O Velho Eurico — Restaurant in Lisbon

This spot came recommended to us by our walking tour guide and, based on the online reviews, my girlfriend and I were really looking forward to our dinner here after having spent all day in Belem. We were especially craving Octopus, as we hadn't tried any yet during our (first-time) stay in Lisbon, so were hoping to finally satisfy that craving here.

I say all of the following as someone who also works in the restaurant industry and is sympathetic and aware of the many things that can cause a restaurant team to misfire on any given night: but the night of our visit here was a definite misfire in terms of the food we received.

We arrived to find a completely packed restaurant and were told it would be a 30-40 minute wait. Again, because it came so recommended to us, we were fine to wait outside while we built our anticipation and chatted with another young couple. We actually ended up killing most of the wait time in this way, so no issues so far on our end!

We were finally seated after about 45 minutes of waiting, but were in good spirits and eager to order. Joao greeted us and he was funny and helpful with suggestions. We quickly placed our order with him and waited for the main event to arrive while we enjoyed our red wine.

During our wait, we were set up with cutlery and side plates. My girlfriend's side plate was completely chipped on multiple sides (not small nicks, but good-sized chunks missing) so we kindly asked the female server to provide us with another one. For some reason or another, we were met with a roll of the eyes and a huffing of breath. We figured that she was probably tired from a long and busy night, so chose to brush it off and say nothing.

Again. I work in the industry as well. So I completely understand.

Finally, the food arrived. The portions... were small.

The Octopus was overcooked and with way too much char -- and I like char! I probably could have forgiven this if it wasn't for the fact that it was also completely drowning in oil. The garlic on top also looked and tasted like it was about ten seconds away from being completely burnt. So any real nuance of flavour that I assume this dish would traditionally have was completely lost on us.

What was essentially a Duck Breast Fried Rice was also drowning in oil. It being a duck dish, I know it's going to be a bit on the oily side, but I could have made dressing for a big salad with the amount of oil at the bottom of the hot ceramic plate it was served in. Speaking of which, the entire bottom of the plate was completely coated in burnt rice -- signaling, again, that the dish was overcooked during the heating process. I understand that some rice dishes feature a crispy bottom (like, for example, a Persian Tahdig), but this was not crispy or toasted. It was flat-out a layer of burnt and inedible rice -- we couldn't even scrape it off the plate.

I don't know if it's because it was the end of the night for the kitchen team, but the consistency and quality we were expecting just wasn't there. At all.

We debated saying something but were honestly too tired and disappointed to put up a fight and get our food rectified or find another place to eat. We ate what we could of the rice and washed down the Octopus with sips of red wine, politely engaging with the staff until the end of our meal. To this end, we did get a complimentary shot of an almond liqueur to finish our meal -- which was a nice gesture and the highlight of our experience here.

This place is clearly popular, so this review won't affect much. However, we ate at a lot of places during our short stay here in Lisbon -- we just love good food -- and they all met or surpassed our expectations. It's just a shame we weren't able to experience the best that O Velho...

Hostile and Arrogant Service

I’m usually not overly sensitive to the quality of service in restaurants and believe that the food comes first. However, in this case, I was not only poorly served but outright disrespected.

The restaurant has a hipster vibe, with every inch of the walls scribbled with phrases and drawings. Hipsters usually cook well, so I don’t mind that—but I wasn’t prepared for the arrogance and blasé attitude of the staff, who ignored me for no less than 30 minutes, despite the fact that I was seated alone right in the center of the tiny venue.

There were seven tables around me, and ALL of them had been served drinks and a starter of bread, pâté, and cheese, while no one even glanced in my direction for over 30 minutes after I sat down. I was one of the first to arrive at the restaurant, even before it opened, and one of the first to be seated. Yet, people without reservations were already seated and served, and by the time someone finally attended to me, one of the tables had already been served three different courses. Even though I found this odd, I didn’t complain and ordered a dish and a glass of wine.

