Lisbon, Aug. 7, 2026 (Lusa Verifica) -

The viral story claiming that «Portuguese people were thrown out of an Indian restaurant for speaking Portuguese» is false. The incident took place at a restaurant in Costa da Caparica (on the south bank of the River Tagus) because the Portuguese customers called a member of staff who did not speak Portuguese a «refugee b…».

+++ Claim: «Portuguese people were thrown out of an Indian restaurant 

+++ for speaking Portuguese» +++

On Tuesday, 4 August, Chega MP Rui Paulo Sousa claimed on various social media platforms that «in Portugal, Portuguese people were thrown out of an Indian restaurant for speaking Portuguese», a situation he considers «a disgrace»: https://archive.ph/Opvzi, https://archive.ph/YHDSB and https://archive.ph/anUTY.

According to the MP, who is chair of the Parliament's Transparency Committee and a councillor on Amadora Municipal Council, «the manager, who did not speak our language, demanded that they speak English and even threatened to call the police».

Attached to the posts, Sousa includes a 20-second video copied from an Instagram account showing a man pointing towards the exit door at a group of four people, three women and one man, who try to explain that «they are Portuguese, cannot speak English and wanted an explanation of what they were going to order», to which the man insists, saying «please», that they leave and threatens to call the police.

The following day, the issue was amplified by the leader of Chega, André Ventura, who invited his followers to watch the video. «You have to see this. It seems that now in Portugal we can be thrown out of restaurants because we speak – imagine that – Portuguese. Watch the video,» he urged.

Following the footage, Ventura states that «this is the result of us being meek pushovers, of letting others do as they please» and laments that we have to «bow down to others», concluding by insisting that he will not accept this. «They won't get past us,» he concludes at the end of the posts, which have now racked up over 1.7 million views: https://archive.ph/DYuqR, https://archive.ph/E9Dfb and https://archive.ph/nKCgs.

+++ Facts: the video tells only half the story and the restaurant 

+++ insists it ejected the customers following racist comments +++

To verify the authenticity of the video, several searches were carried out using still frames and keywords, and comments on these and other previous posts with the same content were analysed (https://archive.ph/F0C3U), including the Instagram account that posted the video shared by Rui Paulo Sousa, which features a slightly different version and states that the incident took place «at a hotel in Portugal»: https://archive.ph/SM9vO.

These various searches led to the discovery of a version of the video posted on 14 July on Facebook, where the person who shared it described how «the ladies went to a bar in Costa da Caparica (PACHA), asked a member of staff who did not speak Portuguese for clarification about a drink, and ended up being thrown out of the bar because the owner thought the ladies were being RACIST»: https://archive.ph/8Qd0T.

A rambling caption was added to this video, allegedly based on the testimony of those involved: «We were thrown out of the Pacha bar in Costa da Caparica because you didn't speak English and we wanted to know the flavour of the shisha; this man was really aggressive and I didn't record it from the start. The staff member doesn't speak Portuguese to explain the shisha flavours," it reads.

According to the complainants, they asked if there was anyone who spoke Portuguese, but the person who served them was «really rude»: «She said she didn't know and that if we were in France, for example, we'd have to speak the language. She served us anyway because we had a relative who knew the basics, and we placed our order. Five minutes later, the bar manager came over – he was incredibly rude – and threw us out of the bar as if we were dogs. We were accused of being racists. He was extremely aggressive. We called the GNR, but clearly nothing came of it.» Through keyword searches, it was possible to identify the link to this text in what appears to be the original TikTok post via Google's cache, but the video had already been removed.

However, an analysis of the comments revealed warnings that the story might have been misrepresented, and several users referred to a «public apology and clarification» already published by another Instagram account that had also shared the video and the incomplete account of the ejection: https://archive.ph/J4but.

In this post, featured on the ‘EM FOCO' page – dedicated to «information, current affairs and trends» – the authors of the initial post explained that they had received clarification from the Pasha establishment and apologised for the initial post, which showed only part of the incident: https://archive.ph/XxzrF.

«The article was published based on a video that showed only the final moments of the incident, without us having access to the full context of events. After receiving the venue's account, we realised that the narrative initially reported did not reflect the full facts.» «According to the clarification received, the customers were not asked to leave the venue because they were speaking Portuguese or for any reason related to their nationality or language. The decision was taken following alleged disrespectful behaviour towards a member of staff, including the alleged use of the offensive expression ‘yet another f***ing refugee', a situation which reportedly prompted the manager to intervene.»

