Open Brasserie — Restaurant in Lisbon

I was so excited to find this restaurant that had so many gluten free offerings, good reviews and nice photos online. However, the experience was extremely disappointing. We came at 8:30pm on a Sunday and the restaurant was nearly empty. The decor was nice but the overall atmosphere leaves much to be desired.

Upon receiving the menu, I was surprised to find not everything on the menu is gluten free. There are many gluten free options but this is not an exclusively gluten free restaurant, which is very misleading based on the name "Open Brasserie Gluten Free."

Our server asked us if we had any allergies, which I appreciated. She brought gluten free bread, which came individually wrapped in plastic and was pretty good. Next, she brought each of us a complimentary small plate of potato salad, which was honestly the highlight of the meal.

Then our appetizer of ratatouille arrived, which had very little flavor, was sliced too thick and was undercooked. It was pretty clear we did not like it from how little of it we ate, but the servers did not acknowledge that or asked if we liked it. They seemed to really not care.

For an entree, I had the grilled tuna. On the menu, it was listed to come with potatoes and vegetables. There were two tiny potatoes. The tuna was extremely overcooked. It looked like a beef steak. It looked like it might have been a nice slice of tuna but was absolutely ruined by being fully cooked all the way through. If I knew it came well done, I would have asked for it rare, which is the standard and expectation for tuna.

Overall, this experience was extremely disappointing. It was also the most expensive meal we've had so far in Lisbon and was absolutely not worth the price. There are many other restaurants that have better, and far cheaper gluten free options. My recommendation:...

We are guests at the hotel, and after a long day out we just wanted to try the hotel restaurant to keep it all in house.

The space is beautiful, open kitchen, tables are big, plates and cutlery are changed between starters and mains, everything is clean, etc.

Our server was professional and attentive. We asked for recommendations and ended up going with a starter, the veal tataki, and two mains, duck and pork loin. The starter took a reasonable time to arrive, on the longer side if anything, and was a bit disappointing; the meat wasn't very tender and lacked flavour, and unfortunately there was no seasoning to help make up for that. After this, we waited for a long time for the mains (we didn't time it but it felt close to 1 hour), when we were told that there was a problem with the duck and that our meals would come out shortly. We waited for an extra 10 minutes and the mains were finally served. The duck was tasty, albeit a bit on the tougher end. The pork tenderloin however was very dry and also lacked seasoning. For the price, the food left quite a bit to be desired.

We finished our meal and asked for the bill. As hotel guests, we were given a card providing a 15% discount, which our server took but forgot to apply. We realized after paying, and notified accordingly. This was resolved, not without taking a bit of time after a lengthy dinner as a refund was required and a new charge, now corrected, applied. The server was apologetic and continued to be professional.

In summary, based on our experience we can't unfortunately recommend the restaurant. Perhaps it was a bad day, which everybody can have, but we will probably not...

OVERPRICED for the food they served! We ordered 2 meat dishes, the duck Magret and the black pork, unfortunately there was a bad communication between the chef and the waitress, and between the time she went back and forth with our dishes from our table to the kitchen, the meat end up OVERCOOKED. To get worst, in the beginning she served us with an octopus dish that you could EASILY see it wasn’t meat, we said it wasn’t what we ordered but she was persisting it was the correct dish, the duck…! Rule number 1: NEVER SAY NO to the clients, even though you’re in doubt. Be discreet and check with the chef as many times as you need. Just to emphasize here that our service with the waitress was ok during the night, it seemed there’s a lack of training and bad communication with the colleagues - this is also a message for the restaurant or hotel and for those managing people - that lead to this disaster. Also, she said it was an offer from the house due to all of this mistake. Guess what? No offers in the bill. The ratatouille was tasteless.

In the overall, the food was nothing special for almost 100€ we paid for 2 starters, 2 main courses, couvert and 2 drinks, and the service had better days.

I don’t recommend this restaurant at all....