Restaurante O Portas — Restaurant in Lisbon

Auch, that was a bit unfortunate. A guy from the next street asked if we wanted to try his restaurant blah blah, so we hungery and we thought, why not? First the waitres put some bread and butter with some ham on the table and she said, "you pay what you eat". We didnt want that, so we said that she could take it away. She was able to put everything at once on the table, but somehow she couldn't take the bread with her, so that was still on the table.

We orded some chips and chicken. My sister got her food like 10 min earlier, so she had almost finished her meal, and we hadn't even started yet. (Otherwise her eggs and fries would have become cold). We asked for mayo, she gave us an empty squeeze bottle. So we asked for a new one, 10 min later we got a not empty one. The meal my mom and I got wasn't that great, and believe me, we are not star chefs, but the chicken was almost floating in fat. If you squeezed a bit in the chips the fat was dripping out as well. I had way better chips in Albufeira so I know the portugese can do it better than this. And also the waitress who was sort of singing/ humming with an enormous push up bra, was anoying as well. But we took that all for what it is, and we tried to enjoy our dinner.

When we were done with our midocre dinner we asked for the bill. Which we had to ask twice for, because she wasn't that quick. We saw the bill and we saw something very remarkable, serva €4.95. So they thought that they deserved a tip of almost 5 euros. So I asked the lady what was this all about. Her aswer: "jeah, all the food comes from the kitchen, and its normal here." I tould her that we ate many times in albufeira and that this was not normal. So we had a bit of argue with her which she really didn't liked. So she said;" no no no, I make new bill". And then she gave us the correct bill. What a stupid arguement, all the food comes from the kitchen...

This was our experience so as you now may know, I do NOT...

SCAMMED, TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE:

From the street, a server from Restaurant O Portas insisted we select his restaurant for lunch. He made it sound so nice and pointed out prices that seemed manageable so we agreed, followed him to the restaurant and was seated.

Upon being seated, the server pressed each person at our table to order alcoholic drinks even after we all requested water.

Following after, we made sure to confirm the price of water. We wanted to ensure we wouldnt have to pay for having water with our meal... (if we wanted to pay for a beverage, we would have ordered one and not just water). We were brought bottled water at 3€/bottle and 4 empty cups. Total was 12€ for bottled water alone when we had clearly communicated tap water would be fine.

Moving forward, we were brought a basket of bread (consisting of only 2 lumps of bread) and 4 generic little butters. The 2 lumps of bread at 3€ and small generic butters at 6€, totalling to 9€.

Thus far, we were left unaware of the water, bread, and butter charge... The meal hadnt even begun yet and we were already at 21€.

Next, we selected our dishes according to our budget and chose 3 items to share between our little family of 4. We were caught off guard when the bill came and ended up totalling to 71€. We didnt expect to spend 71€ for a little lunch, let alone be required to pay cash.

Since we didnt exchange much € cash at the airport, we were really hoping to pay by card. He ended up saying the card reader is broken and demanded we pay cash.

Portuguese culture and customs of hospitality, friendliness, and helpfulness were not reflected at Restaurant O Portas. My entire family was upset and felt taken advantage of by the time we left the restaurant and were only left with a few remaining euros on hand. VERY DISAPPOINTING.

Do not eat at Restaurante O Portas. They scheme to scam their customers at every opportunity they get, from the moment you are seated.

BEWARE:...

Came here on the recommendation of our travel guide. Portions are good, as mentioned by many. Food tasted good. Service was extremely slow (we were there almost 3 hours). They completely forgot about us and when I reminded the waitress, she gave the excuse, "oh they are grilling". Let me be clear, they were grilling the sardines, which take a few minutes, at most. Sardines were good, my husband had the snapper, which he said was good. We had white sangria which I found a little too sweet but the fruit in it was fresh and good. Others (locals) were seated a good 30 - 45 minutes after us, provided drinks, fed, given a complimentary drink, paid their bill, left and we were still waiting for our meal - crazy! Don't think I have ever waited that long for a meal anywhere in the world (and I've been to a lot of places folks!). Per another reviewer, they brought us cheese and bread, without us asking, then told us we would only pay if we ate it (they must have had complaints in the past about the surprise bill on this stuff). Thanks to the review from someone else here warning us of this, we only had one piece of bread. They charged us for two pieces. I corrected them on the bill. They adjusted the bill. Then they came back with a complimentary sour cherry shot of liqueur. Maybe complimentary, maybe an apology? Not sure. I was told by a Portuguese Canadian friend that it is common for them to bring bread and cheese and other appetizers without your prompting and then charge you for it. They call "compliment" or something like that. They do it all over Portugal and it's bothersome to tourists, but they still do it. I think they figure it's good for another 10% to 20% on your bill. Anyway, something to look out for. Overall it was "ok". If they gave good service, I would have rated them much higher. Too bad. Good food, service kind of...