Before starting this review, here's a disclaimer: Living in the neighborhood, I've been a customer…read moreof Otto for several years. During that time I've had the opportunity to experience some of its best and worst qualities. As you can see from my rating, my overall experience has been fairly positive, but I'll try to be neutral and objectively outline the pros and contras.
If you live in Tijuca, you've probably heard of Otto. Having won 'Best Local Restaurant' awards a few times, the restaurant is every once in a while the subject of a piece in the local newspapers. Be it for its famous food festivals, its German cuisine or its imported beer selection, Otto is a consolidated name in one of Rio's most traditional neighborhoods.
Arriving at the restaurant, you will be greeted by an courteous hostess. If the restaurant isn't too crowded, you will be almost immediately walked to a table of your choosing. During peak hours, you may have to wait a little but not too much. Here lies one of the flaws I see in this restaurant: if you want a table indoors but there's no room, you can wait at one of the several tables in their front porch, while enjoying a cold beer or ordering one of their various appetizers. However, if the front porch is also full, you'll have to just stand there. Now, there's just not enough room to stand without getting too close to other people's tables, which could feel intrusive, or standing in the way of the waiters, having to constantly get out of their way. The sidewalk is considerably broad, which is a valid option for waiting, but in days of intense sunlight or rain, it's just not very pleasant.
The inside of the restaurant is fairly dark. In a good way. It serves as a way of making you focus solely on your table and the ones with you. It has a kind of European atmosphere allowing for both formal and casual attires alike. Every day of the week there's live music in the inside during certain hours. There's an additional fee on account of the live music. If you don't want to pay for it, you can request a table in the front porch. Bottles of their wide selection of beers, wines and other beverages are exposed everywhere from the walls to the bar at the center. The tables used to have a full size tablecloth which I liked better but (I imagine) because of the amount of water and work used to constantly wash them, they were replaced by slim cloths that basically cover the space under your plate all the way to the plate of who's sitting in front of you.
Most of the waiters have worked there for a really long time and are well trained and polite. It won't take long until you are served. The restaurant maîtres are always circulating and often stop by your table to check if everything is going the way it's supposed to. When it's too crowded or in the event someone in the staff couldn't work that day, waiters can get a little overwhelmed by the demand, but it's not very likely to happen.
The food selection is very broad. A big part of the menu consists of German cuisine. Various appetizers like pork ribs (Schweinerrippchen), several kinds of sausage(wurst) or fried Kroketten can make your wait for the main dish more pleasant. If German is not your thing, there are other kinds of appetizers.
For the main course, the restaurant offers a variety of German and steak dishes.
One dish you can't miss is the Palmito (Heart of Palm) which comes to your table as a big bark and then is opened by the waiter revealing an extremely tender and tasty interior.
For desert, I'd recommend their Apfel(apple)strudel, which comes with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.
Most dishes can serve a very hungry person. Some can be split between two people not that hungry. 2-people dishes can often be split between 3. The prices have risen with the time. I consider Otto to be expensive, when compared to other restaurants in the neighborhood. Is it worth it? Well, you'll have to be the judge to that.
Otto is also famous for its festivals, periods of time in which they have a separate special menu with different food. The palmito festival offers the tradicional heart of palm dish in many different styles. The fondue festival offers a sequence of traditional fondues (steak fondue, cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for desert) as well as exotic fondues like the Ostrich fondue. I would NOT recommend the chocolate fondue, as it's not nearly as good as it once was.
My favorite festival is the hunt festival, which showcases a series of exotic meats like wild boar, paca and garganey.
Overall, it's a great place to bring your date, your friends or your family to enjoy tate of the German cuisine with a warm Brazilian touch.
