São Jorge — Restaurant in Lisbon

Complex review to leave, because every part of our group apparently had a very different experience during our meal, which I'm pretty sure was mainly due to misunderstandings and accents. The place in itself is nice, half shaded terrasse, nice small indoor area with a bit of a 2015 hipster industrial vibe. The Artic Monkeys album as background music was a cool surprise. We arrived without a reservation, but were met by friendly staff and seated immediately (we came pretty early, so there was ample space). Our drink order came back half wrong (different beers, but still good) and half "we don't have X anymore so how about Y?" which was completely fine; but apparently they had kept both X and Y drinks on the tab which had to be discussed before payment. Two of us had fish, which was tasty and perfectly cooked, albeit very salty. So if you're sensitive to that, maybe don't eat here, since many people in geberal have said the same about different sets. Some had the steak, which was served with crisps (the ones you eat out of a bag) not chips, as we mistakenly thought they would be after reading the English translated menu ("steak with chips"). Not written on the menu was that the steak comes topped with bacon strips, which would usually have been great (I love bacon) but made life difficult for our two Muslim friends who had ordered said steak. And confirmed with the waiter beforehand that there would be no porc (because something similar had already happened). Bonus bacon is not always good, I guess. We'll I had a good time, my other folks less so, but well , stuff happens...

The restaurant’s location requires a little bit of a trek and expect to scale numerous slopes and steps to make it to the restaurant if coming from the central tourist districts. Once there you’ll find the dining room is well presented and very comfortable.

The food was extremely tasty and sophisticated - well-presented, contemporary takes on traditional Portuguese dishes. I was advised that their menu had changed since the photos shown on Google and TripAdvisor were originally posted. The main difference being that the old dishes came with a greater amount of sides and garnish. The new menu will require a couple of side dishes for a more complete feed.

The 1.5L Sangria was very, very tasty and deceptively strong and the cold filtered water option for the kids came with unlimited refills.

Even without a booking discount (we had a discount by booking off TheFork), the prices would have been highly worth it given the beautifully elevated dishes we feasted on. All the flavours were rich and punchy. The food was masterfully cooked and well presented.

TIP: walk across the road to the lookout for a...

The service was excellent, very friendly and helpful on answering any doubt on the food selection of wine pairing.

I was there for both aperitif and dinner. One star was lost because they only have olives for the aperitif so a little lack in selection and to be fair it’s pretty easy to put together some charcuterie. Also the tables need a lil upgrade, since it was a bit uneven and wobbly. However that’s not a big deal.

Another star was lost because both dishes had something that needs a little work. The octopus was very tender but the vegetable needs a lil more something than big slices of garlic. And the potatoes were nice and soft but a lil more of a browned skin would have been appreciated. The pork belly was also excellent, but the Asian sauce it came with was far too salty which influenced the sapidity of the vegetables negatively, luckily there was a béchamel leek pure which was very sweet and helped counteract the saltiness. But there was far too much of that as well resulting in a very heavy dish if someone was to eat the...