O Talho — Restaurant in Lisbon

Came here for New Year's after reading pretty good reviews, comparing the food to Michelin star level. Sadly in my opinion the food was very average. Not bad but there was no stand out dish. I had the 5 course taster menu, though it was 6 courses on the night. My girlfriend ordered a Ceviche which was good, a steak which in my opinion was no different to steak ordered anywhere else and there was certainly no melt in the mouth moments. My 6 courses started with amuse bouche - a fois gras cookie, it was fine but nothing amazing. The first course a singular meat croquette with a sauce lacked much depth. The next was Carpaccio - a good dish, delicate vand flavoursome but then again, nothing spectacular. Next was steak tartare with vodka shot and I believe seaweed (sushi wrapping) ..I didn't really see how either added anything to the experience. Up next was duck, the presentation of the dish was good and the flavours worked well, probably my favourite dish of the taster menu. The last two meat courses were a tandoori lamb chop and then chateaubriand, both were fairly good but not mind-blowing. The dessert of which i had no choice over was the brownie and it was sadly underwhelming.

Service: The hosts were attentive. They do try and sell extras like their own gin, which I had - it was okay, quite smooth .. wines, whiskey's, breads etc. To be fair it wasn't really a hard sell and we either said yes or no and this was respected.

Amboence: It's a nice setting, there were a few others there when we went but not too busy, but we went early. We did notice a few mosquitos flying about from time to time which I had read about, but it didn't bother us too much.

Overall I think the food was okay but I was expecting to be wowed based on reviews. I acknowledge that the price point isn't so expensive for a taster menu at 75 euros but still I expected more and the bill obviously comes out higher with drinks and extras. My partner also felt the same and was glad she didn't go for the taster menu. I will give them credit that both of us didn't have to go for the taster menu as many restaurants say the whole table...

After the reply I have received for my previous review, I have to change my original score, and classify this restaurant with an even lower classification. It is of very poor taste to consider that, as this was my first review on Google, I "wouldn't know what I am talking about". It is even more distasteful to consider that, just because I have given a poor review to your restaurant, that would mean that I am "not used" to fine dining restaurants, which is not the case. The way you treat a poor review speaks volumes about the quality of your customer service, and trying to diminish a customer's opinion by making him feel inferior is utterly unacceptable. For your information, I have frequented fine dining restaurants in the past, and your poor excuse for a restaurant is by far the worst I have ever gone to; I would even dare say that, other than the astonishingly overpriced value of the meal, nothing else in my experience at your restaurant can be considered fine dining. As you may well know, word-of-mouth is one of the most crucial ways to establish a strong customer base, and with your answer to my previous review, you may rest assured that I will spread the poor experience I have had in your restaurant to everyone I know. I am still astounded at the way you immediately offend someone who has simply answered to a review that you have requested in the first place. I keep the constructive criticism I have given on my original review, and add the fact that you desperately need a new management team running this restaurant, as the type of answer you have given to my original review is simply unacceptable, and borderline offensive. You may rest assured that this was the last time I have set foot in your restaurant, and will make it my personal challenge to strongly advise everyone I know to avoid going there. I do not expect this review to be live at your Google space for long, as I am sure you will remove it as soon as you see it, but I hope the little time it stays on will be enough to demotivate at least some people of going there....

Extremely terrible experience, unpleasant surprise ! I reserved a table for six people for a business dinner at 21.30 a week ago and received an SMS confirmation stating that the reservation is for two hours with a 15-minute tolerance. My guests and I arrived at 21:20, and the waitress suggested we wait at the bar until our table was ready for dinner. At 21:50, the restaurant was full and nothing indicated that a table for six would be made available anytime soon, so I asked the waitress and replied that the table we reserved is not ready yet because the customers were not leaving as expected, despite the fact that they informed them that the next reservation was already there, which was completely not true!!! At 22:15, I asked the manager again, and she proposed us to stay at the bar for dinner!!! I reserved a table for a business dinner and was unable to propose this to my guests. The most astounding thing was that it was almost 22:30 and I observed clients who were meant to leave at the latest at 21:45 ordering food. I immediately asked the manager what was going on, and the guilt was again placed on the customers, which was completely inappropriate!!! Finally, without any other options for dinner, we chose to sit at the bar. You can't imagine how insulted I was infront of my guests. We ordered at 22:50, and it was clear that someone accidentally assigned our table to those customers because we watched them leave at 23:30!!!! So the story that was told to us was a massive fraud!!! I would have appreciated it if they had told us right away that they had made a mistake and that our table was not available for dinner; instead, they were looking for an excuse rather than accepting responsibility for their own mistake! The restaurant charged us 630€ for six people, which was completely unreasonable and poorly managed. The food was nice, but I would not recommend it for any purpose unless you are willing to...