Amazing cheese esfiha, rice with lentils, some sort of stewish meat, and crispy onions, all with…read moremaracuja juice. I definitely recommend this restaurant. It gets busy, but the service is quick. Definitely better than a ricotta esfiha I had elsewhere. Come to Rio de Janeiro for the sites, stay for the food at Rotisseria Sirio Libaneza.

If you want a delicious, economical meal, visit the super popular and highly recommended Rotisseria…read moreSirio Libaneza inside the Largo do Machado shopping center. It's the mall's busiest spot with two entrances, two large signs featuring their menu, and lots of photos of typical dishes. You can enjoy their food as takeout, dine in, or pull up to the counter. We chose the 3rd option and enjoyed two warm koftas de frango(chicken empanadas). The counter includes bottles of lemon juice, Arabian pepper sauce, and molho de ajo(garlic sauce), or in my case, all three. Tips: practice your Portuguese. All of the workers are monolingual, but I was happy to push myself and get my orders right.( I did make one of the counter clerks laugh when I said não sei.) If you eat at the counter, you'll rub elbows with locals as they enjoy a quick lunch. Tip 2: no food photos. I didn't get a pic of our meal because I would have been the only person pulling out my phone.

Kofta was ok, hummus mediocre, mint lemonade (they don't actually have it on the menu even though…read moreit's an indispensable drink in the middle east! I had them add the mint to the lemonada suiça) terrible and the arabic bread of the flat and cold kind. I would go back for the kofta though, given the limited choice for arabic food in the centre, but more for nostalgic reasons. Price range, not bad. 48 reais for the lot. In the middle east, that would have been outrageous though, but what isn't about Brasil? ;)

From the owner: Restaurante árabe tradicional, que funciona desde 1968 no centro do Rio de Janeiro, na famosa…read moreregião de compras da "SAARA". Fundado e administrado até hoje pelo libanês Jawad Salim Ghazi e sua filha Luciana, mantém a tradição das receitas de família de Jawad, oferecendo a mais tradicional culinária libanesa à seus clientes, há mais de 50 anos!