My kind of Brasilian.
Pro Best Brazilian food we've had in Madrid so far.
Con Could be more comfortable.
Pay
€€€
Per Person €25-28: Shared starter platter, main, shared cocktail and dessert. Two beers. Gratis: not even a Brasil nut.
Find
Website https://www.obotecobrasil.com/
Access Step free. Eating is set up as high tables and stools.
In Short
Hopes. Brasil????
Reality. Brasil!
First Impressions. No frills bar, upfrilled.
USP? Chambri's easy-going authentic-feeling Brasilian.
The offer in three words. Road to Rio.
Service! It's not often staff introduce themselves by name. Nice.
Friend friendly? It's very meaty-based. Might be tricky. Check the menu.
Rating for dating. One behind us was working out well. I mean, the guy mentioned Justin Bieber and she didn't discover an urgent Whatsapp from her cousin in Asturias saying granny had fallen down a mineshaft.
Tip? 8%
Change one thing? Seating spacing is on the tight side.
Revisitability. Good, with caveats.
Compare & Contrast
Tastes of Venezuela at Cuatro's Grill. Brasilian grilling at Los Espetinhos.
What's the story?
O Boteco Brasil's going to offer you a decent dinner. And it's going to feel Brasilian. There's flavour. There's authentic accents. There's music. But there were wrinkles. Without them, it'd be an instant no-question recommendable revisit option. But...but, wrinkles. Anyway, scene-setting. It's 2100 on a Friday in October.
I read this week that, on visiting someone's house you form your impressions in 37 seconds. 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3...
2100:37. It's a repurposed bar, smartened up with posters, lilty lusophone (yes, it's a word) background music and a huge counter area, using lots of space. Perhaps not coincidentally, you'll be perching on stools at high tables for your visit. This is OK and probably makes the difference between viability or not, but it's not as relaxing or leisurely as sitting back to take things in.
So, sitting up straight like nanny taught me, but enjoying an aye-aye-eye opening caipirinha which nanny would have kept for herself, the verdict? Well, things start well. It's a croqueta fry-up fiesta!
From left to right, we kicked off with top notch coixinhas. Excellent savoury minced chicken and herb-filled potato cones. Then we're onto new stuff; meat and mint? Well, these were a smidge drier, but with an added chilli sauce micropot, the mint came through. Third up? Balls. Cheese-filled balls. Mind out, as these are hot little devils inside. We got through all our sauce, by the way. Saucy, we are.
Main courses? Sadly Chicken fricasee wasn't available. That meant we couldn't freakin' see how good it might have been. That meant opting for picanha and feijoada. We weren't coming all the way to Brasil for a burger. OK, we'd only come to Canal, but there's a principle in there. Somewhere.
On arrival, the picanha needed more grilling. Perfectly done on one side, it was still mooing on the other. Good news, though - on the rebound it was excellently finished, spectacularly tender and we enjoyed it. A generous portion of deep fried yucca slices and salsa came on the side. Mind you, in the end, this is steak and yucca chips, so it's best combined with another dish for more local colour.
So, ¡Hola, feijoada! We're fans and that made us big fans at O Boteco as its version is the best we've tried in Madrid. Sadly, our photo was an epic fail, but here's a link to O Boteco's website version. It's a big hit because it's presented as a mix of eating pots, not a one-plate job. The stew's in one. Rice and greens are in another. There's salsa and powdered fried yucca in two more. It's mix and match self-serving and we like that a lot, as it's fun. And who doesn't like a little pot? That could be misread. Or maybe not. Look, it's a decent-sized portion for one, but we'd really have apprciated some orange slices. Next time (yes, we are thinking next time) we might even ask after it. It really makes the dish fly.
Dessert options are limited, but we went for a giant wodge of cake (that also failed to photo for some reason, so here's a link to an alternate image). The photo's faithful. We're in plonk it on the plate territory. There's enough for two to share. Even then you may well not finish it, if you've taken the max from previous courses. Presentation not being something to talk about as there isn't any, it's all in the taste. It's got dulce de leche and chocolate so you'll get a couple of months' extra use from that BasicFit subscription.
Things to work on? Service was winningly warm, but we nearly got the start on another table when their starter appeared at ours. It's not the only warm thing. Even with the aircon running, there was a touch of the tropics - sitting next to the open door, even in October, we didn't feel chills multiplying. Lastly, we can't ignore the availability factor. The chicken fricasee had flown out the open door. The bacalao croquettes had slipped through the fishing net, and the Brahma wasn't in stock, held up by the customs boys from Brasil. Sometimes, it happens. You can't serve everything. But please, say so from the get go.
But the key takeaway? The food wins our vote. We're really happy with the dishes we tried. Would we revisit? Yes. Should you visit? Yes. But have your expectations calibrated that O Boteco might feel like a work in progress. A step along the road to Rio, as it were.
