O castico restaurant — Restaurant in Lisbon

If you’ve ever dreamed of dining in a beautiful location, being rushed through your meal like it’s a speed-eating competition, and paying premium prices for subpar food, look no further! This restaurant is the place for you.

We arrived late (22:15) due to a delayed flight, and though the menu outside didn’t scream “culinary masterpiece,” we decided to give it a shot after a friendly waiter assured us they were still open and had "lots of nice things." Spoiler alert: the “lots of nice things” did not include service, food quality, or basic hospitality.

Our welcome committee consisted of a waitress who clearly wanted us gone the moment we walked in. She exuded the charm of a DMV clerk on a Monday morning. Ordering, eating, and paying the bill took a total of 25 minutes. No dessert allowed—because who eats dessert in a restaurant open until 11 PM, right?

When we dared to ask for a wine recommendation, we were told, “All of them are good. Just choose one.” Inspirational stuff. As for the food, let’s just say it was an adventure for the brave. The seafood—a mix of clams, mussels, and sea bass—was either trying to escape the plate or past its prime. Overcooked, tiny, and likely in the early stages of decomposition. On the bright side, the sauce was lovely. Small victories.

Portion sizes were minimalist, which I suppose was a blessing given the quality. The bread came with butter so precious they charge €1.10 for a mini pack, enough for one person to begrudgingly spread on a slice before resentment sets in.

Throughout the meal, we were treated to the look—a mix of disdain and impatience—as the staff practically hovered over us, snatching plates before we even finished and making it abundantly clear that we were no longer welcome.

In conclusion: amazing location, lamentable experience. Overpriced, underwhelming, and utterly forgettable—except for the regret. Good luck to anyone else who ventures here; I’ll be wishing my stomach...

My expectations were set way too high because of the reviews. Honestly, this place is terrible. We had the seafood paella and the grilled sea bass. Sauce from the seafood paella could have been from a cheap canned supermarket brand, seafood was way too little, shrimp were tiny and overdone and mussels were incredibly small.

Grilled sea bass was literally a pan fried sea bass. No flavor or anything just a plain grilled sea bass accompanied with regular baked potatoes also plain and veggies on the side that seemed to be defrosted from the frozen food section at any supermarket.

Huge disappointment. I never leave reviews but I feel so strongly negative towards this place that I feel obligated to warn people because of how overpriced the food here was and how stupid I feel for falling for all these phenomenal reviews. I wanted to treat my girlfriend to something special on our last night and I couldn’t finish half the meal because of how let down I was.

Also, we were offered that “special house wine” on the house as well (mentioned in other reviews) probably only because the staff could see the look on our faces while we were eating here. We did...

So, this one is a little complicated if I’m honest. Made reservations for a lovely dinner with friends, saw that they had great reviews so we were excited. We were greeted with smiles at the door, most of the patrons were internationals. Service was kind and fast at the beginning, our food arrived and unfortunately, out of the 3 different dishes we ordered, mine (the paella negra) came out very overcooked and completely flavourless. My friends dishes, the chicken paella and the octopus were spectacular!! I unfortunately had to say something and sent back my food and replaced it. Our server was not unkind after that but I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome. The second time around my food was perfect. No words were exchanged and we left as soon as I finished my meal…they did not charge me for 2 meals, but I did have to ask for a price adjustment… the food I ended up getting was less expensive than the original dish… Recommend: the octopus is again spectacular Don’t order: the house wine...