BICA LISBOA — Restaurant in England

Bica Lisboa as a portuguese place it’s always a great feeling going to a place which reminds me of going back home. With Portuguese style decorations and speaking Portuguese language with the owner. The place looks clean tidy and cosy. Nice view of the TV sometimes there is music to make it even more enjoyable and relaxing and fun. The owner is full of joy opened welcoming and talkative which makes the place alive and exciting. Great guy for a laugh. Very friendly and honest. Plus he is a DJ he knows the best music which he puts on the cafe every now and then. I have been disappointed with a few things. Which is why I’m not going back there again until it’s improved especially the prices! The biggest shock is the price. Under no circumstance have I ever in my life ever paid £5.50 for a cheese toast. I also bought a pastel de nata , Sumol , and croissant with butter and cheese. For £10.50. How is it possible a small snack like this is more expensive than a proper meal ? This is a big no no . And I would hugely urgently seriously ask the owner to quickly relook the prices because I feel this almost like cheating. And what’s sad is a lot of portuguese community have also said the same thing about the price. The next biggest dissapointment is the some foods were not Portuguese but English . When I ordered the croissant with cheese and butter unfortunately it was not portuguese . Which really broke my heart . As the portuguese cheese and butter is what makes the difference of enjoying food with flavour melting in your mouth. Please please keep it all portuguese as much as possible . As this is what we are known for and proud to be it is our identity food is a reflection of us. Also perhaps have the plates in Portuguese styles always makes it elegant pure and positive snd in Portuguese energy. And portuguese look. I hope the owner can sort this out because I would really love to come back . And as a portuguese person I would be very heartbroken for portuguese cafe to not love up to its expectations . And I am extremely proud of being portuguese I want to see and hear positive things about it. After all we have the 3rd best gastronomy in the world. 🇵🇹 💚💛❤️ Which brings me to my next thing which is the options available . In Portugal as being one of the gastronomy in the world . We have dozens of options of foods and pastries sweets snacks cakes gums ect. And I would love to see the owner expand his options and availability on the food especially the pastries we have hundreds of them. Not just Pastel de nata. Another few things that disappointed me is the fact that it’s too dark . As portuguese / Mediterranean place we are known to be bright and colourful not dark. As for the tables it’s essential that we keep it clean and tidy after every use. As hygiene is out of our DNA we are very strict on it in Portugal. Make sure music is played 24/7 that’s again part of our culture. And I’m sure the owner is aware and he will take it on board and tackle this soon. Please Make no mistake as the quality of food is great and speed of service is excellent he is fast and efficient. The presentation of food is good. But in order to experience that the prices need to seriously be looked at otherwise it’s hard to experience these benefits that this place has. As the prices is the main thing which attracts customers. Always be proud of your portuguese culture.Muito obrigado 🙏 An update on this review . I thought i gave a constructive honest review in which I’m discussing the good parts bad parts and ideas as I want to see all Portuguese places succeed. the owner has personally replied to me in a manner which shocked me it’s very disturbing and I would advise for nobody to go there. Because the owner has severely crossed all of the lines. And I will never step again to that place . I’m going to expose it so that he learns from his mistakes and doesn’t do it to another person. As a Portuguese person I wasn’t expecting but I guess they all change when they arrive to UK. And I would urgently advise the owner to seek professional...

The woman serving us seemed so dismissive, irritable and unwelcoming in her attitude that I felt uncomfortable. When I asked for items on the menu they’d run out of she rolled her eyes as if I was stupid. Their toilets were out of both tissue and hand towels. When I let her know this as politely/ neutral as I could, rather than acknowledging the inconvenience or being happy to have the information, she turned away nodding her head vigorously as if she was annoyed.

I can’t know why she behaved so unfriendly. We were the only Black customers in the place and she seems ok with some other customers (white & Asian) so we even wondered if this was discrimination.

The man who was serving was friendly and welcoming however.

Disappointed they aren’t serving the full menu that I used to come in regularly for.

The hot chocolate was weak like warm brown milk in our opinion, but this is typical of most cafes in the UK.

*update: response from owner shows the lack of understanding or taking responsibility: I’m very patient and understanding with challenges for small businesses. It is rudeness and being treated like you don’t want us there that is the real problem. I wouldn’t even have mentioned the other things if I had felt welcome and spoken to like a human being. The response is to blame customers and be ‘disappointed?’ with my review? And sulk by saying you won’t bother opening...

One of the worst experiences I have had in terms of service. Male and Female at the counter need to wake up. The place wasn't even busy so tell me why we waited 22 minutes for a flavourless Ice Coffee and a Pastel de Nata which were already prepared so it wasn't a matter of waiting for them. At about minute 15 I looked you guys in the eyes from my table, this wasn't because I was flirting... it was to give you a chance to at least ask me what I wanted... Pretty much forcing me to stand up and come to you at minute 20 to ask and I specifically said that I have waited 20 minutes, received no apologies but the items turn up 2 minutes later. How can you just forget an order, is it incompetence or you just don't care? Not like it's priced correctly either. This occurance was a few months ago and I only waited because the business name wasn't updated but still occasionally think about how strange this experience was. The most we got from you was a meek goodbye as we...