Well, we finally made it to Zee Champanheira and true to it's name it does offer champagne on it's menu. We arrived about 30 minutes before our friends so we had an opportunity to observed the staff and early arriving customers and the rotating display of gastronomical delights displayed on the TV placed prominently in an alcove easily viewed by it's customers. The restaurant is small with about 12 tables and located in the same galleria as Teatro Leblon. It is situated between a much bigger Botequim Informal and another small restaurant Bar do Adõa.
But of course we don't go to restaurants only for the ambiance, or lack thereof, we go for the food.
The food at Zees is marketed as upscale and as expected comes with rectangular plates and small portions. We started with the appetizer called (salmão defumado com lascas de maçã verde e molho de aneto) slices of smoked salmon with sliced apples and wisp of a "sauce aneto" on a toasted slice of french bread ( the bread was French, but did not taste fresh).
The main entree was called (o risoto é pedida com limão siciliano com sauté de lagostim), in fact all of the entrees were risoto with some additional seafood or meat portion. I found the risoto firm and sweet, but cloying. That said the lagostim (a south american crayfish) was tasteless in it's non-existent sauce (the rotating picture display showed the same dish with a red sauce, but no red sauce for me) and the shredded lime peel did not add much to the meal experience.
The dessert was billed as (cheesecake de geleia de uva Malbec), purportedly, a cheesecake with grape jelly drizzle. Now those of us from the northeastern US, expect cheesecake to actually have cream cheese as it's main ingredient, but not this carioca version. The cake consisted of a yellowcake cup, (I imagine there is cheese in the baking process somewhere), filled with a grape jelly drizzle with a few additional drizzle spots on the aforesaid rectangular plate to add some "savoir gastronome" to the dessert.
All in all, while the food was edible it was far from palatable. Rate this one unimpressive on the higher priced side... ,
Full disclosure: apparently our companions enjoyed the meal more than we, but that could be addributed to their alternate choice of entree and dessert.... Caveat emptor... read more