I don't understand how this restaurant is rated so highly. Either these guys were having a really off night or there are a lot of fake reviews. I came here with 3 friends and this was easily the worst meal of the trip and according to my friend Adam the worst meal of his life(a little dramatic I know). But there is no way this place can be anywhere near 4.5 stars. Right when we walked in we noticed that almost every person in the restaurant was a tourist so it seems like most locales know to stay away.
Service: Starting from the service, it was actually pretty good. Waiters were kind and accommodating and put up with our lack of Portuguese. Had full menus in English as well.
Food: Consistently bad. Here is what we ordered:
Hearts of Palm Salad - This was literally just hearts of palm from a can, put on a plate with nothing else. It tasted ok, but at least make some effort and add some other stuff to it. If I wanted canned of hearts of palm I would have just gone and bought some at Zona Sul.
Prime Rib - This steak was soo bland. Not sure how that is possible as a Prime Rib is one of the fattiest and thus tastiest cuts of meat on a cow. Usually just by the amount of fat on this steak makes it taste great, but somehow they screwed this up. Almost no flavor at all. What a waste.
Filet Mignon - Understandably this steak has less fat and thus less flavor than most steaks, but again this steak was exceptionally bland. I don't think I have ever asked for steak sauce in a restaurant, but I had to. And for whatever reason when they brought out our "steak sauce" it was a bottle of soy sauce.
Cod - One of the most offensive things I have ever had served to me. Cod is usually a very clean smelling, flakey fish. This fish reeked, was incredibly dry and tasted extremely fishy. It tasted like it came straight out of the Lagoa....20 days ago. I can't believe they had the audacity to serve it. We each took about 1 bite and couldn't go on. We tried to send it back, but maybe due to the translation issue, lack of caring from the manager or management shamelessly trying to rip people off they refused. Maybe this was our fault for ordering cod at a steakhouse, but the waiter did say it was very, very good. Complete B.S.
Sides - These were fine. Got broccoli with garlic, French fries and some sort of boiled/baked potato.
Wine - We did have 2 bottles of great Argentinian wine. It's funny that the only good thing about the meal was the only thing that the restaurant didn't touch.
If you are visiting Rio and are in the mood for steak, I implore you to go somewhere else. read more