Forty minutes later, the server brought me a glass of red wine, even though I had ordered white. I voiced my complaint and mentioned that I felt ignored, as every other table had been eating and drinking for a while. The response I got was that they try to serve everyone simultaneously and there was no particular order. However, it’s highly suspicious that I was the only solo diner in the room and the only one ignored by the service.

The dish I ordered was served at 1:20 PM—50 minutes after service began—by which time one of the tables had already eaten three courses and left. The dish itself wasn’t bad, although it was quite simple (cuttlefish with a buttery ink sauce), but I had already lost my appetite due to the disrespectful treatment and didn’t order anything else.

When I asked for the bill, I told another server that I wouldn’t be leaving a tip because I hadn’t been well served. Unsurprisingly, she ignored me, didn’t ask any questions, didn’t say a word, and didn’t even thank me for visiting the restaurant.

--

Adding more context because they lied in their response.

My dish didn't come late because it was some kind of special request. As I mentioned in my review, every table had different dishes being served and one of them already had finished THREE different dishes before mine arrived. Funny coincidence that the dish that the solo diner seating in the middle of the restaurant without even a glass of water on the table is the one that gets the lowest priority anyway.

I was only offered bread, cheese and pate AFTER I complained, for once, that every table was served this and water, besides drinks and food, while my table was still empty. The response was: they ordered it, to which I replied: it's not on the menu and you didn't offer me (how would I know???). Only then they asked if I wanted some but why would I order this couvert so late. Just didn't make sense anymore.

I never said that nothing on the menu looked interesting. The descriptions given for the dishes were like: "what is the secret pork?" - "It's pork meat". "Rice and beans, is that only rice and beans?" - "Yes". My comment is that all sounded simple, and when I asked for suggestion the response was: "everything is good". The person acting...

I am torn between wanting to give O Velho Erico six stars because five stars is not enough and wanting to give it three stars to help keep it a (not so) hidden gem. My husband and I ignorantly tried to go without a reservation around 8:30 pm on a Friday night, and one of the staff very kindly told us there was no way we’d get a table and immediately made a few recommendations for nearby restaurants (he absolutely didn’t have to do that, but we’re so grateful he did - we went with Boca D’Uva and it was incredible)

We returned at 11:35 on Saturday to try and get in with the lunch rush. We were the first ones to queue and started to get a little stressed as lots of groups showed up and seemingly jumped ahead. Most were people with reservations, but a few walk-ins weren’t necessarily following a first-come, first-served policy. If you’re actually the first ones there, I recommended positioning yourself to the left of the door- the staff seem to look there first and the queue kind of naturally trails back to the wall/next to the parked mopeds. We were a little more assertive than usual, because we didn’t want to miss out if multiple groups jumped ahead, but we got seated with the first wave of walk ins. It looked like once the reservations and initial walk-ins were seated, they took names and worked through each group in order.

We ordered the watermelon/tomato salad, the squid, the chicken peri peri, the duck rice, and the chocolate mousse and all were fantastic. If we’d had room, we would have gotten the bread (big, fluffy, hot) and a dip or pate to accompany.

The watermelon/tomato salad came with burrata and a delicious crispy/breaded topping and was a really pleasing play on texture. The tomatoes were flavorful and the high quality olive oil took everything to the next level. The squid was soft and light (in the best way), and the succulent chicken was perfect with a slight charcoaled finish. (We are vegetarian when we’re not traveling, and the peri peri sauce will live rent free in my head until I can find something similar for pairing with beans.)

The duck rice was a generous serving. It was rich and I loved the crunchy sear on the top/sides. The chocolate mousse was dense and perfect for sharing.

The staff were really kind and energetic. We were definitely dumb tourists but they didn’t make us feel bad about it and we were very impressed by their flow and ability to manage a tiny, jam packed dining area.

The music was great, the atmosphere was so cool - I’m so glad we were able to make this happen. If we had known better, we would have made a reservation weeks in advance, but it was worth rolling the dice and building a day around trying to get a...