It's OK if you don't speak a lick of Portuguese at this great lunch spot, because you can go along…read morethe deli case and just point at the salads you want. Be prepared to fly through though, because the attendants aren't very patient waiting for you to decide, and they will just drag your tray along without you! The basic idea is that you can pick to have 1, 2, 3, or 4 different salads (The price of the plate depends on how many salads you have), and then you can add a protein or veggie entree, soups, and a few other things at the end. The salads are great. They have everything from a traditional green salad through quite a few creative salads involving pasta, quinoa, veggies, etc. It's not the cheapest place you'll eat. Expect to spend around R$20 to R$40, especially if you get a juice and a dessert (highly recommended). If you're a vegetarian, this place is has many delicious options as well. Even a couple of their entree items are vegetarian. Even if you aren't vegetarian, the food selection here is quite a bit more wholesome than you may find in many other restaurants in Brazil.

I have always liked this place - food is fresh and good, portion size is, simple system, though can…read morebe a wee bit on the pricy side for every day lunch. I usually got for their smoked salmon, a side of salad and pasta. This would cover the whole plate - it looks so healthy that despite the portion size, it does not seem to matter that you are eating that much ;) Down side though is that it does get crowded fairly quickly during lunch time - so either go a little earlier, or wait a bit for the lunch crowd to leave.

I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. It is in a beautiful old house in a very romantic…read moresetting in the forest but that is where my enchantment ended. I ordered fish with a shrimp sauce, which smelled so unappetizing I couldn't bring myself to eat a bite of it. Even the mashed potatoes tasted strange. I'm nearly certain that the fish or shrimp or both had gone bad. The waiters were very nice and replaced it with another dish of my choosing, a steak with mashed aipim and bananas wrapped in bacon. The steak was great, luckily I like them bloody because what I ordered as medium rare came out as rare. The mashed aipim was pretty much inedible and tasted as if they had used a cheese or butter that had also gone rancid. My boyfriend's chicken was so over cooked that he compared it to the sole of a shoe and it came with a sweet sauce that was very mysterious and not especially good with chicken. After all of this, we come to learn that they don't accept credit cards, which was our fault for not noticing the posted sign, but it sat on a cluttered table with a bunch of knick knacks and signs, plus I would never think that a restaurant with such high prices would expect you to carry around a wad of cash for lunch. All that being said, the staff was incredibly helpful and accommodated all of our issues. However, I would never have delivered either the chicken or fish to our table, because the chicken was obviously overcooked and the fish smelled so bad it turned my stomach.

Garota Flamengo is part of a chain of restaurants, all of them called Garota Something, where…read moreSomething is a neighbourhood name (in this case, Flamengo... but there are other like Urca, Ipanema - I'm guessing Ipanema was the first). The first time I came here was at night a couple of years ago. I don't remember what we ordered, but I do recall it was good haha The other two times I went was for lunch.. they always have some promotions going on. I've tried a filet with chips and it was Ok... see, the meat was good, the sauce was very good and even the chips were nice.. but the chips-to-meat ratio was too high, such that it feels like you have to 'save' the meat for not end up with a plate full of chips. I consider this a medium to severe drawback :p If not ordering the promotions, the food is kinda expensive. In this case, it is definitely better to head to Cafe Lamas, where the price is about the same and the food is waaay better! :) I think Garota Flamengo is a better place to go by night. It has a very good atmosphere and I believe the appetizers are better than the plates (there was a picanha portion that was looking goood!). And of course, the neighbourhood is amazing!

Via Farani is an Italian and Japanese restaurant in Botafogo. You don't see this combination often…read more For now, I can only say something about the Japanese food and it's good. I can recommend the spring rolls and the soup as a starter. Furthermore, the sushi combination de Luxe for two is a good choice, i had better, but it is good and the price is very reasonable: around 85 reais for a 42 pieces combination of sushi, sashimi and Hot Philadelphia, which is definitely enough. From the outside it doesn't look like it, but Via Farani is quite big. You can easily go to Via Farani with a group of twenty people. The attendance is quick, so, even when the restaurant is full or you are there with a large group, you don't have to wait a long time for your order to appear on your table. Finally, if you are seated at the right window, you have a nice view at the Corcovado with Christ the Redeemer on top, which makes the restaurant almost a touristic attraction.

So many noms. Only had the Japanese food & it was delicious. Rodizio style, good quality, and well…read morepriced--R$85 for all you can eat. They bring you 2 pieces of a checklist for your table & you check off what you want to order. Make sure to indicate how many pieces of each roll or dish you want. I recommend almost any of the sushi/sashimi, the yakisoba, and the dessert with the banana fritters & jce cream. Good service and decent ambiance.

Gula Gula is a place which has a great atmosphere, with a very clean decor and a beatiful…read morearchitecture! The menu has a good assortment of dishes, including vegeterians and vegans. The waiters are very atenttive and charismatic. Sometimes, the orders take to long, but the quality of the dishes is always impeccable and flavorful. The experience when I go, everytime, is good and highly satisfactory. I had already celebrate bdays and celebrations there, and I will continuous to do that! It's definitively my top noch! I really recomend!