Onda Cocktail Room — Restaurant in Lisbon

Pretty average cocktail bar. Nothing outstanding, nothing awful. I have no idea how this place won Lisbon Bar of the Year.

Now, Onda is obviously trying to do the craft cocktail thing. That's cool. Imo, this is not amongst the top ones in the city and seems to be popular due to Time Out? I don't know, to be honest, because it's okay, but not 5-star good. Not particularly creative or skilled. It is a standard cocktail bar. Probably more targeted to the newbie cocktail drinker, rather than those seasoned spirit drinkers.

The first drinks we ordered were good enough. I'm a fan of strong, spirit forward drinks, especially if they're challenging or complex with deep flavours. Guadalajara (mezcal version) seemed to fit that. It was pretty one note, however. It was basically a coupe of sweetened mezcal, which generally, as a mezcal lover I don't have issue with its strong flavour, but as a cocktail, it seemed unbalanced. It was too strong for a cocktail, and I'm saying this as someone who enjoys sipping mezcal straight and spent many nights doing so in Mexico and the 2(!) liqueurs made it lean hard to the sweet end. Allegedly, it was Casamigos which is overrated, imo and it was very expensive at €18. For that price, I want to be wowed. Not "meh".

The other one was something with keffir lime leaves. It was okay for me, but my partner isn't a fan of sweet. She likes tropical/south east Asian flavours and thought it would be a good choice and when looking through the menu, was one of the only ones that didn't seem too, too sweet. The flavours were good but I can't even recall the spirit which says it all, tbh. Couldn't taste it. Nice juice.

Next round, she asked the server to recommend something for someone who doesn't like sweet drinks, and she suggested the smokey marg. We asked for less agave/triple sec than usual (aka "skinny"). What came was a pretty standard tasting marg. If that was less sweet, I'd hate to try the regular version! I mean, it was a good margarita, but again, it was nothing special. Just had a smokey gimmick in its presentation. Salt rim was sloppy.

It was too sweet for her again, almost as if the bartender didn't listen or chose to ignore the request. She asked once more for a rec, and the server suggested a long drink that was also sweet and juicy. I'm not convinced there is very much liquor in these cocktails. And I don't think the server understands what "sweetness" is.

By the end, the server seemed impatient and annoyed at us, although we were polite and still in good spirits.

Note: this is NOT a "bespoke cocktail bar" like they claim. Bespoke means you can make anything to someone's personal tastes, and come up with great, unique cocktails on the fly. The barman here couldn't even seem to adjust an existing menu cocktail to make it less sweet, let alone a totally bespoke creation.

The cocktails here seem premixed and basic with an extremely heavy reliance on syrups/liqueurs and juice. To me personally, it's a sign of a novice mixologist/bar program. Garnish game is weak and needs a lot of work. Which is all fine! Lots of people love that, but I would have liked to know to adjust my expectations.

It is a cocktail bar for the new cocktail drinker who is easily impressed, loves sweet things, and doesn't want complexity or to...

Can not recommend. Overpriced for Lisbon, even for Europe. 14€ for a simple cocktail, and waitress has the decency after half an hour to bring the menu, and say "I leave it here in case you want to order another cocktail" aka please order or leave. And I had a single chair in a corner, with no people waiting outside. The music was also not fitting at all, some old school rock that nobody listens too. For such an establishment they want to be, they have to learn new manners that match their pricing.

Edit: I still had not finished the drink when I was brought the menu again "if I want to order something else". I wasn't kindly asked with a smile "Would you like something else?" I mean, for real. I was still sipping on it. And Mezcal and grapefruit juice doesn't justify the price that another location in Lisbon offers for half the price. Not even in Berlin in cocktail clubs where you need to reserve beforehand, they charge that on signature cocktails, and in Berlin the minimum wage is 150% higher than in Lisbon!!!

I hope they pay their barkeepers at least a Berlin wage with that attitude. Entrepreneurs in Lisbon are slowly going completely greedy bonkers. Only opening businesses for tourists, but defenitely not for locals and for people living here.

But the worst was the arrogant behavior of the lady with her black fake fur, which you simply can never afford as an establishment. Maybe put a bouncer on the door next time and preselected your clientele for only $$ Americans, or ask for an extra entrance fee for the little 10m2 room you have. Never experienced this anywhere before, let alone by high quality mixology bars, and I've been to a few (as I write about them).

Quite opposite actually. They are usually very warm-hearted, welcoming and love to explain about their craft. ONDA is just after the money, selling a concept and false smiles,...

Sadly didn’t have the best experience in Onda Cocktail room and was left disappointed. My friend and I went there having heard it was set up by an Irish guy and wanted to support our own. When we arrived the bar was empty and from the onset it was obvious that we were the only Irish people there. There was no effort made and another couple arrived and we felt that the owner was making a lot more effort in conversing with them. The lady who served us on the other hand was extremely kind, friendly, smiley and attentive. Filling up our water and checking up on us, hence the 2 stars. The drinks were also delicious. When it came to getting the bill, the owner didn’t ask how our experience was or how our drinks were, it was very transactional. A vodka, soda lime also cost €12, which was quite expensive for Lisbon as the cocktails were the same price. I wouldn’t be rushing back again to be honest.

Reply to reply: Your response speaks volumes that you don’t have the customer at the forefront of your cocktail bar. It’s evident from other reviews who haven’t given you five star reviews, that they have experienced poor customer service too but it hasn’t always been taken on board. It’s implied here that we never engaged with you when we entered and left, which we did. We didn’t feel welcome from the moment we walked in. We are always praised for being polite and I think it’s common courtesy in every establishment to ask a customer when they finish ‘was everything ok, or did you like your drink’ rather than just being asked ‘cash or card’ which is the abrupt...