Taberna Criativa — Restaurant in Sintra

First off, this place is highly overrated and expensive. We ordered the seafood appetizer. It came with a shrimp and some other sea creature, and some foam of some sort. Ok I guess. But in the world of, "We want plates," memes on Reddit... this deserved a photo. Served on a box of seashells. Pretentious and stupid. I'd have just wanted an actually appetizer. Sea foam doesn't make me hungry. And in a country of healthy sized portions for starter coarses... this was barely a tiny bite each at 9 Euros.

Then two of us ordered the lobster risotto. Wow, it was like Chef Boyardee. I was very disappointed.

Wife ordered the seared pork dish. That was the only one at the table that got something tasty.

Then my kid had a spaghetti dish. It was ok.

For the price, and the overratings I give it 2 stars, because wow what a disappointment. The service was good. So I added 1 star to what would have been only 1 star.

I mean, maybe I should have known by the name that the place was gonna be pretentious, but it was close to where we were staying and we were tired.

I won't go back.

If you check my reviews, I don't just give out negative reviews just to be mean. I try to explain myself. And I give out plenty of 5s.

This place just made me, well, feel like an idiot for going in the...

While it wasn’t a completely horrible experience, it was the worst experience we had in Portugal for this rating and price range. The food was good, but rude staff made our experience not so enjoyable. For example: We’ve booked a few weeks ahead of time for our group. At some point, the manager sent us a rude email asking why we haven’t chosen our menu yet. Needless to say, they didn’t ask us to do it (we only communicated via email, so all paper trail is saved). When we provided the info and explained that they didn’t request it at first, no apology (or any other reply) was sent. Their manager provided wrong IBAN for the deposit and sent a rude email to rush the payment. When we explained their mistake, the correct IBAN was provided, but no apology was made. When we just arrived to the restaurant, one person from the group took out a reusable water bottle and drank some water. Just when we arrived from the sunny street. Not putting it on the table, just drinking and putting back to the bag. However, the staff didn’t hesitate to condemn this and share their “no external drinks allowed policy”. We understand that, but we also didn’t plan to drink it throughout the lunch. We just took it out once. It was uncomfortable, unfriendly and ruined the beginning of the...

Our dinner at Taberna Criativa was the best we have had whilst travelling. We decided we'd splurge and didn't care too much for how much it would cost as it was our last night in Portugal and not only were we surprised by the bill but by all the dishes and even more so how great the floor staff were. The food is so beautifully presented and delicious. The seafood entree, a story in itself playing homage to the Praia das Macas region. The confit piglet was exceptional and with nothing to fault on our starters and mains, we couldn't say no to dessert and it was certainly no disappointment either. The waiter was knowledgeable about all the dishes on the menu and recommended some great wines to pair with our meals. It was a fine dining experience without the pretense, a celebration of local ingredients and modern Portuguese cuisine, which only set us back 100 euros. We expected and would readily have paid more, even checking the bill again to make sure nothing was missed. Overall, worth every penny and contemplated even going to have lunch there again the next day. Thank you to the team at...