Gambrinus

This is one of the most famous restaurants in Lisbon, listed in all the guides, and supposedly famous for its seafood.  It is also, based on this meal, utterly dismal at cooking. The very traditional dining room, with lots of wood panelling, had just a few diners the lunch time that we went, none of which appeared to be under pensionable age. Sadly the cooking was as old-fashioned as its customers appeared to be. Prawns (pictured) were horribly overcooked, rubbery and a tragic waste of what was originally probably top notch shellfish (10/20). A local sole was better, overcooked somewhat but at least edible, while a few token boiled vegetables with the fish resembled those at the beginning of the Babette's Feast (the ones where they "boil for two hours", and sadly not from the banquet at the end of the film).

Service was fine, but the food was really from some sort of 1960s time-warp. It is sad to see good ingredients being treated like this.