SPARK Wine & Coffee Bar in Basel

If only I were to score food alone, it would hit 5 stars hands down. But then how to top it up with the service that goes above and beyond to make you feel like home? Or better yet - partying at friend’s? Terrific ambience, wine-savvy staff and the best octopus in the world, trust me! Or just treat yourself with one asap😊

It was like we were back in Portugal. Definitely try it out.

Went with a group of friends on a Wednesday night and we had a blast. Our server was amazing and went along with our shenanigans. He had great wine recommendations and helped us with gluten free options. The food is delicious & good sized portions. Highly recommend! Brunch here is also wonderful!

Great restaurant, authentic cuisine highly recommended 👍

Very nice staff, very fine food.👌 Cozy atmosphere. Very centrally located, on the SBB, beautiful garden terrace, fine Portuguese specialties to eat and buy 👍 I'm already looking forward to the birthday aperitif 😂

So delicious food and good chill. Tia Pia 👌🏾

It was a wonderful evening. Great hosts, very fine tapas and very good wines. Perfect all around.

Delicious food & very friendly stuff.

From A - Z everything is 1A! Didn't have a reservation on a Saturday night and everything was already reserved but they made it happen.

A breath of fresh air in Basel. The staff are so friendly and the food is amazing. A great variety of fish that I haven’t seen on a menu anywhere else in my 4 years here. Thank you for a great night!

Best Portuguese restaurant in Basel. Love the tapas style concept.

I expected more from the food. Food prepared with adaptations to traditional Portuguese recipes, served in snack portions (tapas), interesting but not captivating. Portuguese craft beer as the only option (excluding the biggest Portuguese beer brands). Wide range of Portuguese wines. Cream puff. Friendly, helpful and attentive service, by Portuguese people. There is no menu in Portuguese. Cozy atmosphere with some notes and references to Portugal in the decor.

Short but interesting menu. very good service

Not what it used to be. The food (squid dish) was totally over salted :(

It was a fantastic experience to enjoy Portuguese cuisine outside of Portugal, and I am definitely looking forward to repeating it in the future.

Incredibly delicious Pastel de Nata😍

Great all around. Excellent food and friendly service.

Excellent food, incredible wines, top-notch atmosphere, you can really absorb Portuguese culture.

Delicious food, cozy atmosphere, great service - would 100% recommend and will definitely come again

Small selection of dishes but very delicious. A piece of Portugal.

Good service and food! Remember our country

Nice restaurant for lunch! Lunch menu comes with salad and one of the main dishes! Red wine beef and outposts are both delicious! The desert is also very tasty 😋

Fab dinner. Tasty, well cooked and interesting dishes. Great service. Evening very much enjoyed by all. Shame it wasn’t warm enough to sit outside in the very attractive, large garden area, but restaurant interior is also lovely. Got their custard tarts to take away for breakfast the next day!

Pastel de Nata like in Portugal!

Good atmosphere, excellent service. I recommend it.

Very friendly staff. Very good quality. I recommend. ☺️

One of our favorite in Basel. Genuine Portuguese food and very nice staff. Codfish bruschetta is super recommended

Wonderful food combined with a wonderful setting. I recommend it to everyone!

Personally, we, as Portuguese people, are very disappointed with our food. For a Portuguese restaurant, there isn't even a list in Portuguese, let alone the food. The food was horrible, we were not satisfied and very expensive for what we ate. It was the first time and the last!!!

As Portuguese we were very disappointed. the food is nothing like in Portugal. And for such a small menu that won't fill you up, it's too high a price.

We were able to have dinner in the beautiful garden and enjoyed lots of delicious tapas and wine. The service was super friendly and attentive, the food was great. The only thing that really makes me feel sorry for the restaurant is that they seem to have such grumpy neighbors that they have to close the terrace at 8 a.m. For the Luckily we were early and had already finished eating and were able to end the summer night in front of the restaurant.

Portuguese food in Basel The atmosphere was nice and I liked the food and Portuguese wine better than anything else. Good for Korean tastes too

Such a shame, the restaurant initially made a good impression. Nice service, although one guy didn't speak a word of German, no problem for us because we speak English and Portuguese. But in the end they charge (quite a lot) of money for the tap water, even though we are consuming a wine that costs over 60 francs. Such a shame, never going there again, the tap water was less than the tip we would have given...

