Palácio Grilo — Restaurant in Lisbon

I heard many great things about this place and I decided to take my friend here for her birthday. They put the four of us in a room that is so poorly lit, the other rooms have perfect lighting but our room was so dark! They bought out a tea candle for the table but that did nothing. Also the room was not in either of the larger halls so we missed most of the artsy performances that only took place there! We heard screams and noises and we would have to run to look what was going on over there. The fear of missing out was definitely a reality in this case. I was disappointed with the overall experience, this needs to be addressed and improved upon. Service needs a lot of improvement too. They forgot to bring us water that we ordered and we had to ask twice and it took ages to get water! This was 45 minutes into dinner service. Then they brought out our entrees and left it on the table with zero cutlery. We asked for knives and forks and they went away and forgot again!!! We had to ask again and buy this time our food was no longer hot, only room temperature. This is unacceptable for the waitstaff to put dishes on the table and not notice we are missing cutleries. The food taste great though and although some would say that it's priced high, I felt the price is just right considering you get the experience (if you don't get seated in the room we got). I really wanted to like this place but I was disappointed. Not to mention that I did inform them via email and when I checked in with the host, that today was my friend's birthday and the host told me to let the waitstaff know. The waitstaff could barely remember our basic needs like knives n forks ! Needless to say nothing was done to make my friend felt special. Nothing at all. And a mandatory 10% tips added in our bill which is fine if it is mentioned on the website or anywhere else but to surprise guests with that is not cool as tipping is not customary in Portugal. This is in addition to the 4€ per guests charge for the artistic show (totally fine as it is mentioned on website and we knew about it) . Our bill got added 16€ fee plus 10% tips on top of food, drinks, and even the 16€ fee had to be tipped an additional 10%. Please add this 10% tips on your site so...

Go here for the ambiance, and nothing more. The Palacio is beautiful and has amazing history in its bones everywhere. Hard to believe this is how people used to live. However, the positivity ends there. We didn't have reservations, but were seated (9pm, early in Portugal; we live here), at a very small, cocktail like table near the entrance door and close to the bar. The hostess was friendly and attentive for about five minutes. We saw menus (cocktails ordered were €16/each, not affordable for many), and saw that we would be charged an artistic cover of €5/each for the "entertainment", but this included a glass of sparking wine. Art is a personal and highly individual experience, but we were unimpressed. The food we ordered never arrived, and the included sparking wine didn't ever come either. After receiving our (expensive) drinks, one was missing a key ingredient for the type of drink (orange slice for a Negroni), we waited for over 45 minutes for a cheese plate. We decided to leave and just figure out what we owed in cash at the table. We couldn't find a server or the hostess. While it was busy, there were no other seatings and most had ordered far before we arrived. Finally, a pleasant server appeared and we explained our situation. We asked for a check. It included the food we ordered but which was never delivered, as well as a more expensive glass of wine that what was actually ordered. She got the bill adjusted. We saw the cover charge charged, and further explained we never received our "sparking wine" which was supposed to be included. She uncomfortably apologized but offered not adjustment. She said she hoped we would come back again. Never again for food or drinks, but only to see the Palacio grounds and the space. Don't waste your money. You can performance art in many places, but in our opinion this is NOT the place. Much better service, food delivery and drink prices in many, many places in Lisbon. Save your money...

Real review ... This venue / restaurant was advertised as a type of "avant-garde" / artsy experience with amazing food. A restaurant where you will be immersed in a constant flood of people doing some type of modern art throughout your dinner. It was not like this.

We arrived at the restaurant and walking in seemed to set the scene for an interesting night. The grounds seemed nice with dramatic lighting.

Once we got seated in the first main room, we were presented with a glass of white wine, which was a nice touch, but then it went down hill from here.

Our waiter, while well intentioned, seemed to be handling too many tables and left us a bit ignored. We had to wait a bit to order drinks, then wait again to order food. We thought, well okay the service isnt great, but at least it will be really interesting and the food will be good.

We arrived about 8:30 and ended our night at about 10:30 or so - during this entire time there was barely watched 3 'acts'. Moreover, these 'acts' seemed to be lackluster. It almost seemed like the people were the stand-in's for the real actors and given basic props to 'figure it out' for the night. To put this into context - I am not a fan or someone that follows modern art, but these 'acts' seemed silly at best. For example, one of the actors had a sheet on their head and walking around (slowly and dramatically) with 2 iPads that had video recorded faces on them. Meh at best.

The food was just okay. It definitely was not bad - nothing special or interesting. Like I said, just ok. You wont be disappointed, but you also will easily forget what you ate by the next morning.

Overall I do not recommend this place. The show, if you could call it that, was basic at best and was not immersive as it was represented to us. Service was terrible and slow - it took us about an hour to get our food. The food was just okay - plenty of better places in Lisbon that are much better.

Overall just meh -...