NUMA CAFÉ — Restaurant in Lisbon

I visited the cafe over five consecutive days, often more than once a day, with the hope of making it my go-to morning coffee spot. The venue is visually stunning and has a lot of appeal at first glance—but unfortunately, the experience didn’t live up to the setting.

The pricing is notably steep—around €5 per coffee (roughly $10 AUD or $6.50 USD). At that price, I expected not only a great product but also consistent, professional service. Unfortunately, neither quite delivered.

The coffee itself was fine, but unremarkable—drinkable, yet nothing that justified the premium. What really let the place down, though, was the service behind the bar. While the wait staff were consistently friendly and welcoming, the baristas came across as curt and inattentive. On about half of my visits, my order was either wrong or had to be remade, which became increasingly frustrating.

I have a strong milk intolerance and experience severe reflux if I’m given dairy instead of the alternative I’ve ordered. It’s not a subtle mistake, and it’s easy to taste when it’s wrong. Yet it kept happening. On my final visit—after spending around €80 over five days—I was handed the wrong coffee again. Rather than risk another uncomfortable exchange after seeing the baristas’ dismissive response, I simply paid and left the drink behind. At that point, it just wasn’t worth it anymore.

It has the look and potential of a great café, but unfortunately the execution—especially in terms of service accuracy and attitude—falls short. If those issues are addressed, it might be worth giving it another try. But for now, I won’t be going out of my...

I’ve had the most ridiculous experience going to work at this cafe. First of all the stuff is really unfriendly, how about training them up for decent customer service? When I went in the tables were all taken so I had to go and sit on stools by the windows. I told one of the waiters to let me know once one of the tables frees up as with lower back pain is not comfortable to work sitting on a stool. He clearly didn’t acknowledge that as I kept an eye out and eventually asked them to move once I saw a free table. Soon after I move, in the middle of doing a serious piece of work, the waiter comes over to tell me his boss asked that I remove the laptop stand im using. I was totally clueless as to why I was requested that and told him to send his boss over to me. I require a laptop stand due to my back problems so there was no way I was going to not use it. So the owner comes over to me and gently tells me they don’t allow anyone to use laptop stands without a bloody reason. I gently responded that it was the most ridiculous rule I’ve ever heard from all of the 100 and 100 cafes I go to work at all over the world. I told her I’d be happy to leave if she offered me the cake I had and she nodded. So I left. Long story short, just another hipster cafe with rude stuff and weird rules. Just go try the lovely The Venue cafe a few minutes down the road, they’ve got a lovely co working space, friendly staff who would have a chat with you and the best...

There are many cafes in the city that do not allow work/laptops, which I totally understand. But I noticed a sign here that explicitly says they allow laptops before closing, from 3-5 PM. Since I live nearby, I decided to try it, and I arrived to do some work for 45 minutes, around 4:15.

But the experience felt very unwelcoming as a worker. First, I set up my laptop and then was asked 5 minutes into working to move to the very corner table of the restaurant. I’m not sure why, or why this wasn’t made clear to me when I walked in and asked if it was ok to work. Even though there were only 2 tables occupied and 10 empty and they were closing soon. There seems to be a customer service cost/benefit analysis that could have been done here. Then, I was asked to pay the bill 15 minutes before closing, which I did, and then I was asked again by different staff 10 minutes before closing. I didn’t feel like they wanted me there working as they cleaned up.

I really understand not wanting laptops/workers in your space, and I understand wanting to close up early — but do not explicitly post a sign welcoming workers during certain hours if they are not indeed welcome.

The coffee and ambience is good if you are...