Restaurante Ponte de Ferro — Restaurant in Vila Nova de Gaia

I dined at Ponte de Ferro. on Saturday, August 15. When I tried to order my favorite, the sea bass, I requested a substitution for the shrimp risotto it was paired with (see photo of menu), as I have an aversion to shrimp. I asked our waiter, Jose, if I could have the risotto without shrimp or a side of plain rice instead. Jose took my request to the kitchen, but to my surprise, the answer was a firm "no". The reason given was, "we can't take the chance of you posting a picture of it on the internet." As a result, I had to order something other than my favorite dish.

Another issue arose with a friend's order. He chose the dry-aged beef, but it unexpectedly contained foie gras, which was not listed on the menu. My friend has an extreme aversion to foie gras and would not have ordered the dish had it been included in the description. Jose took the dish back to the kitchen to have the foie gras removed.

These two experiences were frustrating for a restaurant of this caliber. At the end of our meal, I asked Jose for the name of the chef. He declined to give me the name of the Chef, offering only the first name of the hotel's executive chef, "Christophe."

Based on the chef's refusing a simple substitution, and my waiter declining to name them, I have to conclude that either the chef's ego was more important than the customer's dining experience, or that the chef has a workplace fear of varying from the menu the least bit to...

We were in Porto to celebrate my sons wedding. We booked a table for 6 (family) at the restaurant and asked to be sat by the window. We actually called into the hotel and spoke to guest relations - the man told us he would make a note and that by paying an additional small for a a few euros per head, we would get a great table by the window with a special treat from the chef. When we came that evening for our dinner, we were met (not greeted) who we think was the Manager - I have never encountered such rude service from anywhere. There was no smile and welcome to our restaurant and when he gave us a table with 3 of the 6 of our party looking at a wall, I tole him, we should have a table by the window. He refused to try to fix anything, just telling us that they didn't have tables for 6. He didn't apologise that we had been misinformed by the guest services and was just extremely unfriendly. He clearly did not enjoy his job and dis not have the right attitude to be dealing with customers. He did eventually move our table slightly but we were still facing the wall. I didn't get the guy's name otherwise,for sure I would be mentioning it! What saved what started a very disappointing start was the lovely service we received from our super friendly waitress Priscilla - the food was...

Snooty hostess and waitress ignored our arrival and asked us to wait outside the restaurant because they were busy entertaining a large party. During our wait outside, several members of the staff looked our way but did not take the initiative to welcome us. Later the hostess justified ignoring us because our reservation was at 8pm and we had arrived a few minutes early. She came to finally see us outside the restaurant at 8pm. She said “here not paying attention to guests until reservation time is the way it works”. A completely unacceptable way to treat customers, specially because the restaurant was less than 1/3 occupied. The management should be fired and the junior staff should be re-trained to treat customers as their source of income. In contrast, the receptionist at breakfast was super friendly and charming, and the perfect host. The restaurant should consider promoting her to manage the evening...