Chez Lapin — Restaurant in Porto

I’ve traveled all over the world, and eaten out a lot. I’m usually pretty relaxed about most things in life. I think this is maybe the third review I’ve ever written. This was the worst dining experience I can remember.

Yes, it’s clearly a tourist trap and we tried many other places before going here, but with no luck getting a table elsewhere, and with really low expectations I thought how bad could it be…

We were one of the first tables seated. The table next to us was seated five minutes after us, and got menus ten minutes before us. Wait staff were standing around doing nothing during this time.

It took 30+ minutes just to get bread for the table. The food took about 90min to come out. By this time every table was occupied and clearly everyone else was having the same experience as us wondering if they should walk out or keep waiting.

The food was awful. I was told the “rural pasta” was basically pasta with chicken and bacon. I assumed maybe something like a chicken fettuccine Alfredo. It was spaghetti noodles with diced celery, diced bell peppers, on top of a whole chicken leg and a chicken thigh (also bone-in). I’m not sure what the sauce was on the pasta.

Of the other meals at the table, the “vegetarian pasta” was basically the same as the above, with some scraps of cabbage instead of the chicken pieces.

The “seafood pasta” was once again the same but with a few prawns/shrimp instead of the chicken.

This review gets one star because one guest described their “chicken in the oven” as not that bad.

It then took far too long to have plates cleared, despite most other tables still not having food yet, and even longer again to have someone come to take our payment.

I could not recommend enough that anyone reading this find absolutely anywhere else. I’ll be very surprised if you can find worse food and slower and less...

Worst. Place. Ever. Overpriced and it's safe to say it has one of the worst (if not the worst) table services me and my wife have ever experienced, which is bold since we've already travelled a good share of Central/Western Europe, South/Central America countries and tried lots of different restaurants. Chez Lapin is what we call a "Tourist Trap".

We opted to sit at one of the back row tables, since it was a cold night and all the available two-seat tables hadn't heaters nearby. Also, the available two-seat tables had been placed on the front of the restaurant frontyard (which was colder and crowded due to the public traffic).

So the place we picked (since no host/waiter answered us) happened to be a 4-people table. It was after we had sat down when an extremely rude waiter came to us, ordering us (like he was talking to a bunch of kids) to leave the table and go to a smaller one since we're just a couple. And to make it worst, there were a lot of other available 4-people tables in the place.

Again, this has NEVER EVER happened to us. The closest we experienced in some other place was to have the waiter asking us if he could split the table in two, so other people could use, which is totally understandable and acceptable.

Tip from a Portuguese: If you give your money any value, avoid this place and go to somewhere else, maybe somewhere deeper in downtown Porto. It might not have the same Douro river view, but you'll certainly receive better service and you'll save a lot of money in...

Worst meal in Porto & Lisbon; most unpleasant experience of our trip.

We didn't even get riverfront views so there wasn't much ambience/ atmosphere to speak of, we were in a "back room" , think they had 2 dining rooms away from the riverfront.

I expected it to be a tourist trap but being arm twisted to pay 10% service charge for not much of service, and a below average meal left literal and metaphorical bad taste in our mouths. It was a specific black sheep - a silver haired male wait staff who looked in his late 40s to 50s. Enough about the " service" . Food did take awhile, the joint was busy.

If the food made up for it, much could be forgiven. Shockingly, the cod was rubbery and not fresh, mussels weren't too. For a place known for fresh seafood, this was shocking standards. We had a sangria that was forgettable too.

Had intended to eat at a smaller joint in one of the alleys. It had a super long queue, Chez Lapin had a much shorter one. If you like the whole sit-by-waterfront dining experience, who knows you may be luckier and have a more pleasant experience here. But you'd have to forego the quality of food cos it was really pedestrian and reminder: seafood wasn't fresh.

If you're a foodie, book early (not here!), or just queue/ eat earlier. Sorry, don't remember the name of the restaurant we wanted to go initially but if you're back facing the river, it's in one of those alleys...