Tapas Bar 52 — Restaurant in Lisbon

DO NOT GO HERE! VERBAL ABUSE

We were looking forward to eating our last meal in Lisbon. We stumbled across this place and went in as we love tapas and sangria. We ordered a selection of seafood and meat dishes. The seafood dishes were lovely ,however, we were really unhappy with the veal and aioli potatoes. The aioli potatoes were lacking egg, garlic and lemon and were overall abysmal. The veal was discoloured and looked inedible. The sangria was very disappointing as it tasted like watered down red wine, particularly for €18! However the disappointment with our food was not what ruined our evening, it was the abuse that followed after we politely communicated our reservations to the staff, only to be received with hostility and aggression. The waiting staff and owner refused to accept that anything was wrong with the meal and to accept any reduction off the bill. The atmosphere was becoming very heated and we decided to leave the restaurant paying the full bill minus €20 which covered more than we thought was fair but not the full amount. Following this, my friend had left her phone on the table and went back to get it only to find the staff had STOLEN the phone as blackmail for us to pay the remaining balance. When we asked for the phone to be returned the staff became more and more aggressive, and at this point we asked for the police to be phoned as we were feeling very threatened and quite unsafe. To ensure the safe return of the phone, my friend insisted on first receiving back the cash payment of €60 as security. The staff refused to phone the police and it was not until we started filming them that they returned the phone to us after snatching back the money out of our hands. At this point we were very shaken up and left the restaurant. As we were walking down the street the manager and waiter followed us shouting “you stupid bitches” and other abusive language. We crossed the street and took refuge in a nearby restaurant as we felt extremely threatened. We are 3 mid 20 year old girls and this was the worst experience we’ve ever had at a restaurant. A horrible experience, but by no means indicative of an otherwise extremely welcoming and lovely city...

My friend and I were recommended this restaurant by a local who said that it was quite popular. As this was our last evening to have a nice meal together we thought we would get dressed up and give it a go. It was quite full which led us to believe it had potential. Traditonally tapas are small little appetizer type plates at a cheap price allowing one to try numerous foods..this location however was absurdly priced especially for the subpar quality of food not to mention the roaches. For more info feel free to read the details. To start off they bring you a plate of meat, some bread and some garlic mayonnaise, once it's on the table they let you know if something is brought that you dont want they will take it back, but we had already dug in as we assumed it was like other restaurants that include it complimentary. The meat they brought is not on the menu so you have no idea of the price until you receive the bill. Moving on, we received our first meal and as we started eating, the friend I was eating with stared over my shoulder unsure of weather or not to tell me what she was staring at... it was a cockroach. I felt so nauseated and couldn't bear the thought of attempting to eat the rest of the meal, because I could only imagine the state of their kitchen, especially since the prices were astronomical. They moved us to the next table over and gave us a free glass of wine as an apology. Up until this evening we did not think it was even possible to have a bad meal in Portugal. The server was lovely but at the end of the day we paid 70€ for food that had disgusting roaches running all over it. I definitely do NOT recommend this place. Instead try canyon taco, guilty, charlie or local fresh across the street. Avoid this place like the plague. Not sure how it's still open, or how people continue...

We walked past this place on our way to somewhere else, but they had run out of the food we wanted so we came back here as it was busy and we took it as a sign of a good place to eat. Spoiler alert: we were wrong.

After we sat down we got the menus and a bread basket, aioli, and a plate of chorizo. We were told if we eat it we'll be charged and if we don't want it they'd just take it away, which was fine. The price for the chorizo was nowhere to be found so we asked and it was 5€, 8.50€ for everything so we ate all three.

10 minutes after we sat down we ordered a bottle of sparkling water and a glass of red wine (drinks weren't on the 2 page tapas menu). I was only asked whether I wanted a full bodied or a lighter wine. Chose the full bodied which ended up costing 7.50€ which seemed expensive for Portugal.

10 minutes later a bottle of still water arrived and the waiter put down a glass and a open bottle of wine. We ordered our food (patatas bravas, pimientos, and grilled sausages) and then he got distracted and left.

We called him over again to get the right water and then he actually poured the wine.

20 minutes later the pimientos arrived. 5 minuter after that the patatas.

10 minutes after the patatas (when they were almost gone) we were told that they were out of sausages, which was annoying. They should've told us they were out when they put the order in, we might've gone for the meatballs instead then. Telling us after the other food already arrived was plain terrible.

They offered to bring (more expensive) blood sausages which we refused as we didn't want to wait another 20 minutes.

Asked for the bill which came fairly quickly but then the waiter disappeared. Ended up waiting another 10 minutes to actually pay.

Food was okay but the whole place seems overpriced and service...