shakar coffee — Restaurant in Lisbon

Decided to stop by one of our favourite breakfast spots in town to get my personal favourite chicken waffles for my nephew who was visiting us for his school hols.

About half an hour—an hour prior to us getting to Shakar it was raining heavily, but luckily it was sunny with blue skies at the time we got there.

Once we got to the place there was a father and daughter sitting at the outside tables having an argument with the manager Diego - inside the place was packed and there was a queue to get in outside, the father wanted to get some breakfast for himself and his son and have it outside, but Diego said they are not serving outside as it was raining half an hour ago and they are afraid it might start raining again. The father said that’s not a problem for him and he is okay to sit outside, but Diego said they don’t serve outside. The father said no problem - can I order food for takeaway and just have it here - Diego said you can order takeout but cannot have it on our outside tables because other people will see it and will want to do the same (which from both the business and customer service perspective seems like a good thing). They argued for some more minutes, the father trying to understand why is it a problem for Diego, but Diego was very determined and the father and daughter left frustrated and irritated without being able to get some food.

I was determined to get my nephew the chicken waffles as I promised him these saying how incredible they are, and this was our final stop on the way to the airport. My wife and I tried speaking to Diego and explaining to him that we are totally cool if it starts raining, we understand if you don’t want to serve outside - we are happy to take the plates from inside and carry them back in when we’re done, but Diego would not have it. We asked him about the logic behind it - he said your food will get wet. That’s not a problem for us we said, but Diego couldn’t seem to get past his firm belief that no one is allowed to sit outside no matter what, with no logic in his words whatsoever.

Fine we said - and ordered the food for takeout. At the time there was Diego, another gentleman and a lady in the restaurant - the lady was working there for the first day and was super nice and helpful.

We got the takeout and I decided that we will have it in their outside space as it’s the most convenient place to have the food, we’ll leave the space clean and tidy and no harm will be done.

We sat down and started enjoying the delicious food. The second gentleman came up to us and asked - did Diego not tell you that you cannot eat here? He did, I answered. Do you not care, he asked irritatedly? I do not, I replied calmly. ‘Have a good life!’ he threw at me, and started packing up the other outside furniture (so that other clients of Shakar could not, god forbid, buy their food and have it outside, I assume) and mumbling curses at me as he did it. I told him politely that if he wants to tell me something he is welcome to do so but should speak up as I cannot hear him, to which he mumbled something about my family (I can only assume it was that he doesn’t want to curse at me in front of my family, but frankly i would not be surprised if it was some curse directed at my wife and nephew) and left inside. I did not respond to this nice final communication touch from the staff.

Oh and this second gentleman made sure we overheard him speaking to Diego a minute later - saying ‘no worries we will see his name when he leaves a review!’ in a triumphant and menacing manner, which we did not quite understand as he could have just asked.

We finished our meal, packed up the packaging leaving the table exactly as we found it and left. The food was...

It was a very disappointing experience, for 2 main reasons: I ordered the shakar-shuka eggs and coffee. After 45 min waiting I asked if there was any issue with my order, to which the (not so nice) waiter replied “oh all our dishes take around 1 hour to be ready”. I immediately wondered if they know what ‘mise en place’ is? After 1 hour (!!!) the eggs finally arrived at the table. The service is not up to standard: the lady that took my order acted as if she’d rather be somewhere else. And the other gent who was working there didn’t know what he was doing: he came to my table 4 times with drinks that I had not ordered and wandered around the place in complete loss as to where those drinks should be delivered. When I finally finished my meal and asked for the bill, that same lad brought me the bill which contained 2 drinks I had not ordered. I politely asked him to correct it, off he went… and never came back. I had to ask for the bill AGAIN. This time, it was the not-so-nice lady who brought it (correct this time), I paid, and no questions were asked as to if I had enjoyed the meal, or apologising for the long wait + trying to charge me for the wrong order.

Do I need to say I won’t come back?

On a positive note: eggs were delicious. Such a shame the service totally...

It’s a pity to see how one of my favorites places turns into something where you wouldn’t like to be. Had a very unpleasant situation with person (apparently named Kirill) that appeared from nowhere after I made an order.

Since I have taken out my laptop to answer some emails while having lunch and coffee, sitting surrounded by lots of empty tables, he, with a smile, pointed his finger on a sticker “no laptops” and asked to move to the most uncomfortably looking place in the cafeshop, that was almost fully occupied by another person and her stuff.

I understand and respect the rules. But while there were lots of empty tables and my laptop was not constraining anyone of having coffee, what’s the problem? And literally no one was sitting inside, so like 5-6 tables empty instead of them, for example, being occupied with “people with laptops” and bringing money to the business:)

I used to love the staff, they were always pleasant and making you want to come back.

If this Kirill is some kind of manager of the place, that was obviously poorly made choice of the person for such a position.

Unfortunately, this is a clear loss of a loyal customer on Shakar’s end. Neither I or any of my friends after such an unwelcoming treatment will ever be...