Tasca do Jaime d'Alfama — Restaurant in Lisbon

Update: Looks like the restaurant owner isn’t keen on receiving feedback.

This restaurant did not meet my expectations. I would personally never bring my friends or family here under any circumstances.

My group of 6 adults was walking the area in search of a fado dinner experience. That was our first mistake, not having a reservation. Everywhere was full. When we walked by Tasca do Jaime d’Alfama we were approached by a young man smoking outside and he said something along the lines of “I’m eating here with my girlfriend and it’s my fourth time in Lisbon. Come eat here, the food is fresh and it’s very good.” Since everywhere else was full, and he gave a glowing endorsement, we went in. We should have known better—if a restaurant in a busy area is empty and has to call people in, that’s a bad sign.

As soon as we were sat, which was right away, the middle aged/older woman serving us kept shushing us and other patrons while the fado was performed. It makes sense to be quiet, however she did it like she was shushing children, using her finger to her lips. In addition, she was gesturing to us to order, which is tough when you are also being instructed to shut up.

The lady kept pointing to the sea bass main dish, like that’s what we should be ordering. It started to make sense why, because it was the highest priced dish on the menu. When my vegetarian companion ordered the vegetarian main, the server seemed irritated and surprised, likely because it was the lowest priced main on the menu. Another of my companions wanted to order an appetizer as a main because he didn’t fancy any of the other dishes, and she disallowed him from doing that.

Be aware there is an unspoken rule that you are each required to purchase a main dish in order to be at that restaurant. It makes sense because the fado music is included, however it may be helpful if they shared that information on the menu or as soon as we entered the restaurant.

Pros: we were seated immediately there was fado music and singing tasty bread and tuna for the table nice cheese and meat plate quaint space

Cons: getting lured into the restaurant by the mysterious fellow outside (he himself used the word lured later when describing to us how he brought us inside) getting shushed throughout the meal being forced to order items we didn’t want the waitress touching my shoulders at the end of the meal (which made me very uncomfortable) overly salty leek vegetarian dish red wine was not good, we did not finish it

When I was lured into the restaurant and realized the overall vibe, I felt taken advantage of. When the lady was shushing and directing me at dinner, it felt condescending and disrespectful and I could not enjoy the experience.

The lesson I learned: don’t expect much if I don’t want to be disappointed and don’t go into a restaurant if they have to call me to come inside. Also, make a reservation elsewhere that’s rated at least 4.3...

Overpriced food, rude personnel, hidden costs, misleading display

After some small bites at another restaurant, we stopped at Tasca do Jaime for more drinks and some bites, maybe diner if we were getting hungry later.

We were received nicely, ordered some beers and a glass of wine (instead we received a jug) and received some bread (on the house we thought). The hostess brought the menu and was urging us to choose quickly because the cooking could take some time. Although we were still slowly enjoying our wine, we decided to order some sausages (9 euros) and tapas (15 euros) as starters, saying we would decide later, as we were still deciding what we wanted as a main course. So far so good we thought.

The hostess said this definitely was not enough and we should at least order two portions of tapas. I tried to explain her we would order maybe some later (in a mix of English and Spanish, which she both did not fully understand), but she said again we had to order more food. I realized there was a mismatch here so I proposed we would finish our drinks and leave so other people could take our seats. The hostess said then (rudely) okay fine, and decided these two dishes were enough. Maybe I should have just insisted of not having the dishes and just have our drinks and leave, because the atmosphere for us was ruined already.

We didn’t leave, so we received our sausages for 9 euros, which turned out to be one black sausage, and tapas for 15 euros, which was a bit of ham and two different kind of cheeses. I think this was ridiculously expensive and ‘sausages’ indicates plural, and tapas is not just cheese and cold ham.

Our appetite was gone already so we only finished half. There were 2 guys singing fado so we waited politely for them to finish and then ask for the bill. This came up to 65 euros because we had to pay 14 euros for the bread (which could have been mentioned before) and we had to pay for the full jug of wine because at evenings of fado they did not serve by the glass, which was of course nowhere mentioned when we entered. Also some price was added because there was fado this evening.

After leaving the restaurant, I checked again from the outside, if we could have seen any announcement of Fado singing or anything else which should have tipped us off that we couldn’t have just small bites and a drink but this was not the case. If the hostess would just have mentioned this place was only for full dinner and just accepted my offer of just having the drinks and leave, the evening would have ended much better for everyone.

I would definitely not recommend to go here, there are many other places to enjoy fado where the personnel is much...

Worst place i’ve been to in Lisbon. I should have known not to go in there after initially passing it 30 minutes after opening and nobody being there despite the alley being quite busy, but it was recommended by a former friend (that i now consider a mortal enemy), so i went over my gut feeling. The small room that claims to be a restaurant is owned by an old couple - the husband sings from time to time - pretty mediocre fado, they do have other guest singers that do a much better job and actually show some emotion during the song; the wife tries to get customers inside the restaurant with the promise that they dont have to pay for the music but then despite having a couvert (base payment just for sitting down, gets you some olives, bread and tuna pate) she insists on ordering more “you know, because of the music”. If you are not able to sustain your business just close down, babe. Other shady practices include not offering wine by the glass, only by carafe, despite it being the cheapest boxed wine (you can see when they pour it), just to get more money out of you. Restaurant also does not accept card or offer you a valid receipt, even when asked - im sure they dont pay any taxes on their business. The food is mediocre at best taste wise and variety wise and I woke up in the middle of the night to throw up. I felt sick the entire next day losing an entire day of vacation over a crappy meal and boxed wine. It probably also did not help that both the owners touch food without ever washing their hands after handling money menues and probably their intimate parts. In addition, in case you cant hold down the horrible food until you leave the restaurant the bathroom is right behind the musicians so you have to wait until the husband finishes his crappy fado impression until you can bother them to barf.

For the restaurant: I hope next time I’m in Lisbon your door holds a...