Onigiri-A — Restaurant in Lisbon

This is a very hard review for me to write, because I usually only rate really bad restaurants and really great restaurants - and OnigiriA is middling but not bad (didn't food poison me). I am writing this for my fellow travelers after reaching out to the owner to confirm pricing and experience.

If you enjoy sitting on what's basically the ground floor of a private house in an alley and be served family-like food by an actual friendly family - but for the price of a good to great restaurant, then you will enjoy this place. If not:

Food: some people in the reviews mention this is authentic japanese food. Have these people ever been to Japan? We tried the Omakase (chef menu), the Tonkatsu (fried pork) and some onigiri (rice balls). It was very bland and nondescript, quantity over quality, with none of the care I've experienced in actual Japan (or in any Japanese restaurant abroad) at this price point. The kitchen is small so there is plenty tupperware and pre-cooked component assembly involved. The food is...well, not great, and certainly not for the price. The pork was chewy and bland. The salmon didn't taste very fresh. Everything was either overly seasoned or tasteless.

The atmosphere: it's a home cooking experience. The chef or his partner (also a chef) are cooking, and their kid serves you. Plates are slammed down with no description or care, and it can get very chaotic. Wine is served with no label (but priced at 5 EUR per glass). The family dog runs around on the floor and inside the restaurant. Of course no one is wearing a mask.

The price/quality ratio: just absolutely not there. The fried pork was 17 euro for a low cut slice of pork whose fritter separated from it, served with some cabbage and overnight rice. The Omakase was nondescript, no care, yet charged at 25 euro. As mentioned, plenty of 'assembly' but very little 'cooking' going on. The pricing is quite opaque, and prepare to get gouged on the cocktails and drinks. At the end you can not pay with Mastercard/Visa/Maestro - only Multibanco/MBWay. What a mess...

I think a lot of the positive reviews come from the heartwarming experience of seeing mom cook and the kid serve you this food, the dog beg for scraps, the clickity clackity of tupperware and pans - and sure the food is 'home made' in the sense that there is no surprise, no fancy techniques, and certainly none of the care you'd expect from a restaurant - and especially a Japanese restaurant. If that's what you're looking for, then this is an ok place. Otherwise, for this...

TLDR: friendly but not a professional service and kitchen flow. Food tastes bland, no better than convenience store, yet priced with restaurant standard, too expensive for the quality and overall service. Maybe for you if you are desperate of some japanese other than sushi and have plenty of time.

We were super excited about this restaurant, because it serves Japanese food and highly rated, sadly it was quite an experience and a chaotic one to say the least. The menu is a simple one that shouldn't ideally require much time to cook, if preparation is done well, yet it took us over an hour to get a glass of water, and one piece onigiri, please note that the restaurant wasn't crowded.

The chef was doing the best he could to cook and deliver the food to the right customers as fast as he could, inspite of chaotic chain of commands. Unfortunately the food tastes basic. The rice in onigiri isn't spiced well, the way the nori served isn't crispy, it was loose nori, loose nori should be crispy maybe roast the nori just before serving, otherwise nori can be used to wrap the rice tightly so it's acceptable if it's moist. The tonkatsu is bland and dry, thankfully it was served with the sauce. Gyoza was a bit undercooked, but okay. The sake carafe serving was stingy, it wasnt a full carafe, it would be better if they use smaller carafe. Miso soup is probably the best one. They didn't have our order registered in the cashier, so we had to guide the chef with what we ordered. It was really chaotic experience. But thank you chef for...

I was a recurring customer to this restaurant. Despite it being a small place, the food, ambience and people are all wonderful. The chef is an amazing woman, who pours her heart in the dishes and the overall presence.

The Onigiris are filled with delicious ingredients, the Tofu (that they usually put in the miso soup) feels fresh, and two of my favorite dishes have got to be the Tonkatsu and the lightly roasted duck. They are so good that I once asked for both in the same meal!

There are very few issues that can be rather inconvenient for tourists, one of them being: If you didn't bring cash, you better have a Portuguese card with you. They don't accept foreign cards, or phone-based payment options like Apple Pay (except for MB WAY, which is Portuguese). If not, there's an ATM nearby. An inconvenience, even if minor.

In any case, I highly recommended it. I loved every moment of it. Also, dogs...