The best pastel de nata I've ever eaten!

The food, service, atmosphere was excellent. We didn’t try the highly recommended octopus but everything we had was amazing. The spare ribs and the pork in beer sauce were sublime aswell as, of course, the obligatory pastel de nata for dessert.

Top! Super friendly and attentive and the food is delicious 😋😋

Very nice place and friendly, helpful staff. Good wines at very fair prices. Pretty garden, unfortunately only open until 8 p.m. because it's in a residential area. Oh yes, the food was excellent!

Amazing concept to present Portuguese food in a great way. Being Portuguese myself I can attest there aren’t many places with this quality and none that I know with the concept. Congratulations 👌🏻

Beautiful little place with simple deco and a creative touch. Smiling atmosphere, and food is so good. A jewel in the neighborhood ❤️

It’s so refreshing to have a place to eat something else than the typical Italian, Spanish, Lebanese, and so on.. It’s designed more as a bistro and more relaxed than a restaurant The place is relatively small so make sure you book a table. Food is tasty, looks good and comes in decent portions. What we didn’t like was the friendliness of the staff. Other than that, 9CHF for a small bottle of water is disappointing

The food was OK, the service was just dreadful. They need to change the waiters.

This was one of the few times we had an expensive dinner at a restaurant in Basel that was not a huge disappointment. In fact the food was really good. The octopus was excellent. The dining area felt a bit cramped but there seems to be space out back that unfortunately we have yet to see.

Nice little restaurant with a great courtyard and nice staff 5 dishes to choose from over lunch... is completely enough... Very tasty... the portions could have been a little larger for my taste. Certainly not my last visit there 😎👍

Food was ok, nothing more and nothing less, we ordered a number of dishes but half of them were just bland and not creative in any way. We came because of the high star ranking, but the rating is clearly not close to portraying reality in my opinion. Service was quite good to a point, meaning that they couldn't even tell us what were the ingredients of the dish. Other than that the waiters were very nice and welcoming and warm. The atmosphere is noisy but not too much but the stained plates that we got didn't help the atmosphere nor the fruit flies that interrupted our evening.

Very nice atmosphere and decor.

Both the food and the service was magnificent. Joao was witty and attentive. The cod and black-eyed peas (bacalao) is delicious. Do yourself a favor... eat here, you will not be disappointed.

Cozy Portuguese restaurant with very good cuisine. The tapas are a hit.

Nice place. Price-performance is right. Great wines, poor selection of digestifs. Certain courses are world class, others unfortunately boring.

If you want authentic, delicious food in a beautiful atmosphere with great service, this is the place for you. Definitely not a bargain in terms of price, but as I said, everything else is good.

Good octopus - though as many Portuguese dishes are, swimming in oil, but it tastes good. Salad was ok. Staff is very nice and generally place feels welcoming.

The waiter, despite being a nice guy poured drops of red wine onto the back of my red shirt and either preferred not to say anything or was not aware at all of this happening. Either option is pretty bad...as usual food was tasty.

Absolutely fabulous! Thank you for the lovely evenings, the food is simply unbelievably great! The wine selection is fantastic!!!

Portuguese cuisine is among the best in the world. Today I ate an excellent typical dish, his majesty the cod. The pastel de nata are also excellent. Fair prices, nice staff. Clean and welcoming place. Advised. Portuguese cuisine is among the best in the world. Today I ate an excellent typical dish, His Majesty cod. The pastel de nata are also excellent. Fair prices, friendly staff. Clean and welcoming place. Advised.

Rarely have I eaten it so fresh! Highly recommended!

Very friendly service! The menus were very good, great dessert!

Lovely place. Super friendly stuff. Recommend it!

Spark is an incredibly delightful surprise in the middle of Gundeli. The friendly, yet professional service is perfect! The food was beyond my expectations. The proposal or sharing of excellent food and tasting a little bit of everything is a go-to if you love to enjoy food. My favorite was definitely the Bacalhau (Cod) Bruscheta! And the warm Pastel de Belém at the end... no worda to describe it. I will definitely come back many, many times.

Vary nice atmosphere and service, especially the new waiter was very polite and nice! The wine was perfect and tapas too. We will come back!

