Tapisco Lisboa — Restaurant in Lisbon

I am a mid 50’s woman, tech professional from the Bay Area (San Francisco, CA) well traveled with a discerning palate. I have had many meals around the world including Lisbon. I came to Tapisco for the first time with my boyfriend (local Lisbonite professionally trained in the hotel / kitchen / service arts) to cap off a several week visit.

My boyfriend summed it up best when he said the problem is when chefs become celebrities and the customer is not a celebrated guest - the front of the house function MIA. This restaurant lacks guest service leadership.

The place was practically empty upon our arrival at 12:30. We loved the red touches and simple sophisticated vibe of the place. The tiles on the back wall and the gilded slicer on display were beautiful.

THE FOOD - The food itself was delish. Best octopus salad I have ever had! The smoked paprika really came through! The sweet pea chorizo pot was savory but didn’t wow me. The souplike format was unexpected and felt like it deserved a bowl vs a plate. The chorizo felt overcooked. The peas were perfectly al dente.

NO FRONT OF HOUSE MANAGEMENT - We were told we could sit anywhere. Sounds wonderful on the surface but it soon became clear there was no dining room plan or strategy for how to intelligently orchestrate the seating of guests. Early into our meal, a group of 6 loud talking women were seated right next to us despite 4-5 empty tables at least one table away from us.

Suddenly our romantic lunch became a mental filtering competition with a group of people who were obviously lacking in social savvy, i.e. kept their coats on, ate with large backpacks or purses on their laps, taking pictures of everything and waved at the staff to get their attention IMO, it is the restaurant’s responsibility to have the maturity to delicately manage a lower decibel. If you do it artfully enough, they may hardly notice they are being kindly redirected.

I’m not blaming the restaurant for the rude guests but I am blaming the restaurant for not realizing the piss poor choice of patron placement and not attending to this group. Leave formality at the door” the restaurant boasts - fine but manners still count!!!!

RUSHED THE MEAL - Kept trying to remove things from our table prematurely from the covers through the end - the whole service was rushed! I was seriously tempted to walk out!

From the start we said yes to the cover of olives and bread. With about 3 olives and 2 out of 10 pieces of bread eaten we were asked if they could be removed. We were asked SEVERAL TIMES if we would like to return our olives and bread.

Our main course came out before we were halfway through the first. We were prodded several times sand finally gave in as our server simply brought out our big metal pot and uncovered it and stood over our table as WE re-plated our first course onto our individual plates.

HOVERING - OMG!! The antithesis of attuned attention. It was as if they were being incentivized by # of Trips to the Table! Master the Art of Eye contact consciousness please!

GROOMING - Our waitress Had a worn out tattered manicure - hello! You are serving food with your hands! Manicure not necessary. polished presentation, very!

WINE SERVICE - While I was not expecting a Sommelier, I would expect our server To have the skill to adeptly open a bottle of wine. Please use a proper foil cutter not a knife! Don’t leave a Raggy sharp edge. Sloppy / young / untrained 👩🏻‍🍳?

SERVING UTENSILS - we ordered a sweet pea pot which is a thin brothy type of dish, our main dish meant to be shared and the "serving spoon" was a tea spoon! Serving a portion needed about 15 spoonfuls 😳🤣

PLATING - a broth pot dish is difficult to eat on a plate. It deserves at least a low bowl. The whole plate size doesn’t work for the menu on the size of a 2-top table. If you’re doing tapas, plan dish-ware real estate accordingly. Ovals! Or...

I am usually not one to frequent Michelin star restaurants, but my girlfriend wanted to take me for my birthday and Tapisco was highly rated! (Edit: This place is not Michelin, only "mentioned" in the Michelin guide) The overall atmosphere of the restaurant reminded me of a Spanish tapas style restaurant in NYC with catchy music and tables so close you might as well be conversing with the neighboring tables. We shared everything ordered.

