🍽 Eating out | Bar Tropicalista

Typically Tropical?

Pro New things to try.
Con Billing issues.


€€€

Per Person €25 or so each for four dishes and two beers. Discount from El Tenedor/The Fork may be available.

Access Couple of steps up from street.

Website https://www.facebook.com/bartropicalista/
Location Gran Via/Tribeca https://g.page/bartropicalista?share

Words & Pictures

Hopes? A bit more authentic Brazilian than the central location might suggest, although there's a bunch of burgers lurking lower down the menu than we wanted to go.
Reality? Actually, what we had felt quite Brazilian, we thought. Not bland or predictable, and not too much prettying up.
First Impressions? Post-industrial concrete bunker chic. With a towering bar backdrop stocked with dozens of spirits bottles to the ceiling. Table could have done with a little bit of love though.

USP? Some stuff we'd not tried before in Brazilian restaurants here or elsewhere. That's a good sign,
The offer in three words? Try a tapioca.

Beer on tap? Estrella Damm.

Eat me!

Petisco Paulista

Standard sharing platter of the first three entrantes/starters on the menu. Two decent sauces  - mint and yoghurt, tomato honey and chilli - which tasted homemade so might have been, came with it. Good quality all round. The meaty deep fried Kibe from Sao Paulo were my favourite, I think.

Bolinhos de Feijoada 

<A user friendly -and chef's time saving - way of serving a tasting version of the national dish, with most of the main trimming present. If you're out to try it, worth a go,a lthough you can't get the full impression. The shot of cachaca and lime juice plus the orange are excellent details.

Escondinho de Carne

I'd never imagined Brazil having its own version of shepherd's pie. It's not what you aimagine the bronzed bodies on the Copacabana lusting after at lunchtime. There's a lot of creamed yucca, with a distinctly cheesy consistency, topping a relatively small amount of stewed beef or veal. The rice is a bit redundant really. Some sort of flat bread would maybe be better. It may not hit authenticity buttons, but I was looking for something with a bit of acidity or spice to balance this one a bit. It's not a huge portion but it's filling enough to demand sharing.

Tapioca Romeo and Juliet 

Our first try at this, which is pretty much a savoury dessert, with melted cheese filling topped by a sauce that if it was strawberry not tomato would make it a dessert. The tapioca casr has a unique texture, chewy with a hint of crunch in there. You have to give it a go to know, really.

Service! Very amiable and efficient. Drinks refreshed very promptly. Extremely disappointed that what I am going to trust was a clumsy finger meant we were overcharged - albeit by a very small amount - on the bill. The fact we weren't offered a copy of the card receipt doesn't help my trust issues, though. Not good enough. Either way - today's lesson. Business is business.
Friend friendly? Vegetarians catered for certainly. Not so clear how a vegan would get around the menu and have their interest sustained.
Rating for dating? Probably, Smallish plates allow for relatively low-rist experimenting and offer talking points.
Tip? Wish I hadn't after the bill thing.
Change one thing? You can fill this one in yourself, can't you?
Revisitability? For the food, it's a clear yes.

Food ★★★★ Service ★★☆ VFM ★★★★