+++ Contradiction: the customers were ejected due to «indecent comments» 

+++ +++

Lusa Verifica found this explanation in the ‘stories' on the Pasha Beach Club's Instagram page (https://archive.ph/FYzwB and https://archive.ph/ELFfb) and spoke to both the owner of this restaurant and the man who appears in the video, who is her husband and the manager.

The owner, Ana Duram, a Portuguese businesswoman who returned to Portugal five years ago after living and working in the UK, and Mahmoud Al-Hadad, a Palestinian with British nationality, reiterated that the customers were rude and racist.

«I was in the kitchen and my Brazilian colleagues who speak Portuguese had already left. Only my Algerian colleague was there, and she told me they'd asked her, ‘If you don't speak Portuguese, what are you doing here?', in a racist and rude tone; and later, when she explained that she couldn't describe the flavours of the shisha [water pipe] – not least for legal reasons – she was told she was ‘just another f***ing refugee'".

«At that moment, I decided to ask them to leave because they'd been racist towards my colleague. I didn't shout or push them; I asked them several times to leave in my limited Portuguese, it's true. But I would never have thrown customers out if they hadn't been rude,» said Mahmoud.

According to the business owner, the whole incident was witnessed by Italian customers who made a point of speaking to the Maritime Police officers who had in the meantime been called to the scene by the customers. However, neither the customers nor the businesswoman, who had by then arrived, decided to file a complaint on the spot or ask for formal identification.

In a conversation repeatedly interrupted by tears, Ana Duram appeared deeply affected by the incident, particularly by the defamation of her business and the hate messages she says she is receiving on social media and even by telephone due to «a short video that only shows the second part of the customer's account of events.» «In fact, our staff member attended to them in English and explained that she didn't speak Portuguese, but she understood what they said, and nobody should put up with that. But she didn't even react and went off to make the ‘cocktails', at which point she mentioned it to my husband. That's when he decided to ask them to leave, in Portuguese, because they were rude and racist, but they didn't film that part,» she laments.

Although she did not ask for the customers to be identified, the businesswoman realised that the video of the incident had been posted on TikTok by one of the younger customers, who has since deleted it, and decided to take legal action against her.

«There's a lot wrong with illegal immigration, but this is disgraceful, which is why I've already taken legal action – I won't accept them mistreating our employee, who isn't a refugee but could be, as we also have a Syrian refugee working here. I will not tolerate disrespect towards either customers or staff. She must be respected, and this will have repercussions because we are receiving hate calls and messages, and we will take legal action against anyone who is defaming us, including Chega MPs,» she states.

Following contact from Lusa Verifica, the Pasha Beach Club issued this statement denouncing the «false narrative» being amplified on social media (https://archive.ph/nG3Ar ): «Our employee Hajar, (...) who is part of a multicultural team in a restaurant with a multicultural staff, cannot be mistreated or discriminated against. (...) The facts have been recorded by CCTV cameras and can be verified by the relevant authorities.» Lusa Verifica also identified the account of the young woman who initially posted the video on TikTok, despite her having changed her name, and contacted her by email, but has not yet received a reply.

Chega's press office was also contacted and informed of the restaurant's clarification, but has so far not responded to the questions sent.

Meanwhile, MP Rui Paulo Sousa, contacted via WhatsApp, initially admitted that he did not know which restaurant it was and that he had not checked the facts before sharing the video: «I posted the video of the incident, which I have no reason to believe is fake.» In a second response, after being made aware of Pasha's clarification, he stated that he would keep the posts up: «It's their word against the word of whoever made the video. They are entitled to do as they please and take legal action against whoever they wish. I posted the video that was shared by the person who filmed it, and I will keep it up until a court ruling establishes that the video is not true.»

+++ Lusa Verifica Assessment: False, but +++

The narrative being amplified by Chega MPs – that a group of Portuguese people were thrown out of an Indian restaurant for speaking Portuguese and because the staff did not speak the language – is false.

However, it is true that the customers were thrown out due to racist behaviour, as revealed by the owners of the Mediterranean restaurant located in Costa de Caparica, and even by the original caption of the video, in which those involved admitted to having been accused of racism.

LYGA/AYLS // AYLS

Lusa