Bela Lisboa Restaurant — Restaurant in Port Orange

This was comically the most underwhelming dining experience we've ever experienced. We will never forget this restaurant and will certainly never be back. I'm going to phrase our thoughts as politely and thoroughly as possible. Nothing was bad or rotten, just bland, flavorless and boring. No need to speak with anyone as we weren't looking for anything to be comp'ed, discounted, remade or removed from the tab nor do we care for excuses or justifications. Our review is based on operations as is. We prioritized enjoying each others company, paid for services rendered and are sharing our experience.

We'd heard such nice things from multiple people suggesting this restaurant and were excited to try a new place. Now we're left considering if our so called friends are of sound judgment or simply never tasted flavorful food.

The waitress was the only interaction we had with service staff and she was perfectly fine, pleasant atmosphere, clean facilities, off to a good start. The menu reads mouthwateringly delectable with creative entrees. We were excited. Ordered a couple appetizers, two entrées, and spent nearly $200 all said and done. That's nearly two weeks worth of groceries and we had high hopes.

Everything, every single item of food was completely bland, unseasoned, flavorless. The most flavorful item was dipping the complementary bread into the melted butter that was served with one of the unseasoned bland appetizers. Thank goodness there was salt and pepper on the table because there clearly weren't any spices used by the kitchen. The seafood and vegetables, all seemingly from frozen which is standard, are most likely prepared by steaming plain with no added seasoning. The meats are lightly cooked without seasoning, either sous vide or maybe even precooked because despite ordering grilled meats there were no signs of being grilled. The mouthwatering flavor combinations mentioned earlier? Just a light bland sauce/jam spread overtop after cooking. No sear marks, no char, no drippings, just individually heated items plated together never being allowed the opportunity to infuse their flavors. We left hungry and took everything home to add to our homemade dog food. Everything was so bland there was nothing unsafe for our dog.

If a 12 year old prepared a heat and serve meal like this I'd be encouraging but a restaurant? How embarrassing. Every entree reminded me of an Applebee's style microwavable heat and serve meal, except even Applebee's has far more flavor than this. I can steam, microwave and reheat my own food, thank you. We dine out maybe once a month preferring family owned, hole in the wall, unassuming small businesses. Nothing fancy by any means. We predominantly cook at home. Mostly farm raised scratch cooking. Rarely does a home cooked item flop but when it does we now refer to the failure as 'Still better than Bela's' and graciously continue on. Such a shame. I simply can not believe this place has been in business for years!

Thanks for a hilariously disappointing date night. We will never be back and...

Good, Not Great

Restaurant was recommended by a co-worker and majority of reviews were five stars so I convinced my husband to join me in trying it out.

Went @ 3:09pm. Only two other parties dining so it was nice and quiet. Atmosphere was very pleasant, clean and attractive. Greeted, seated and given menus promptly. Upon opening menu there will be a written statement that food will take 15 - 40 minutes to be served. We were fine with this as we were not in any hurry.

It did take about 10 minutes to be brought water. It was happy hour (3-6pm) so I did order red Sangria which was 50% off. It was delicious. It even had small pieces of apple in it.

The complimentary Hummus (served warm) was fantastic! We did order the goat cheese with fig and walnut appetizer. I requested the walnuts on the side because my husband shouldn’t have nuts. I was told this would not be a problem, although there were going to be some mixed in the cheese. My husband told the waiter not an issue, he’d just pick them out. When the appetizer arrived the walnuts were not served at all and we didn’t detect any inside the cheese to worry about. The nut issue did not detract from the yummy taste.

The bread for the Hummus and the goat cheese was very good. Thin, crispy crust and served warm..

I ordered the crispy snapper with mashed potatoes and vegetables served in a garlic wine sauce. My husband ordered the seafood paella with chicken and chorizo.

The snapper was nice and crispy but they ended up drying out the fish just a bit too much. The veggies were Al dente, which I do prefer. The potatoes were stone cold and I had to request a new hotter portion. It did not take long to receive them but there was no flavor whatsoever. I keep wondering if this is on purpose so that they wouldn’t overpower the flavors from the rest of the food. The garlic wine sauce of the dish was quite pleasant.

My husband loved the yellow rice in his dish. However, the chorizo was very dried out and the chicken and seafood were just ok.

Portion sizes were just fine.

We did not order dessert.

The check arrived and had a service charge which I did not notice an alert about anywhere before ordering. I inquired about this and was told it was because I used a card to pay.

Overall, we might try Bela Lisboa again, but order...

After hearing good things I decided to go here with my children- one is an adult (20) and then 14, 4 and an infant. Our server was great and very attentive to the table. I wish I caught his name- he was very nice and he also mentioned to me he's a father of several children as well and "understood" dining out with kids :) .. we had several appetizers- the goat cheese (amazing!!), the kale soup was very good- unfortunately they were out if the seafood bisque, which i wanted very much! We arrived around 8:30pm and they must've had a busy night prior to that. There was a large table leaving as we arrived and then a 2 top while we were there. .. the complimentary hummus was very good! ... we also had the mango salmon tartare and it was GREAT! We just got back from Manhattan last week where i had the BEST salmon tartare I've ever had in my life and this was almost on par with that! It was VERY good! My son had the octopus entree and he said it was a bit dry - the the veggies were perfectly cooked. My 4 year olds spaghetti was cooked perfectly and very tasty! I even contemplated getting a small bowl for myself :-) My oldest child got the lobster truffle pasta dish and it was fantastic! I got the chicken with vegetables in a cream sauce (I don't remember the name) it had Great flavor but it was slightly dry-but you be fair I love dark meat and not usually a fan of breast meat/white meat in general. We also decided to get the ahi tuna that comes out on the hot stone and you cook it to your liking! Initially they made a mistake and brought out salmon which turned out to be fine because we got to try the salmon as well which was fantastic and perfectly cooked. Then they brought out the tuna which we also were able to cook perfectly and since our server saw that I had my hands full with my youngest he stuck around and helped me cook everything. :) all in all, I really love this place! I cannot wait to go back again and try other dishes and especially do a repeat on the goat cheese appetizer in the mango salmon tartare (im telling you soooooooo good!! ) check this place out- I can't imagine being...