The food is very tasty, but the portions are too small, especially the vegetarian options. 11.50 for not even a handful of mushrooms is just exaggerated, even for Switzerland. The personnel was friendly but also not very well organized, sometimes they took a long time to come, and when serving wine they didn't even show the bottle to us. I would not go back.

Excellent food and vine and pastel de nata is to die for! We’ll be back!

A must go! I discovered this place by chance and I am very glad I checked it out. The food is absolutely delicious and authentically Portuguese. 💯 The flavors reminded me very well of the ones I recently experienced in Lisbon. Will definitely come back very soon 👌🏼. Also, a special mention should be given the the sweet waiter and the welcoming and kind owner! ☺️

Super fine food, good portions, price/performance is completely okay. The fish stew is simply fantastic. Always my pleasure.

Super tasty, the new waitress was great.

Excelente portugueses food and I'm native portuguese. Excellent service, they really make you feel you are at home.

Following a positive advice from Gault&Millau, I reserved a table for 3 people at Spark. Arrived at the restaurant at around 7:15 p.m. on a wintry Saturday evening in December with a lot of anticipation and modest expectations. With Mediterranean scents in the nose, the anticipation of the upcoming meal increased. Looking at the plates of the guests already present seemed to meet my expectations. Bryan Adams performed so far so good in the 80s and somehow the song said it all. I would like to mention the excellent wine that the owner recommended and the grilled octopus with potatoes. As a result, we only received 3 of the 6 dishes we ordered and when we asked, we were told that the kitchen closed at 9 p.m. and that unfortunately 2 of the 3 open dishes that we ordered at 8:15 p.m. could no longer be prepared. Slowly but surely the guests present said goodbye and before we knew it, we were the only ones in the restaurant. Shortly afterwards, the chairs were placed on the tables in the front part of the restaurant and the staff started cleaning the place with strong cleaning products, which made the enjoyment of the pastel de nata, which was quickly offered, more reminiscent of a visit to the kiosk in an indoor swimming pool than of a typical Portuguese restaurant. At exactly 10 p.m. we were informed in a not very friendly manner that the restaurant was now closed and that we should please return home. In summary, I would like to say that the food is really good, but the service and the treatment of me as a guest did not meet my expectations. It's a shame, because the restaurant looks inviting and the food is convincing. Unfortunately, the service does not correspond in any way with the courts.

Great pastel de natas and fun discussions.

Portuguese with a difference. But highly recommended. Very nice service.

It was our first time in this restaurant and we had a meal voucher. We are absolutely thrilled with the extremely friendly, humorous and flexible service, the food was very good, really a great place!

Very nice little restaurant with very friendly staff/owners. It was very tasty and we had fun. Thanks. We'd love to come back.

Very fine food, very nice service! Everything fine! I recommend it without hesitation!

Overall a good place. Would recommend it!

What a revelation! I was somewhat skeptical about Portuguese food in Basel, but Spark fully delivered. We had the cucumber salad, the grilled octopus, and the bacalao. All 3 were delicious, but the Octopus was a tour de force. It was so moist and tender, and perfectly seasoned. I strongly recommend Spark to anyone looking for good food in Basel.

Good, tasty traditional cuisine, always a pleasure. Insider tip!

Super good Very helpful staff Worth it Congratulations

Very great tapas, very great service! We'll be back❤️ thank you for the great evening

I'm not usually a fan of Portuguese food, but the food here blew me away. We ordered surprise tapas and were not disappointed. Very well seasoned, the squid was buttery tender, and the spare ribs had the meat coming off the bone. Service, wine advice top.

Loved the coffee, very quick service, and the pastel de nata's were tasty. Great crunch at the tart, not too sweet as well. They have a beautiful garden to enjoy at the back! You have the options of being seated inside, at the garden, or on the street with the view against the beautiful Basel trams 💚

Very cool place for Portuguese tapas, wonderful Pastel de nata and nice service. Great!

