São — Restaurant in Lisbon

If you announce that working with laptops is prohibited at certain hours, please let this information be clear and visible for everyone to avoid any miscommunication with customers.

When I arrived to the venue I saw two people working at their laptops. I noticed that there are two tables without the prohibiting sign. When I tried to confirm with personnel if I can pull my laptop for five minutes while my wife is finishing a meal I was refused to do so. It turned out that I could have done that five minutes ago, before noon. Now I could not. Even though we just ordered 4 cups of coffee and three meals I wasn’t able to do an urgent thing at my computer. However the guy that was sitting at the table with a laptop when I arrived was only having a cup of coffee for quite some time.

I do not disrespect any policies of yours, I just think that your policy didn’t work the right way. And it was not announced properly.

I never use cafes to work at my laptop, I only needed to do a quick thing and I asked a permission for that which I was denied.

I will definitely pick a different venue with more flexibility for customers next time.

P.S. yesterday I also ordered 2 cups. The 1st cup was good, but the second was bad. It was hardly a cup of coffee, it was so underextracted. Today i mentioned to the personnel about this with a polite smile. And they casually replied that yesterday‘s cup of coffee was brewed by someone who is not a barista or someone who doesn’t know how to do it. Just like that. No saying sorry and no regrets. I am not making a big deal out of it and I didn’t even ask for replacement or refuse to pay for a really bad coffee. But it looks like personnel just...

Very mediocre food and the owner is unpleasant. I'll explain... The owner who like me is French, is on a personal war against people using their laptops or working. She seems ignorant to the fact that the world has changed and people work remotely. I get that it is her right as a private business owner...

However, I spend good money in this place. It wasn't just a cup of coffee and a croissant. Sometimes I spend €40 a day. The owner did not seem to appreciate this fact when restricting me from using my laptop. She is a control freak for sure.

One day she only allows people to work from certain tables. Then a total ban. She could have been nicer and more polite to the people that spend money. You'd think after the lockdowns and having no business she could show humility, grace, and gratitute to her paying customers. Instead she treats them with distaste and like we are so lucky to be able to eat the overpriced mediocre food and bad service. I enjoyed the space itself and tolerated the food and bad service.

This lady is the reason people from my country have a bad reputation. She is ignorant, arrogant and entitled and I know a few other people who also stopped going here as a result and will not be returning.

As you can see, the owner replied below and shows her true colors. She is ignorant, arrogant, rude, and has contempt for her own...

I recently visited Café São and had a mixed experience.

The place was almost full when I arrived, and fortunately, there was an empty table available for me to sit.

The service was a bit slow, with a single waiter handling the room, who "naturally" took a few minutes to hand me the menus after I was seated. When I tried to communicate my order, I was surprised that I had to rely on English language as the staff did not understand Portuguese. New Lisbon vibes.

To make matters worse, when my order arrived, only 2 out of the 3 dishes that I had ordered were brought to the table. I waited for 15 minutes, hoping that the missing dish would arrive, but when it didn't, I approached the waiter to inquire about it. The waiter promptly replied that I had only ordered 2 items, which I disagreed with as I was sure about what I had ordered. After some back and forth, the waiter went to investigate and eventually returned with the missing dish, apologising for initially missing it. Desculpas não se pedem. Evitam-se.

One other disappointment was that the restaurant charged an extra fee for ice, which I found unnecessary and unexpected :-)

Despite these issues, the dishes I received were well-prepared, fresh and...