Appetizer review: Bread with tomato and jamon iberico - Bread was crunchy, I really enjoyed the tomato. One of the pieces of bread had more jamon than the other. For the price (11 euros), I would have liked more jamon or more pieces of bread (2 total). 4 stars Marinated fish - This was probably my favorite dish out of everything ordered. Nice balance of acidity and loved the added sweet potato component. 5 stars Bomba de Lisboa - Basically a glorified croquette. The spicy sauce on top was good but it came out luke warm and the texture of the whole dish was pretty soft and mushy like it was reheated in the oven rather than fried to order. A bit disappointing for michelin. 3 stars

Entree review: Bacalhau a Bras - I've had this dish three times since I've been in Portugal and this was by far the most disappointing version. The cod is served in somewhat of an egg fried rice style with an insane amount of cilantro and shredded olives to the point that you can barely see the rice underneath (see my photo). After breaking the egg and mixing into the rice, the dish becomes something of a mushy and salty rice dish with hints of shredded cod. You taste more olives and mushy rice than anything. Seriously disappointing. 2 stars

Dessert review: Sericaia - Plum with lemon sorbet Rice pudding - Caramelized apple, cinnamon ice cream

Let me preface my dessert review that after ordering, it took nearly 30 minutes for our dessert to come. The waitress came over twice that there was a problem with the dessert but they were going to be coming out. I was a little scared that something had gone wrong, but dessert was my girlfriend's favorite course so I waited patiently.

Upon arrival, our dishes came in two portions - one with the dish and the other with a cup of melted ice cream/sorbet. I'm not kidding, look at the photos. I honestly can't even review the dish because it didn't even come out as a comprehensive dish. Yes we finished it, but it was very clear the ice cream machine was broken. I asked the waitress if the ice cream machine broke and she stated that it had and I was honest that I was really disappointed that they still served it to me. The waitress agreed, but nothing was done beyond that. I mean this is a Michelin Restaurant, right?

Final thoughts: I really wanted to like this restaurant, especially on my birthday, but I can't imagine this is how Michelin restaurants are supposed to be run. It is very clear that the customers are not their priority, unless their writing Michelin reviews. If you're visiting Lisbon reading this, you're probably deciding whether or not to make a reservation because it's a Michelin star restaurant after all. Honestly the majority, if not all of the clientele in this restaurant is not Portuguese - with good reason. There are better places and they know it. If you're in the area, take your money next door to the Mexican place. They're not Michelin but clearly Michelin doesn't mean...

After hearing some good things, we made a reservation at this restaurant for lunch. It is a beautiful restaurant with an open kitchen concept— loved it! Everybody was polite and respectful. We ordered the bread with Jamon, Tuna Tartare, and Octopus salad. All of these were excellent - and I plan to recreate them back home in my kitchen.

However, the service was subpar. We had to remind the waiter multiple times to bring us another beer or glass of wine (even after asking multiple times- we did not get the last glass of Rose because they ran out after a long time)- and to change our plates between certain dishes - bc of the different sauces. The waiter was extremely respectful but seemed very overwhelmed. When we ordered the pork, it took him 15-20 minutes to tell us that it would take 20 minutes to cook — which I already knew as I cook too.

While cooking the pork - I became concerned over the process. First, they let the pork meat rest way too long after cooking. Multiple cooks kept touching it with their fingers to check temperature multiple times - which seemed off putting and subpar for a Michelin rated restaurant (I understand once in awhile). After touching the pork, the cooks put it back in to cook longer. Once the meat was ready to be cut, I saw one of the cooks cut the pork on a raw beef cutting board with another knife - which I believe he used to cut raw prime rib earlier (bc we were sitting at the bar and could see into the open kitchen). When this was happening, another cook noticed and they argued for 5 minutes - going back and forth. They then put it back in the oven and cooked it again with the peppers (3rd time being cooked), and then moved it to the preparation stand to be served to us. He then switched the knife back to the proper cutting board - leaving the other knife on the table. After watching this whole ordeal, we spoke to the waiter who got the manager. As soon as the manager approached us, he offered to make us another one - which I took as recognizing their mistake. However, by then, we were ready to go. Again, the manager was really respectful and apologetic. They compensated us 1 glass of wine and 1 beer - and we did not have to pay for the pork- which was thoughtful.

Again, the first three food items were really good and the people were respectful. However, I was quite shocked to see basic food safety, etiquette , and best practice principles not being followed - especially at a Michelin rated restaurant. Normally, we do not say anything because everyone makes mistakes and things happen - but with high prices and high acclaim - we just expected something a bit better. Hopefully, you will have a better experience than us....