It's worth your money, though.
Pro Best Brazilian food we've had in Madrid so far.
Con Could be more comfortable.
Pay
€€€
Per Person €25-28: Shared starter platter, main, shared cocktail and dessert. Two beers. Gratis: not even a Brasil nut.
Find
Website https://www.obotecobrasil.com/
Access Step free. Eating is set up as high tables and stools.
In Short
Hopes. Brasil????
Reality. Brasil!
First Impressions. No frills bar, upfrilled.
USP? Chambri's easy-going authentic-feeling Brasilian.
The offer in three words. Road to Rio.
Service! It's not often staff introduce themselves by name. Nice.
Friend friendly? It's very meaty-based. Might be tricky. Check the menu.
Rating for dating. One behind us was working out well. I mean, the guy mentioned Justin Bieber and she didn't discover an urgent Whatsapp from her cousin in Asturias saying granny had fallen down a mineshaft.
Tip? 8%
Change one thing? Seating spacing is on the tight side.
Revisitability. Good, with caveats.
Compare & Contrast
Tastes of Venezuela at Cuatro's Grill. Brasilian grilling at Los Espetinhos.
What's the story?
O Boteco Brasil's going to offer you a decent dinner. And it's going to feel Brasilian. There's flavour. There's authentic accents. There's music. But there were wrinkles. Without them, it'd be an instant no-question recommendable revisit option. But...but, wrinkles. Anyway, scene-setting. It's 2100 on a Friday in October.
I read this week that, on visiting someone's house you form your impressions in 37 seconds. 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3...
2100:37. It's a repurposed bar, smartened up with posters, lilty lusophone (yes, it's a word) background music and a huge counter area, using lots of space. Perhaps not coincidentally, you'll be perching on stools at high tables for your visit. This is OK and probably makes the difference between viability or not, but it's not as relaxing or leisurely as sitting back to take things in.
So, sitting up straight like nanny taught me, but enjoying an aye-aye-eye opening caipirinha which nanny would have kept for herself, the verdict? Well, things start well. It's a croqueta fry-up fiesta!
From left to right, we kicked off with top notch coixinhas. Excellent savoury minced chicken and herb-filled potato cones. Then we're onto new stuff; meat and mint? Well, these were a smidge drier, but with an added chilli sauce micropot, the mint came through. Third up? Balls. Cheese-filled balls. Mind out, as these are hot little devils inside. We got through all our sauce, by the way. Saucy, we are.
Main courses? Sadly Chicken fricasee wasn't available. That meant we couldn't freakin' see how good it might have been. That meant opting for picanha and feijoada. We weren't coming all the way to Brasil for a burger. OK, we'd only come to Canal, but there's a principle in there. Somewhere.
On arrival, the picanha needed more grilling. Perfectly done on one side, it was still mooing on the other. Good news, though - on the rebound it was excellently finished, spectacularly tender and we enjoyed it. A generous portion of deep fried yucca slices and salsa came on the side. Mind you, in the end, this is steak and yucca chips, so it's best combined with another dish for more local colour.
So, ¡Hola, feijoada! We're fans and that made us big fans at O Boteco as its version is the best we've tried in Madrid. Sadly, our photo was an epic fail, but here's a link to O Boteco's website version. It's a big hit because it's presented as a mix of eating pots, not a one-plate job. The stew's in one. Rice and greens are in another. There's salsa and powdered fried yucca in two more. It's mix and match self-serving and we like that a lot, as it's fun. And who doesn't like a little pot? That could be misread. Or maybe not. Look, it's a decent-sized portion for one, but we'd really have apprciated some orange slices. Next time (yes, we are thinking next time) we might even ask after it. It really makes the dish fly.
Dessert options are limited, but we went for a giant wodge of cake (that also failed to photo for some reason, so here's a link to an alternate image). The photo's faithful. We're in plonk it on the plate territory. There's enough for two to share. Even then you may well not finish it, if you've taken the max from previous courses. Presentation not being something to talk about as there isn't any, it's all in the taste. It's got dulce de leche and chocolate so you'll get a couple of months' extra use from that BasicFit subscription.
Things to work on? Service was winningly warm, but we nearly got the start on another table when their starter appeared at ours. It's not the only warm thing. Even with the aircon running, there was a touch of the tropics - sitting next to the open door, even in October, we didn't feel chills multiplying. Lastly, we can't ignore the availability factor. The chicken fricasee had flown out the open door. The bacalao croquettes had slipped through the fishing net, and the Brahma wasn't in stock, held up by the customs boys from Brasil. Sometimes, it happens. You can't serve everything. But please, say so from the get go.
But the key takeaway? The food wins our vote. We're really happy with the dishes we tried. Would we revisit? Yes. Should you visit? Yes. But have your expectations calibrated that O Boteco might feel like a work in progress. A step along the road to Rio, as it were.
It's worth your money, though.
