Zapata — Restaurant in Lisbon

What a joy. Unassuming from the outside, this gem is a local’s favourite. Start with half a litre of Super Bock to cut the dust. Order the fruity little olives and exceptional bread to begin. Pass on the ‘spreads’ as you’ll want to save the bread for the food proper. Do take them up on the little cheese though as it’s rather good. After a read through both menus (regular and specials) begin ordering in earnest. You won’t be disappointed. The small prawns are in fact rather large, plentiful and swimming in a salty emulsion of olive oil, the juice of the prawns themselves and chucks of scorched garlic. One lone piri piri chilli and a bay leaf play the supporting role. Start dunking with bread, order a jug of their dry white wine and begin chatting to the old lady sitting next to you. If you’re as lucky as we were she will tell you about the tripe and beans the kitchen has cooked that day and she will ask them to send a small plate out for you to try. Incidentally the tripe was beautiful. Washed and boiled to within an inch of its life, there was not a whiff of ‘farmyard’ and it was totally yielding. The even softer beans and kick of pepper offer the perfect foil. Small squids (lots of) from the specials are perfect too. They’ve caught the grill, yet are as soft as butter. Butter is the only dressing they have. That and a few boiled spuds and a couple of carrot chunks. We have a medium salad that is fresh and crisp as all good medium salads should be and is dressed lightly with oil, vinegar and salt. We also have french fries. These are homemade, warm and crunchy. To finish there is an array of utilitarian and comforting puddings that I can only assume are Portuguese classics. Various takes on sweetened cheese, set custard, caramel and fruit. We tried a couple with our waiter happily allowing us access to them via half portions. Four bottles of port were placed on the table of varying ages. We had the oldest one. It was great. A fine sugary finish all round.

Total cost was just shy of 60 euros. Insane value. We gave the waiter 10 euros and payed 10 euros into the kitty for the old lady so when she returns the following week she can have a drink on us.

Cash only

Ps. Efficient service mustn’t be mistaken for brusque. These are professional waiters in hardworking local restaurants. Don’t expect them to be...

I've never written a public review of an establishment, but felt compelled to speak out about my terrible experience at Zapata yesterday. Based on all the good reviews I had read, I walked into the restaurant around noon with high hopes of eating some great local food. Unfortunately I never got to that point, because the waiter totally ignored me while rushing to seat and serve the couple (at a table) and the gentleman (at the bar). Seeing as there was no one else in this section of the restaurant, I patiently waited assuming I was next in line to be seated. When he realized he finally had no choice but to address me, he gruffly barked something at me which I assume was "what do you want?" I politely answered that I would like to eat lunch. My answer seemed to aggravate him even more, so I switched to my broken Portuguese to ask if he spoke any English. He dismissed me totally by shaking his head and saying "no, no ... cash only, cash only!". And with that, he walked away muttering something else and left me standing there with the other 3 patrons just staring at me. At this point I realized the conversation had ended, so I left the restaurant without being served. Never in my life (64 years) do I recall having been so rudely treated. It may just have been a bad day for that waiter, but unfortunately it serves as a blemish on Zapata, which under other circumstances, may indeed serve fine food. Unfortunately, I'm in no position to give an...

First time i went by my self, cozido portuguesa was so delicious and had no problem. But the 2nd time i decided to naver back there. i went with 2 friends all we had really bad meal, after 70min of waiting, food came out totaly COLD and mine even had a bad smell of pork that even couldn't believe it. how people can sell this as a food ? Soup delivered after main food. Of course it was worst service but the attitudes of servers was a problem. When i asked 'when the food is comming?' Server very angrily responed 'you are late, so what do you expect?' I have no idea since when he got mad at what. When I try to tell to manager of restaurant the food was totally cold and smelly , he just turned his head and watched other side. I mean totally ignored like I was invisable. Finaly, they added some untaken food to our bill, so I asked to fix it. When I was about to pay the fixed bill, and that server suddenly came mad again and said I tryed to cheat him that 'price of soup was delate'. It was still their falt and soup was just 1.5 euros so i didnt notice it. From then I had an argument with him he told me if I'm gonna treat my dad in that way. God . I just want to make sure that i never did the review before this incredible experience, and I am...