Mama — Restaurant in Lisbon

Be careful that here are mixed reviews some for the hotel “mama shelter” and some for the restaurant “mama restaurant” - so check them carefully as some for the restaurant are saved at the hotel … but there are some patterns emerging …

Design: When you open the door you can be overwhelmed by the special interior design - cosy, rather low lighting perfect for first dates … expressive color coding… have a look at the pattern of their carpets … wow … let it swing baby …

Ok but now to the essentials for you if you decide to come here for the food and drinks and not only to shine as mr/mrs big show-off: as starters we had “Steak Tatar” that has a great combination of the tartar being served in a shrimp crisp - so the combination is nice crispy and joyful. Nevertheless a bit salt seemed to be missing also here.

The other starter “Ceviche” was missing spice and flavor unfortunately. Did not feel and taste like a proper ceviche process - but maybe we we just unlucky… but the not-so-well-spiced pattern remained during the unfolding evening ..

But maybe some distraction with the cocktails: they took 30 minutes to arrive at our table which is a sign of the seemingly uncoordinated or untrained staff here … but wow “mama loves you”’ is indeed a great blend of comforting flavors and a recommendation from my side. So that offered some comfort for the wait we had and the observable chaos in service at other tables.

As mains, we had “Pork cheeks” that were perfectly done, falling apart by looking at them with a nice sweet potatoes side dish. My “Octopus”was very soft and tender as it should be (so compliments to the chefs) but at the same time the combination with the cold humus was a bit uninspiring and missed some flavor contrast. The Promised Pine nuts and paprika (listed on the menue) were missing maybe that was the issue.

So finally : cool interior design, lively crowd mixed with hotel guests, food is good price for value - but seemed to be missing some spicing and service had some troubles - but this can be seasonal or day performance related. But something to look into by management if you want to position Mama into the cool-vibe-side of things in Lisboa - Interior design...

We did not enjoy our evening here.

Positives: nice atmosphere, food is pretty decent, if a bit overpriced.

Negatives: double bookings are done on tables without informing you at time of reservation. We were 10 people and only heard this when we arrived. We had 2 hours to have our meal.

The service on a Saturday was pretty slow, making the already very limited timeframe set by the restaurant impossible. If it takes 15 minutes after ordering to receive a drink, how are people supposed to finish an entire meal in 2h?

Empty dishes were on our table for quite some time before being asked if we wanted desert. The bill then arrived, without being asked, BEFORE the deserts were all served.

Double shifts on a Saturday are not uncommon, but they need to be communicated ahead of time and the pace of service needs to match the time allowed by the restaurant itself.

Suggestions:

A 2h timeframe for a table of 10 people is very short. Consider setting different timeframes for larger tables.

Make sure there are enough menus. We only received a food menu when we were there for almost half an hour. We received THREE menus for 10 people

You have to inform people when they book. They could decide this is not enough time and book somewhere else. When they show up on a Saturday evening, they no longer have the option to change restaurant because all restaurants are booked. This goes for the website, over the phone and in person bookings.

All in all: perhaps this is a nice place if there’s two of you and you go on a weekday. Our experience...

Bad experience at Mama Shelter Lisbon. Very slow service and to make worse when the group of 10 people arrived we were told that we had to leave by 10pm (nothing was said to us at the time of booking, not even in the confirmation email). If we had informed, we would not have made this reservation.

We all arrived sharp at 8:00 pm, but at 8:45 pm we still weren't served. My dessert arrived at 10 pm, when a member of the staff was already handing the POS to pay and a few minutes later the manager Bernardo was already at our table saying that we had to leave because there was a group waiting.

Bad organization, lack of communication, expensive dinner (50€ each person) for what we were offered, and manager Bernardo arrogance who didn't even listen to us … he was just worried about the other group. We feel discriminated due to their arrogant and almost offensive attitude to the well-being of customers who had to leave in the middle of dessert. We were treated like 2nd class customers. To forget and not repeat again.

Horrible experience makes me never want to go back, and we have great alternatives in Lisbon with better quality and cheaper (we paid €50 each one). As Portuguese living in Lisbon I suggest you...