Friends Bairro Alto

I had a very unpleasant experience at Friends Bar in Lisbon. The system is simple: when you buy a drink, you pay an extra €1 for the reusable cup. At the end of the night, you’re supposed to return the cups and get your money back (if you want it), or exchange them for another drink. My friends and I (we’re flight attendants) bought a total of 9 drinks served in reusable cups, plus several other drinks like ginger ale and water that didn’t include cups. Later that night, three of the five of us had already gone back to the hotel because the metro was closing around 1 a.m. My remaining friend and I stayed at the bar with all 9 cups. When we were leaving, I tried to exchange the 9 cups for a cocktail, but the bartender insisted that I had only purchased 2 drinks, not 9. Seriously? Regardless of who bought the drinks, every single cup had already been paid for. I personally bought four drinks with cups, while another bartender served one, and my friends bought the remaining drinks before they left. I even showed the bartender my bank transactions, clearly displaying multiple charges from the bar, including amounts that matched several “premium” cocktails and at least four cup deposits. He had my phone in his hands, looked at the transactions, and still insisted that I had only bought two drinks. At that point, I started feeling uncomfortable. I found myself having to justify why I was holding cups that had already been paid for. It made no sense. I even tried calling over to my friend, but he was busy dancing with another customer and simply waved me off. In the end, I decided it wasn’t worth continuing to argue or humiliate myself over a few euros, so I accepted the €2 refund and left. This cup deposit system leaves a bad impression. Either the bar keeps the unclaimed deposits, or customers are forced to argue to get their own money back. Either way, the process is poorly handled. What disappointed me most wasn’t the €7 I lost, it was the bartender’s attitude and his assumption that I was trying to cheat the system, even though I was standing there with nine cups that had already been paid for. I travel to Lisbon two or three times every month and have regularly brought my flight crews to this bar. Unfortunately, after this experience, I won’t be returning. If you decide to visit, make sure you keep all your receipts if you expect to get your cup deposits back.

There aren’t many places open on Sundays, but Friends is one of them. Good music, reasonable prices, and friendly bartenders. If you get a beer, you pay €1 extra for the glass, which they give back when you return it. The music is pretty mixed and fun. When I went around 10 pm, there were just a few people, but by midnight it started filling up, and by 1 am it was completely packed

Crowd runs toward the younger end but it always seems to be busy even on the quietest week nights. The music was phenomenal if you're a fan of pop music, latin, and brazilian funk.

Amazing place! We went there for 3 out of our 4 nights in Lisbon. So friendly staff as well!

It was a fun bar that I went to for five days in a row and that was crowded even on weekdays — until last night. Because of the rainy weather that has continued since I arrived, I bought an umbrella from a nearby shop on Tuesday. I liked the color so much that I even sent a photo of it to my friend. Last night, when I went outside for a cigarette, I wanted to grab my umbrella from where I had left it so I wouldn’t get wet, but it was gone. Assuming someone might have taken it by mistake, I went outside — and I was right, other people were using my umbrella. I politely approached them, asked if the umbrellas might have gotten mixed up, and stood there chatting calmly. After about five minutes, right after we talked about where I was from, one of them suddenly stopped speaking English and started angrily complaining in Portuguese. Then he tried to forcibly take the umbrella from my hands and physically attacked me. That wasn’t enough — he broke the umbrella. When I explained the situation to your staff with photos, they initially believed the other person and treated me as if I were lying. Only after I showed the photo of the umbrella that I had sent to my friend did they say “oh, sorry,” but then added that they couldn’t do anything because they hadn’t witnessed the incident. I would like to ask you this: even though you did not witness anything, why were you so quick to call me a liar? In a queer bar, while I was completely innocent, I was attacked twice — and I was alone. If I had reacted physically, I’m sure things would have ended much worse. This was a complete fiasco and absolutely unacceptable. I hope something similar never happens to you — but if it does, maybe then you will understand how I felt. My innocence was also witnessed by a kind Canadian tourist from the French-speaking region, who was there with me. The staff member who called me a liar and refused to listen knows exactly who they are.