Oficina do Duque — Restaurant in Lisbon

I was very disappointed by the hostile welcome my daughter and I received at lunchtime today at Oficina Do Duque despite making a reservation online for 1.30pm we stood by the entrance and were ignored by a few members of staff. I eventually hailed down a male South Asian member of staff who had a bloodshot eye and was told in a very dismissive manner that there were no tables and there was a minimum 30 minutes wait. He then tried to walk off at which time I told him I had a reservation. He then said I could sit anywhere and then walked off.

I sat down and again was just left there and ignored. I got up after about 5/6 minutes and went to the bar area where I met another member of staff who I complained to, who then attended to me. The same other staff member who dismissed me I noticed was very cordial to other people who came in who happened to be white (unlike myself who is black). They were greeted nicely and asked if they had a reservation. When they didn’t they were escorted to an area to wait for a table unlike myself who was just dismissed and ignored despite having a reservation.

It is unfortunate that this member of staff made the initial experience at the restaurant so unwelcoming as everything else was great. I loved the floor tiling and the luxurious touches of gold throughout the interior dining area. For starters we had the bread and duck pate which was good. The oxtail with the pear purée was exactly what I didn’t know that I needed. All the other reviews singing it’s praises were spot on.

I had was wanted to get the chocolate dessert as or sounded amazing but after our initial experience I was put off ordering any more food and possibly waiting...

Me and my girlfriend was wandering around Lisbon, looking for a place to eat and find Oficina do Duque. It has (like everything in Lisbon) high rating on google and after a short look we decide to give it a try. We are sat down, waiters are nice and the table good.

We order wine, first and main courses. Our wine is served a little to hot, but not a big deal.

Our first courses arrive after one hour:

One course of chicken and one with their sliders.

The 2 pieces of chicken was overcooked by a few hundred percent, not even a dog would eat it (maybe a labrador would actually).

The burger buns had (hopefully) unintenionally gotten 3 hours to long in the oven.

After 40 more minutes we got our main courses (the table that sat down next to us 20 minutes after ordering was ready to leave, they had already gotten all their courses).

The steak was WELL-done even though it was ordered medium. I usually dont eat to much meat and feel bad about it going to waste, but i ate 10% of the steak and had to give up, it was again not edible. I turned to the fries and thought to myself, that atleast this, they cant mess up. But the fact was, that 2/3 of my fries was raw inside. My girlfriend ordered chicken pasta, and got a tortilla wrap with chicken inside.

This place tries to make everything look like as if its "finer" dining: dont be fooled like us.

Gave it 2 in atmosphere just because the waiter that removed the steak from the bill was nice and apoligized several times.

TLDR:

Long waits with no serving. They overcook meat. They serve raw fries. Chicken pasta is a tortilla wrap with chicken inside.

They cant cook, go...

Based on the excellent reviews on the site I went up the hill and headed to Oficina do Duque. I started with a glass of vino verse which was okay. Followed with the octopus which was quite chewy. I am a high fan of octopus so this was a bit of disappointment. Also I am not sure that the mix with the seaweed, potato and octopus albeit looking great actually works in terms of taste combination not bad bit not fantastic either. However when mentioning the octopus was not up to par, service response was fantastic and this is also very important. So big save by the waitress in this one :).

I then ordered the rice with tomato sauce and fish.while the fish was slightly over cooked and should have been more cooked skin down in the pan, the dish was refreshing, fragrant with coriander. I would have appreciated some fish taste to depeen the tomato broth taste but it is still a great dish for the price.

Overall experience is good but I just think the rating of 4.6 makes you expect a bit more then what you actually get. A good 4.3 for me would be more representative of thr overall. Quite good but I wouldn't climb that hill again just for the place ;)

One highlight is really service. While reserved at first, as you order and try the food and the wine you can feel how warm and welcome the staff are and this was really appreciated.

I finished with the chocolate mousse. Nice fluffy dark chocolate...