Estrela Bar Portuguese Seafood Tapas Bar — Restaurant in London

My son chose this to celebrate his 25th birthday. He ordered swordfish which was incredibly dry, tasted like very dry chicken. Reluctantly he had to send it back. He really didn't want to make a fuss but could not eat it. He told the waitress the reason. He reordered chose another dish. At some point during the meal we noticed the waitress pointing out our table to another man who we presumed was the chef, but no one spoke to us at that point. They later got hos desert order wrong, again he had to return his item. When the bill came we noticed the returned swordfish dish was on the bill. I thought it must have been an oversight so pointed it out to the waiter and asked them to amend it. A man approached our table who didn't identify himself and asked 'why did you return the food?' My son explained what happened and we were told 'I am going to have to charge you.' I was not going to accept that and explained again that the food went back barely touched and at the time we explained to the waitress the reason. He tried to say the waitress just said 'he didn't like it' not that it was dry. After much embarassing and back forth he agreed to amend the bill. No apology from them. A terrible experience, on what was a milestone birthday, with mediocre food, unsatisfactory service. Left feeling sad and depressed. Would...

I stand by my litmus test for determining whether a "tapas" restaurant is worth visiting: its patatas bravas. Similar to another bad experience I had (in Barcelona no less), the patatas bravas we had at Estrela Bar tonight was a sad excuse for a potato dish. It's basically overcooked, very dry potatoes with a few drops of spicy sauce.

We also ordered octopus which was rubbery and it came with, surprise surprise, more potatoes. In fact, the dish had more potatoes than octopus.

We also had mussels with tomato sauce. They're fine. Nothing to complain about or shout about.

What took the cake for me was the chorizo assado, which was supposedly "flame grilled" but what was brought out to us seemed, and tasted like, leftovers from a butcher's shop. The chorizo was rubbery and way too salty, in fact, so salty that I couldn't even finish it, and I hate wasting food. It's not even worth taking it away. That's how bad it was.

Also if the staff can't explain to you the difference between one mussel dish and another, RUN! Clueless staff = not properly trained = not worth visiting.

All in all, I doubt the sincerity of the 1000+ "good" reviews that don't say much apart from giving the place a numerical rating.

Dear chefs of Estrela, please do all of us a favour and find yourself a new...

Visited on a Saturday early evening. Waiter needs training in customer service. Had no drink suggestions, and item requested from menu not available. Entire menu is confusing, vegan and vegetarian choices not marked so unable to know if meat used in preparation, even for the fish main courses. Waited over 30 minutes after receiving drink order and no return from waiter to get our food order. Took it as a bad sign that none of the tables outside had received food, so gave up. Paid for the drink at the bar after asking waiter for the bill, and waiting another 10 minutes with no response. Went around the corner to another Portuguese restaurant and were instantly seated and served. Recommend you go elsewhere if you actually are hungry and...