Tasca Chic — Restaurant in Lisbon

Disappointing experience. I would give it 1-star if it wasn't for the manager (read everything to understand why).

Started by ordering a "Freshly-squeezed orange juice", and it came full of ice. In my opinion the default should be without ice, and, if I wanted ice on it, I would specifically ask for it. When I mentioned that to the waiter, he unpolitely went back, removed the ice, and filled it with some juice they had there. It was clearly not "freshly-squeezed".

Then ordered Codfish “À Gomes de Sá” with hard-boiled egg, olives and parsley sprouts, and the potatoes were raw. For a moment I thought that they were using yam or another vegetable, as they were more towards the white, but then gave a bit to everyone that was dining with me, and they confirmed that those were potatoes. Told that to the waiter, which tried to make it as if nothing happened and, apart from confirming that those were potatoes, didn't say a single word (again): to us, and not even to the person responsible for the restaurant.

Finally, after a really bad service, when we asked for the bill, they had an extra 5% for "Service Charge" ("Gratificação") without even pointing that out, to see if it would pass.

With all of this, I was going to give 1-star. However, after some words with the manager, we had the experience that seemed more like the Chef Avillez one hears about. He invited us to stay, even in the dock area, and personally offered us three desserts and one bottle of water. Normally I would not have accepted, but, in that case, felt that giving him room for redemption was a noble act, and he didn't disappoint: that's why...

We were really looking forward to lunch at Tasca Chic, located inside El Corte Inglés in Lisbon. As long-time fans of José Avillez’s culinary ventures including Bellcanto, Bairro, Cantinho, Maré, and even Tasca in Dubai . We had high expectations. Sadly, this visit fell well short.

While the ambience was perfectly fine for a department store setting and the staff were courteous and competent, the real letdown was the food. We ordered the chicken peri-peri and the ossobuco ragú, both listed as main courses. Unfortunately, the portion sizes were surprisingly small and deeply unsatisfying.

The chicken peri-peri lacked the punch and complexity of flavor we were expecting, it was bland and unremarkable, it could have come from any generic café. The ossobuco ragú was even more disappointing, basically a small scoop of mashed potatoes topped with a modest drizzle of a decent red sauce and just two tiny pieces of meat. It felt more like a canapé than a main dish.

For what we received, the bill came to €47, including a 500ml bottle of Pedras and we left still hungry. It’s disheartening to see quality and generosity sacrificed for the sake of style and brand ambition. A name like José Avillez sets a high bar, and unfortunately, Tasca Chic didn’t come close to meeting it on...

I am not one to share bad experiences but only the good ones, this is an exception! We had heard a lot of good feedback from guides ect and were delighted of having the opportunity to eat here. After a short wait we were invited to take a seat at an uncleared table and left to wait! The Portuguese couple on the next table were equally waiting for their bill and let them understand we were also waiting! The waitress came to take the drinks order but did not ask about food! We were also not told that the menu was a qr code, we could have waited a long time!!! After 1 hour we were finally asked what we would like to eat. My friend ordered black rice and prawns and myself crispy chicken and kimchee espuma. No cryspy chicken and no taste of kimchee. Nice salad but not exceptional and very badly presented black rice with cold prawns. We were not offered any kind of bread or olives while we waited, which could have lessened the wait! Also told by the waitress if we did not ask she couldn't know. The problem was that she didn't even see us for quite a long time! And apparently it was not her fault but the kitchens. I thought that a restaurant worked as a team and find it unacceptable to blame others for your mistake. Not a gourmet experience for us. Hopefully it can...