Red Frog — Restaurant in Lisbon

A great spot to come if you know next-to-nothing about cocktail culture, but want to pretend you're in the know by going to a famous "speakeasy". Thus, it's incredibly appealing to tourists, Tiktokers, and wannabes.

This place is over-hyped to the max, but sometimes bars on the Top50 can be pretty cool so we thought we'd go in with an open mind.

This is not one of them. It's like walking into a sponsorship campaign run by Fever Tree and Diageo, while it pretends to be a secret speakeasy spot. Branding is EVERYWHERE. Which explains why they win competitions and get their name in everything, because it's certainly not the drinks or service.

The entrance song-and-dance is a joke. I won't get into our experience because it would take too much time, but the whole process is convoluted and pretentious. The woman at the door was quite nice though. The bar was only 1/3 to half-full when I was there. So despite making people wait at the door or in their sister bar Monkey Mash for an hour, there was really no need for it.

Service was severely lacking and indifferent. They left us sitting with empty glasses for too long. That should never happen in an establishment that is this popular, isn't full, and charges so much for a drink. The bartender however was great, from what I could see across the room. She really was on top of everything like a machine.

The cocktails themselves are hit or miss. Some were legitimately delicious and complex. Others were merely mediocre. Most of them used midrange Diageo spirits as their backbone. Unfortunate. I did like the variety of the menu, and for people who want classics, I am certain that a good server can point you to a signature that is close to one of those. They're on the prebatch train, like so many other bars these days, so don't expect anything bespoke. Not sure what the point of the backbar is if they don't use it. Advertising for their sponsors, I guess?

I very much appreciated the back pages of the menu that have the quick summary of the drinks. While reading the explanations and stories can be entertaining, sometimes I just want to know what's what quickly.

I also have to give a shout out their no children policy and their no games policy, because I appreciated both of those VERY much. It's such a relief to be able to have a good drink in a mature environment without screaming children, or adults yelling over a game. To the people who seem to think that it's either play card games OR go on your phone, you all know you can have conversations with each other, right? That's what this bar wants people to do. And everyone was doing just that. (Too bad one Canadian was talking so incredibly loudly that everyone had to hear his bragging all night. But not much you can do about that.)

For the price and effort required to get in? This place isn't worth it. If it was less expensive, did bespoke cocktails, and improved their pretentious door policy and lay off the worn-out "speakeasy" gimmick, I could see myself returning. But, as it is, it's nothing to write home about and there are so many better cocktail bars...

Great cocktails but… We had to book a slot to go there and leave our card details in case we were a no-show. Understandable but still not off to a great start. It’s a small space and not filling a space means losing 15% revenue for 2 hours. I get it. Maybe there is a better way to do this? Live queue ? Better messaging around why being a no show is not cool.

We are handed a menu. First greeted by house rules that mention usual stuff around age and drinks are to be consumed by people who order them. But then strange clause about not dancing and tipping if paying by card.. more on tips later. There is no music that would make you dance- it’s more lounge music and subtle definitely not a rave.

Let’s talk the menu. For a good 5 minutes I thought I had had a stroke or was a dyslexic because I could not understand anything described in the menu. Only in the last 4 pages you can see full cocktail list with ingredients and what is in the drinks to have any idea what you might be interested in. Look at bar 146 menu to see how to write an interesting menu. Components, ABV and size. All making it actually appetising to order. Not the case here.

Now to the cocktails. F(word) great!! I have nothing bad to say about the cocktails and presentation. They are imaginative, very high quality and delicious. But because the menu is incomprehensible I did feel we got lucky with our choices because the menu did not give too much insight into what we were ordering.

We were presented with a bill close to 2 hour mark- they mean it when they say you have 2 hours to enjoy the drinks. Drinks prices are 14-18 EUR roughly. A bit overpriced for Portugal…referring to Bar 146 again here.

Now we get to what really grinds my gears. They made a huge fuss about making sure we tip the staff in house rules. We always tip. I have been schooled to tip if any service is provided and you are satisfied. Suggested tips are: 10% great nothing to complain about 15% exceptional service and you are a happy customer 20% off the charts service. Personal touch that makes it memorable or personable for us.

They gave us a card machine that had the following tip steps 20% 25% 30% !!!! They have not come close to earning this tip especially when they are charging slightly over the market price for drinks. The last tipping point for me was the tip situation and motivated me to write this review.

PS: they keep mentioning they are the top 50 bars in the world. They are not in the top 50 anymore but 51-100 instead.

Overall opinion. Good quality drinks good service, confusing menu, too...

Red Frog was awesome - one of my favorite experiences in Lisbon and well worth the price.

First off - I would recommend making a reservation. It is a small bar and worth booking ahead of time. You'll be given more instructions once you RSVP but they do ask you to dress up for the occasion as a heads-up.

Second - looking for the bar? Go to Monkey Mash, and you'l be guided from there! The location is really neat, and I wouldn't have known any better on my own.

Once inside, you come to a tight bar with a mixed amount of flavors - a classy bar upfront and both a modern and throwback lounge in the rest of the area. On a Thursday, it wasn't super, super busy, although I was told that September in general is a quieter month overall. I actually sat at the bar itself instead of a table, which ended up being a fantastic experience. I talked a lot with the bartenders; got front-row seats to the cocktail making experience; and got to talk to some of the patrons as well. Although the seat wasn't as comfy as some of the lush seats, I was really, really happy walking away from the whole experience.

At least in my September 2022 stop - service was kind, friendly, and hard-working. These two bartenders were moving mountains to get drinks out efficiently, and I didn't hear a complaint all night. Instead, people seemed really happy the whole night - one patron even proposed at the bar where they were given special celebratory drinks.

On my end, here's what I ordered: *American Gangster: Their take on a smoked old fashioned and was marvelous. The presentation is just as cool and loved the unique slight bite the drink had. *Vieux Carre: Not too harsh and just the right drink to start out the night for rye fans. *I needed food at a certain point, and although they didn't have the cookie cake, I did order just some queijo sao jorge. They have that same, quality sourdough bread that I found throughout Lisbon with quality cheese that helped me out! There were bigger items for those hungry as well.

Prices seemed on par with a classy establishment and pretty fair to me in comparison with other classy restaurants/bars in the area. I paid around 40ish euros for all the above.

Thanks so much to the bartenders, especially Lara, for the wonderful, wonderful experience.

Highly...