Restaurante Belém 2 a 8 — Restaurant in Lisbon

AVOID THIS PLACE We visited this restaurant on a Saturday during our trip from London, having enjoyed many wonderful places along the way—but this was dreadful.

The waitstaff, though young, barely spoke English, which was surprising given the multilingual menu. Service was painfully slow, requiring us to call them over repeatedly. Flies were everywhere, adding to the unpleasant atmosphere.

The food was another disaster. I ordered cod fish cakes but received pastel de nata (!?). My friend ordered chicken gizzards but was served tempura green beans instead, likely due to a mistake caused by the language barrier, as the green beans were listed directly underneath the gizzards on the menu. The tempura was thick, greasy, and tasted of curry—not the light, crispy texture you'd expect. The fries were cold, stale, not fresh, left sitting too long before serving.

When I asked for the fries to be removed from the bill, they complied. However, when I requested the service charge be removed, they insisted it was sales tax. By that point, we just wanted to leave.

Our lunch was ruined, but there are far better options nearby, especially along the waterfront. Save yourself the trouble and avoid this...

You know when you travel and there are times where you’re just robbed straight to your face? This was one of those times.

The food was pretty decent, no complaints there. My issue was with our server. We are from America and we were clearly tourists in this restaurant. At the time of the bill, our server asked my wife if he should add the tip to the bill. This is NOT a thing in Portugal. My wife, being unsure and taken off guard, just said sure and believe it or not, he entered his own tip into the machine before running the card.

We spent two weeks in Portugal and not once did this ever happen again. He saw vulnerable tourists and took advantage of us. It’s not the $4 tip he added to the bill, it’s the principle of him knowing that was wrong and still choosing to take advantage of us.

I would not recommend this place on this fact alone. If a server makes a special experience for you, by all means, I encourage you to tip them for their service. But a tip should be your choice and not forced upon you. We felt very taken advantage of and it was my least favorite meal in the two weeks because of...

We did enjoy the food, but the head waiter/owner has strong potential to ruin one’s appetite - I feel for the staff who have to put up with such rudeness. Although my friends and I were initially sitting outside, after a few minutes we asked if we could move inside - we hadn’t touched anything yet, and most tables inside were free. The head waiter/owner however threw a tantrum (apparently if we moved inside, then everyone would follow suit?) He eventually let us change tables but kept grumbling as we went indoors. Noticing my frustration, he boomed « OK, OK, SORRY » and thankfully disappeared for some time, only to come back after 20mins in a better mood to ask how were enjoying our food…We were pleased to be attended by other members of staff most of the time (but staff should be taught not to hover impatiently for the last person to finish their meal!) Cherry on top, as we were about to leave another couple sitting inside saw a cockroach on the wall - the head waiter/owner briefly apologised and suggested they move to another table. A real shame because the...