Sr. Fado de Alfama em Lisboa

We arrived at the restaurant at 7:30pm as we instructed to arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 so that we are in have started our meals before the fado. Since we arrived first an around 7:25, we had an opportunity to pick our table in the intimate restaurant. You must reserve a table via the contact form on the website and pay 50% of the meal, which was €58 for two. I was asked to send the money via a PayPal using a gmail account that didn’t have the restaurant name in it. I was very concerned about as it seemed sketchy. I searched TripAdvisor reviews no really mentioned the gmail account. I was able to find something on another website mentioning the gmail. This gave me a small amount of comfort. Once you send the PayPal, you send a screenshot of the payment to the email address (the one from which they responded to the reservation request). The never responded to my email so I called the next day to confirm my reservation and they had me down. The meal: The first starter was a charcuterie board with prosciutto, cheese, bread, olives and octopus salad. It was quite good. The table came with 2 1/2 servings of white wine for two and the same for red wine. The second starter was pasta in sauce and chicken. The pasta was good but it was like a jar of sauce on pasta. The chicken was very good. The meal was a seafood stew and rice. It was very delicious. It had fish, shrimp, mussels, clams (?) and scallops (?). If you didn’t like seafood, there was a pork option. After this the fado started and we took a break for dessert. For dessert, there was some sort of pecan cake that was delicious and was served with a fruit cup with the fruit in some sort of dressing (also good). We had a shot of muscatel. And lastly, we were offered a shot of very strong Portuguese liquor. I thought all of this was good for €58 pp. We were offered an opportunity to buy port or ginja. Our tablemates bought me a glass of port (they were lovely people). The Fado: It was lovely…so moving. The female and male singers were wonderful. She gave us the history of fado and I learned a beautiful word - saudade. I would do it all again. The Service: It was excellent. The host (the owner, maybe?) checked on constantly. He was very friendly and cheerful. The servers were awesome as well. They were all welcoming and enhanced the experience. I want to note that the fado started at 9pm. There were some people that arrived late and they were allowed to come in at 9:15 at the behest of the female singer.

There are many places in Lisbon to enjoy Fado, whilst we checked this restaurant out on TA we probably should have paid more attention to the comments about the food. We arrived just after the requested time of 7.30. The restaurant is small, only 30 covers, the staff incredibly friendly. We were shown to a lovely table with a great view of the 2 chairs to be used for Fado. At €58 euros per person, it is good value, 4 courses, water, half a litre of wine per person and a shot to finish. Whilst the value of food is generous, the quality really let the restaurant down. When we arrived there was a charcuterie board on each table: ham, olives, cheese, mixed pepper salad, bread and pate type spread, ample portion but a little dry as if it had been sitting around for a while. Our next course was a little odd and didn’t fit with the evening: a small bowl of chicken in a teriyaki style sauce and pasta topped with cheese. For our main we chose the seafood option (the alternative was pork with cockles, not to our taste), it was nicely presented with muscles, white fish (think it was skate as it was quite bony), cockles and whole large prawns, it had the potential to be delicious, however it was bland and very ordinary. Our dessert was a small slice of chocolate and coconut cake with 2 bowls of fruit in some sort of sauce, the cake was dry, the fruit a little odd. To finish a sweet tasting shot and then a final shot of what we could only describe as fire water. However the Fado was fabulous as was the interaction. The lady singer gave us a thorough overview of the history of Fado. Her singing was excellent and so engaging, you were captured with each and every word. The 2 musicians were outstanding and the voice of one of the gentleman was strong, powerful and even though we didn’t understand the words we fully felt engaged with the sentiment. It felt a very personal experience, after the main course, the curtains are drawn over the doors, the lights dimmed and then the magic starts. You could get better food elsewhere, however it would really take something special to provide better entertainment.