bit misplaced, as was the baba ghanoush one. I would have preferred if they made a green basil dip, a burrata dip, a tomato dip and for a nice extravagance, went with the olive dip they served. Lastly, the mascarpone crumble was an "interesting" experience. Mostly because I expected a crumbledough in a mascarpone base. But it was the other way around. It was a crumple base that was surprisingly dense and impossibly hard to eat with the spoon (the spoon bent and we switched to knife and fork or opted to eat it like a cookie) with a hint of mascarpone on top. Flavour-wise it was still very good, just not optimal for eating maybe in a restaurant and the structure was a bit stiff.

Atmosphere: (5/5) What a cool place. We sat outside and it's nice although you hear the street close by. But inside it looks very cool, cozya strong date vibe or fancy-alternative vibe. Would recommend to sit inside.

Service: (4/5) Was good. We were a bit confused when we ordered some artichoke onto the pizzza (something they offer) and the waiter did not know what an artichoke was and came back after asking in the kitchen if we could even order that to explain to us what an artichoke even was - which we knew - that's why we ordered it. Otherwise, we felt very well cared for and the staff was super friendly and funny. We loved the experience here.

Price: (4/5) You pay between 14-18€ for a pizza if I remember correctly, so it is on the pricier side of restaurants , particularly pizza restaurants. But you get what you paid for. Good quality and a good experience.

Strong...

DONT GO THERE! ARROGANT STAFF, HORRIBLE FOOD! Most horrible experience I‘ve ever been through when it comes to service at a restaurant. When we came to the restaurant the first waitress had no idea which brands of alcohol they are using for making their cocktails. When we asked which gin they use she simply answered: It’s called gin. We wanted to order some starters like bread with dips which she replied they run out of due to the amount of people who had already ordered it. It was beginning of the evening and we where one of the first people within the restaurant. When we ordered drinks one of them arrived in a super small cup in comparison to the others. We asked why? The waitress simply answered: Oh no, they are the same size. We thought she was making fun of us. Since out of nowhere a waiter came and even pulled the liquid from the smaller glass into a bigger one to show us that it is the same, which I told him he used a wrong glass from the beginning because it was way bigger then the one he gave us. He LITERALLY poured the liquid in front of all of us on the table and said with a very arrogant voice: Look, this is the same amount! After that happened we ordered the bill right away and wanted to leave, when the owner stepped in and apologized for it. The night was already ruined. Neither the waiter, nor the waitress came to apologize. A truly terrible experience. We didn’t even order the mains in the end and left after some really disappointing starters. The lasagna tasted like a microwave-ready-to-go one from the supermarket. I would NEVER EVER go...

i do not recommend going there. i went there yesterday with a few friends to celebrate my birthday. To start, the staff was a bit clueless as they didnt know which was my table, the brand of the gin or if they had a menu in english. when i arrived i ordered some couvert, and they said they didnt have it anymore because all the other tables had ordered so much (there were literally 4 tables taken, the rest was empty). then we ordered some gin tonic and two of them came in normal glasses, but the third one came in a super small glass. when we asked they said they didnt have any more gin glasses and one employee was completely arrogant about it. if you dont have couvert and glasses in an empty restaurant, something is wrong with your business. but, things happen, we understand, it is the attitude that we couldnt stand. we immediately decided to leave after having only a few starters and one of my friends had the lasagna… in general, the little food we had time to have was disappointing. the owner came and tried to apologise but the mood was already...