Restaurante Tágide — Restaurant in Lisbon

Oh oh dear. I see Tagide is mentioned numerous times in multiple searches and guides as a stalwart of Lisbon for best restaurants.

If this restaurant is a tent pole to advertise the cuisine in Lisbon then I think Lisbon is doing itself a HUGE disservice!

Tagide describes itself as a fine dining experience. I wanted to like this restaurant but like the many mixed reviews I have heard about Tagide , I experienced the same disappointment from the start.

Entering the building both the doors were locked, (our reservation was a Saturday evening so prime time). Third time lucky we finally found a that opened into a very casual dining tapas bar, whereby we had to walk through overdressed.

We were then seated, and waiting over 15 mins, lots of waiters until we had to call for a waiter, who when they eventually came, our first interaction with the restaurant was that they did speak English, and walked off and didn’t send anyone across. Now whilst I fully respect I am in a Portuguese restaurant and I do not speak great Portuguese, I would expect the staff to have a basic level of English as Tagide is so well represented in international travel guides.

We then ordered, the starter took over 25 mins to arrive. One starter was the mushroom starter that was over cooked and burnt.

The mains then arrived, in good time, fish was ordered and the fish of the day was inedible as it was very badly overcooked.

It was this point that we had to complain. I spoke with the manager who was very nice, but was clearly a broken and defeated man, we had seen three other complaints whilst we were waiting for our food.

He suggested another fish dish, but at this point the evening and experience was unfortunately ruined. What then compounded the issue and made me very irritated was, the manager sent over his head waiter to speak to me, who then said to me “it wasn’t his fault”, which obviously is a huge no no when you are representing the restaurant.

To warn you, they have tasting/set menus which are clearly prioritised over a la carte. The restaurant was probably 70% full at best - plenty of waiting staff but all scurrying around not really being very attentive.

The food at best was pub food trying its best to be a gastro pub and failing very badly. A huge disappointment.

Lastly - some feedback to the restaurant. When your waiting staff bring out the food and explain the plate, please do not have them pointing at the food and almost touching it, it’s incredibly...

We ordered: Starter - 1. caviar: above average, 2. lobster: not worth the price and taste and freshness was below expectations Mains - 3. cod fish: below expectations, all the sides and sauce not really bring anything good with out of the cod, 4. Fish of the day: taste a bit better than the cod but the taste was soso and slightly blunt, 5. Iberian pork: the taste was above average, better than the fish, presentation could be improved Desserts-6. Cream puff: this was the best dish of our meal there. 7.Orange chocolate: the taste was quite interesting and okay Drinks - 8.wine selections were good and non alcoholic fruit punch was good Couvert-9. Bread provided really bad! It costs 4.9€ per person,so 2 of us charged 9.8€. The bread selection, taste, presentation, quantity were quite disappointed. Butter wasn’t served until we requested. Service- 10. food and wine serving were okay. However they were kind of short of staff? And the time taken to serve all the food was long (almost 3 hrs). And we’re okay with that actually because we were not in rush.. but then the desserts was served at 1115pm and they told us they are closing soon and gave us the bill at 1128pm??! That is kind of unacceptable.. we were kind of rush of our dessert and drinks and not even got the chance to have coffee! I don’t expect this kind of service from a Michelin guided restaurant and with this pricetag.

So from the list above 4/10 were good. Thus the 2 stars. Not recommended.

-- My response on the owner's response: We're actually okay with the slow serving but not okay with you serving the last dish at 1115pm and you giving the bill at 1128pm (and I'm sure we didn't ask for the bill yet) and told us exactly that you're closing soon. And partial lighting in the restaurant was already turned off. So if you really want to give "our valued customers to enjoy calmly and maximize the experience" like what you've mentioned, please maybe only starts your closing procedures after all your customers have left? Because usually people won't feel calm and comfortable if they feel they are kind of stopping others from closing the stores/restaurants.

Anyway, these are my sincere feedback as well. I wish you all the...

Awful experience. Nothing good but the view, we were at the lower part, less formal. Tapas were bland and unexpressive, the self-service wine machine was constantly missing 1 or 2 kinds of wine, no one cared to switch the bottles (how do they want to return their investment, if they dont sell wine with it....), service was EXTREMELY slow, only two waiters for the room full of people (there was a manager though, he wasn't helping his staff, just chatted to the DJ - who needs a DJ when there are not enough waiters!!!!). They managed to forget my husband's main course, I've been waiting for it so mine got cold, I ate it, then we managed to summon the waiter, reminded him of the other main, he brought it cold (turns out the kitchen provided, but the service just overlooked it, forgot to bring!!!), he knew he *ked it up but never apologised, never asked a standard question if everything was good while we were paynig, and once again soooo slow to proceed with the bill... Have I mentioned the prices? No? OOOOverpriced, for a reasonably cheap Lisbon this is just unacceptable! A place full of ambitions and no grounds for them! No go from me for sure! And one more thing: preferential service - just next to us there was a group of 6 or 8 people FROM PORTUGAL, and guess what - they were served nicely, everything on time, warm, pleasant chats from the waiter etc. I know, I know - we are tourists, what do we expect, my husband is a bloody Brit, I myself am from only EU aspiring Ukraine, but does this all mean we have to be discriminated? Especially when we pay good money? I see from the reviews here that Portuguese or Portuguese-speaking people are much more satisfied with the venue than the rest, just makes me wonder if we were really no good for this "upmarket restaurant"? P.S. We were on the 13th or 14th of Feb 2016 and I still remeber it as bad...