Saraiva's — Restaurant in Lisbon

This was incredibly disappointing, having done our research we were excited to go to the restaurant but from early on it was clear it was not going to be an enjoyable night. Despite speaking three different languages to him (Spanish, English, French), the waiter could not comprehend that one of us doesn’t eat meat. We had requested a tasting menu without meat however it took four attempts for the waiter to understand. The waiter also did not seem to understand the content of the menu, despite me flagging that the croquettes contained meat, he insisted they didn’t. They did. Eventually, we managed to order our food (with the right requirement) and the first few dishes were very underwhelming. It started off with some fairly lifeless bread, which was followed by a very bland onion soup. The croquette (one of us eats meat) was nothing more than decent, it compared unfavourably to croquettes we had in random places around Lisbon. Moving on to the mains, the swordfish was definitely the highlight among the dishes. I definitely recommend trying this. There was another fish main on a bed of some form of beans which was not particularly memorable. Now for the dessert, which was the biggest slap in the face of all the dishes; a slice of chocolate brownie/cake with a scoop of mint icecream, both of which tasted like they came directly from a supermarket. At that point we were laughing because it felt like having dinner at an airport at 4am with nobody else around. The dessert was funny, but I wasn’t laughing when I had to pay the bill for this. By far the worst Michelin Bib restaurant I have ever been to anywhere...

What happened here? We both had three courses, yet remained hungry by the end, and also left wanting more in terms of flavour. The dishes were bland and uninspired. The staff was very nice but overly polite; they excused themselves several times on every interaction, even when just removing empty dishes from the table. It kind of seemed like they all had their first day on the job because they seemingly had no confidence in what they were doing. The lighting was also way too bright and harsh, like in an IKEA cafeteria. We don’t understand the universal praise this place has gotten. It isn’t terrible, nor very expensive, but still pricey for what it is in our opinion – especially the desserts, which came in...

We had a delicious authentic Thai dinner with friends at Baan Saraivas. The service was excellent! Very friendly and cheerful staff. I love Thai food and try to find a Thai restaurant in every city I’ve ever visited. I especially love Pad Thai and order it at every Thai place I go to (it’s my way of comparing or deciding how good the restaurant is). The Pad Thai at Basn Saraivas was about the best I’ve ever had outside of Thailand! We also enjoyed calamari, spring rolls, Pad See Ew, mango sticky rice, wine and cocktails. The Thai pinia colada was excellent! We will definitely go back to Baan Saraivas again and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a delicious meal and...