Las Gringas — Restaurant in Lisbon

Not a place for everyone

I arrived following the recommendation of someone I follow on social media, it was on my list of restaurants to visit, spoiler: I dislike it

My note is based more on the -user experience- I had in the restaurant rather than the food itself, which it was ok, have to say it, but in the same way, my review is holistic and while something was good, other things can be so bad that certainly ruin the experience.

Like the title, it's not for everyone, and definitely not the place I would recommend going if you're hungry. The ambiance is all a mix of “I'm haute cuisine” but at the same time “I'm a nightclub”, which is ok, it's their concept and it's what they sell, but things like such insufficient lighting meant that when the dishes were delivered to the table, the waitress had to flashlight them to inform us what was being delivered... But what really ruined our evening was the ordering system: it is THE MOST ABSURD, INORGANIC and INEFFICIENT from the customer's point of view!!!

To begin with, they do not have any physical menu, everything is based on scanning a QR -which must be with your own device- and then in their own app, after choosing between the two “concepts” that are under the same restaurant “Duro de matar” and “Las Gringas”, both, I must say, a redundancy, without elements that really differentiate them apart.

The ordering process must then be done in this app, not very “user friendly”, that said, it forces you to enter data such as your email and phone, otherwise you can not order. And by the way, the payment has to be made on the spot -electronically in the same app-. At this point I was wondering: What if your phone is w/o battery, damaged or you simply don't have a smartphone? How would they handle the accessibility issue? And also what if you don't agree with having to leave your data to simply eat? I imagine then you wouldn't be able to order.

The food options are varied, but vegan and vegetarian options prevail, relegating to the bottom of a list animal protein dishes to only about 4 if I remember correctly (vs at least 10).

The delivery of the food was to be appreciated, fast, one dish after the other, but the portions were rather small and when you relate it to the price, it might be rather expensive. The taste, yes, quite interesting things with ingredients like funcho and nopal in some of the tostadas, but I must say that I missed some real Tacos al Pastor, because the option they offered was some vegan variant.

At some point in the meal, because of the cumbersome ordering, we missed ordering a drink, when we wanted to do it, again, we had to put the food aside, pick up the phone with our hands full of food and make the ordering process online, even having the person who attended next to us, isn't this just -proposite unnecessary-? Wasn't it easier and faster for the waitress to take the order of a simple drink?

The service was good, the waitress attentive and friendly, but her role was to do a tutorial on how to order on the app and later, to solve problems with orders -whether they were placed or not, whether they were paid or not- . If what was wanted was to save time in service, it was definitely not achieved.

At the time of payment, another ordeal. There is the option to pay directly with the card number, but frankly I do not feel comfortable giving so much data in one place; therefore we used MBway, but those who know this sends a confirmation code and as its logical is automatically canceled within minutes after confirmation request, and the payment request is made at the time of ordering, this meant about 8min extras that could be avoided if only you could pay with a card in normal mode or that the bill was issued at the end of the service.

In short, it seemed to me a concept that may be cool in idea but very poorly implemented, where the, ehm, snobbery? took precedence over the user experience which unfortunately for us was lousy, damaging what could have been a good dinner.

Ambience 2/5 Experience 1/5 Food 3/5 (for the...

Two days ago we found ourselves craving Mexican Food. Since we are located nearby and Las Gringas had excellent rating, we decided on giving it a try. Let me tell you, this is a place not to be missed! Although the place was already packed (we made no reservation), we were welcomed very friendly, were given free appetizers in the meantime and they arranged extra chairs. This was a good opportunity to get familiar with their ordering system - a rather simple process, you can pick your drinks, food and pay by credit card (no cash here, so be aware). After being seated, Duan (hopefully I'm spelling this right :-) - took his time to show us their special back room, explain all the dishes, making sure we were content and he even let us sample their speciality which is braised pork skin! All in all, we felt like we were having dinner at a Mexican Family's home and were really happy with our experience. We shared 5 Gringitas (Duan explained in which order to eat it and which toppings they go with best) which was the perfect amount to share for 2 people. Everything was outstanding!!! If we had to give a recommendation make sure to try the shrimp gringita...

Ontem fomos celebrar o aniversário de um amigo italiano que escolheu cuidadosamente o restaurante Las Gringas, ele fez a reserva pessoalmente e foi super bem acolhido desde do início.

Fomos abordados inicialmente por uma colaboradora da sala muito simpática e gentil, uma rapariga jovem loira e muito educada. Explicou o conceito do restaurante, nos deu sugestão e foi bem esclarecedora e atenciosa em cada detalhe.

Achamos o sistema de pedidos uma grande confusão, uma vez que não se sabe ao certo se foi pago ou não, pois não aceitam cash e nenhum dos 6 amigos presentes receberam a confirmação se o pedido foi adiante ou não, pois a aplicação ficava somente conferindo Stock.

Em seguida começaram a chegar os pedidos e veio desorganizado, pedidos a mais, bebidas que não havíamos solicitado, pedido confirmado de bebidas que não tinham no Stock.

Mas na verdade isso não nos causou constrangimentos, estávamos super relax, pois estávamos a celebrar e o mais importante é que a comida era realmente boa, saborosa, fresca e o ambiente super clean, música de qualidade.

Entretanto na hora de trazer os pedidos veio uma segunda colaboradora de sala a entregar, ela era um pouco mais calorosa na sua abordagem, explicamos que na mesa tinha pessoas que não falavam português e estávamos nos organizando para perceber os pedidos uma vez que veio tudo um pouco misturado, sem nomes e houve algumas confusões com os pedidos da mesa ao lado, ela nos respondeu com um ar de zangada 😡 “pois então fiquem atentos” quando na verdade ela errou de mesa diversas vezes por desatenção, sinceramente não percebemos o porque dessa hostilidade, mas ignoramos e seguimos a comer aquela comida maravilhosa e autêntica!

Aproveitamos cada momento, a casa nos ofertou um bolo para o aniversariante, que estava mesmo muito bom, três leites! Um espetáculo!

A parte mais constragedora foi a hora de pagar, a rapariga mais jovem que nos acolheu inicialmente, pediu para conferirmos as nossas contas para saber se o valor foi debitado e os que não foram pagar com cartão, foi tudo tranquilo, algumas pessoas da nossa mesa o pagamento deu certo pelo site do menu (QR CODE) e outras não, mas estava tudo bem. Estávamos a pagar tranquilamente, faltavam apenas dois amigos para checar quando a outra colaboradora da sala chegou e com muita hostilidade e tamanha deselegância com a sua colega pediu para ela sair que ela faria o restante, tomou a máquina do cartão da mão da rapariga e começou a amaçar papéis dos recibos e a hostilizar a sua colega mais jovem. Achamos essa acção muito desnecessária,, uma rudez e antipatia com a sua própria colega de trabalho na frente de 6 clientes. Para finalizar, a colaboradora mais que sofreu tamanha hostilidade não deixou se abalar pelo desrespeito, nos deu um belo sorriso, nos salutou com muito carinho no olhar agradeceu.

Nós ficamos com o coração partido de ver a cena, mas ao mesmo tempo ficamos impressionados com a educação, postura, cortesia e profissionalismo que a rapariga mais nova manteve diante desta situação.

Vamos voltar? Claro que sim! Tudo ótimo e indico de olhos fechados, qualidade da comida é mesmo impecável.

Foi uma experiência incrível, 5 estrelas. A única sugestão é que a senhora que trabalha na sala tenha mais respeito pela sua colega de trabalho! E desenvolva uma comunicação...