Bussaco Palace Hotel Restaurant — Restaurant in Mealhada

I can’t believe the four and five stars this restaurant has received! This place was the worst meal I have ever had. We looked forward to staying at the palace for months and truly enjoyed the scenery and history, but we were deeply disappointed with the on-site restaurant and dinner. First off, the five of us had the hardest time even choosing something off the menu that even sounded good. We ordered the carpaccio as an appetizer and it was disgusting. Not even chewable. The bread was good but we never received the flute of sparkling brut nor olive oil. The wines were only by bottle and were absurdly priced. In fact it was the only restaurant we didn’t order alcohol. My mom and I went with the tomato salad and carrot and vegetable soup…because…how can you screw up a salad?? We joked about the salad only coming with tomatoes and lo and behold…that’s all that came. It was literally two cherry tomatoes cut in half on top of one sliced stewed tomato. The soup didn’t lie, it had one shriveled pea and one carrot chunk. My daughter chose the beet rice. Literally looked like pink baby food. We ordered dessert only because we were still hungry…I had the Bussaco morgado. Not edible nor tasty. My daughter had the apple pie and my other sweet-tooth daughter even refused a second bite when my first daughter tried to push it off to her. The entire meal was over 250 euros and a complete joke. We ended up sitting in the lobby and laughing so hard we were crying over the reviews other have left. We even joked with some of the other patrons who stopped at the bad appetizers or forced themselves through the meal like we did. It was a fantastic way to bond with some of the other guests, but what a waste of money. Avoid this restaurant...

I had a reservation for me and my children 5yo & 8yo. Upon arriving, despite having the terrace completely free they told us that it was too complex to seat us on the terrace because the tables were too small, and they could only seat us in a corner of the indoor restaurant that was completely empty with SO many tables (at least they could have offered to seat us somewhere nicer looking, would have understood). Worthwhile noting I saw they had ~ 5 reservations in their book. Upon asking if the issue was my children, they didn’t know what to say, so I told them that if they didn’t want us, then we’d leave, and then suddenly everything was possible as they tried to make it up. We left as I don’t appreciate being discriminated against because of children. To be fair, place looked gorgeous and good menu, but don’t go if you have children

Please, please, please read the reviews before eating here. Poor execution for high prices. The food looked and tasted like what an intern attempting to follow a recipe for high end food would create. Bright lights and generally poor ambiance did not help the situation. It would not be hard to make this a passable experience, but whoever is in charge needs to at least care.

Enjoy the palace grounds, but pass on dinner and go into town until they make serious...