Quermesse — Restaurant in Lisbon

Mistakes happen. How a restaurant deals with a mistake says a lot about the place. My family and I (7 in total) went to Quermesse for dinner. Service started slow, but they were busy and we were enjoying each other's company so didn't think much of it. After some appetizers, we ordered our entrees, which took about 45 minutes to bring to the table. Except, after placing 5 entrees in front of us, we were informed that the restaurant was out of an entree ordered by two in our group. How it is that they only realized this at the moment of serving everyone else's entree and not, say, when they started cooking is a question for which we will never have an answer. But mistakes happen, so our two hungry diners ordered another entree. The rest of us ate while they waited. Almost 30 minutes later, we were informed that the restaurant was out of the second entree too. Again, no explanation as to why this critical bit of information was not given to us at or near the moment of ordering. Our server was apologetic but could do nothing for us. The restaurant's manager, while aware of the situation, lacked either the courtesy or the courage to address the issue with us. I had to find him myself after the rest of my family left to express my frustration with the evening. We were charged for everything we ate. Again, mistakes happen. Please don't repeat the mistake we made....

Decided to come here due to the high rating and relatively closer proximity to where we were staying.

Service was good and liked the atmosphere. We got the crayfish and prawn risotto and beef cheeks and a codfish salad to start.

We liked the codfish salad although there were pieces of scales left in the salad that would have been better removed.

We unfortunately didn't like our mains. I found my risotto undercooked. It was chewy and slightly hard in the centre. I wondered about my prawns. It didn't taste the freshest and would have been better if we were offered some pepper for extra seasoning. My husband liked the texture of the beef cheeks. It was tender but he felt the dish lacked balance overall. The wine reduction made it too sweet and wasn't balanced right and he said it almost felt like the wine reduction was done for the sake of it.

Price wise, it was reasonable though I'm sure it's still considered pricey in Lisbon. All up, our meal was roughly 40 euros, including a beer.

Unfortunately, we weren't mad about the food so won't really be recommending this place. We certainly liked the service and the servers. They were very friendly and made you...

We had a wonderful night at the Quermesse. It was quite busy and because of this dining took three hours. But we didn't mind, the atmosphere was fantastic and relaxed so we enjoyed every minute. For starters we had roasted padrón peppers and fried shrimp in olive oil, garlic and chilli. Especially the shrimp was incredibly good. Cocked perfectly with a slight spicy hotness. It couldn't be better. Unfortunately it went downhill for the main course. The days special was a Tuna Steak that I can't call anything but a huge disappoinment. The fish was fried until it was gray and lost all juice and taste. Unfortunately these couldn't be countered by the seasoning because, like the sides, there wasn't any used. It was really hard to finish that dish because it didn't taste like anything, while hinting at a hidden greatness, if the kitchen would have worked better here. I still think this was just a lapse though, because for dessert we had Portuguese rice pudding that totally made up for the main course. The traditional cinnamon and sugar was combined with oranges to a masterpiece that will be remembered.

We'll definitely be back, even though the tuna...