We celebrated a big birthday at Spark. The food as well as the wine were wonderful. We and our guests were served attentively and professionally. However, we were not aware that the restaurant is only open until 10 p.m., even on closed occasions. This was not explicitly mentioned. However, we were told that the kitchen remains open after 9 p.m. on closed occasions. Therefore, in our opinion, a closure at 10 p.m. would have been rather unlikely. At around 10.30pm we were told that "actually it should be ready at 10pm". This was very unpleasant for us as we essentially had to “throw out” our guests. The employees also started cleaning up, rearranging the tables and chairs and cleaning the floors while we were still there. That was very uncomfortable, led to an abrupt end to our celebration and disappointed us. We also agreed that we would be informed of any additional drinks/orders outside of the flat rate. Unfortunately, this didn't happen and was only apparent to us on the invoice. We were also irritated by the fact that the full flat rate of CHF 90.00 was also charged for small children. There was no response to our email inquiries. When we called the restaurant by phone, we found out that the restaurant's operations manager (Mr. Malik) was no longer there. We knew Mr. Malik from several restaurant visits and had a lot of trust in him. We discussed everything about the celebration with him, knowing that he wouldn't be there on our evening. However, we cannot understand why we were not informed about this change. We will no longer visit Spark and cannot recommend this company for events. We very much regret this.

Great food in a cute little restaurant, we waited quite long though.. Still worth a visit, maybe we were just unlucky...

Stopped there for a glass of wine on the way home. The wine was good, but the table water we ordered with it was quite expensive at 9 chf. I actually assumed that a glass of still water with a glass of expensive wine would normally be free or at least not cost more than a few francs.

outstanding cuisine The staff is friendly, but neither fluent in English or German. Go there for good wine and ask for the specials We’ll be back 😘

Nice restaurant. Excellent food. Strategic location a few steps from the station. A garden with many tables.

We took the ‘surprise menu’ and every dish was amazing

Outstanding staff and food, loved my breakfast so much I went back for dinner and had it “my way” family style and it was wonderful!

Great service, exceptional food, lovely wine. And definitely not to miss... the dessert: pastel de nata 🤌

Forgive me for starting with the pudding first; PORTUGUESE EGG tart! IF you have had the chance to try the two top bakery in Porto, then you will soon understand the reasoning behind it. This version as in the one in Porto has the yummiest crispy crunch on the outer pastry, and a nearly melting in the middle filling. The starters and mains are equally tasty + superbly fresh produce, and so are the great Portuguese wine offering. The place is lively and huge credit to Marc, the manager, who runs the front of the house in a remarkable, charming manner. We will be back..! Many thanks for a lush evening.

I really liked. Well-balanced flavors

Very friendly service and family atmosphere. Food is fresh and delicious!

Fantastic experience with exquisite food, wine and a friendly and competent service

Very good tapas, very friendly service.

We go here regularly. Enjoy your meal. Courteous service. Garden terrace is also available. :)

After the hubbub of the city and its exhaust smells, this little restaurant is an oasis of calm and freshness. A very pretty terrace far from the noise and smells of the city, a true haven of peace! We were surprised by the parton with his choice of delicious tapas and a combination of various wines, judiciously chosen by him, to accompany the meal which was a real treat. And to top it all off, we left with our stomachs stretched and our arms full of pastel de nata and dessert wine. An address that is well worth the detour!!

Really nice food and the vinho verde was amazing.

Nice authentic Portuguese food in Basel, walking distance from Basel SBB, never seen such big and delicious prawns in Basel. 5 star service - I highly recommended “grilled prawns with garlic butter” and Octopus Tapas also with a nice Portuguese wine.

I need to give this a round 5 STAR! As a Portuguese, I can attest the food tastes completely like home. After 1 year and a half in Switzerland, this was the first time I tasted here some flavors that reminded me of my childhood! And what’s the catch? The owners managed to innovate on every dish to give it a somehow contemporary touch without killing the cultural essence of the dish. From the concept where food is brought to you according to the chef’s selections (and your preferences), to the excellent wine collection and recommendations you receive, this place is just marvelous. I will be doing some 100km soon to come back, as this is my number 1 restaurant for Portuguese food in Switzerland. Well done!

Food, service, ambience. - really amazing!

Amazing breakfast in a beautiful establishment. I would definetly return and recommend it to anyone wanting to have a little taste of Portuguese cuisine.

Super nice staff and great food

A highlight in Basel, fantastic food with excellent service. We'll definitely be repeat offenders here. :-)