Excerpt from 2002/10 Bwana Dik’s Rio Guide 2003

Bwana's Top Ten (in no particular order):

Garota de Ipanema (Rua Vinicius de Moraes, 49A,Ipanema, 2523-3787). Best known as the location where Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim wrote the lyrics to "The Girl from Ipanema," the food is both excellent and reasonable.

Its a solid place to grab a decent filet mignon R$15 after a day at the beach.

Filet mignon for 15 reals? That is back in October. I bet the price is now double. Am I right? Leo is never wrong about this things.

Leo,

Why would the price have doubled? You are making some odd comments considering the fact that you've never set foot in the country before.

IMO it's a long time since decent filet mignon was R$15 in Garota. Even the picanha brasileira which admittedly is enough for 2 is around R$40.

U are correct. my original post shouldve been the filet mignon sandwich.. At the time of the post it was ~ 4-5 dollars. I think the plain filet mignon with fries might be R $23 or $28 now.

Do they have a REALLY good filet? My impression was that it was a tourist trap, haven't eaten there for that reason.

Its a highly seasoned piece of steak. very flavorful.. Its not going to match up against the large chain steak joints (morton's, capital grill) but it will blow any of the second tier chains IMHO.. Tourist trap or not they have good food and its a convenient spot off ipanmea beach posto nove.

Ditto. It's actually a very nice restuarant, if you can avoid the feeling of "no local would be caught dead in this place, what ma I doing here?". Would I go out of my way to eat there? No. But when it's 11 at night and it's two blocks down from your hotel and all you want to do is grab some dinner befor fucking your dinner date... it's all good

BS

I've had several garotas actually request to have dinner here as they like the picanha so much. I didn't think the picanha was exceptional, but it was as good as most anywhere else in town.

(Message edited by Bwana_dik on June 11, 2005)

On my last trip to Rio in March this year a funny incident happened. Me any my favorite girl were having lunch at the Girl from Impanema Café. The customers are a mix of locals and out of towners. The food is good a fairly priced with decent service. We ordered the rump steak

Any way the food was as good as it looks. It is a kind of a fun place as you can feel the breezes and watch the garotas walk by. Toward the end of the meal my very dignified waiter came over to us. Now somehow he had gotten the idea that I spoke Portuguese and I did not want to give myself up as an American . He was seemingly asking us if we were done so I said “finito”, he did not get it, then I said “terminado” still did not work so I then said to the 60 plus waiter “completo”. He had a very shocked look on his face. My girl began to talk to him 90 miles an hour in Portuguese. He was giving me this real confused shocked insulted look. Then I thought back to the Karla Models web page descriptions. “Completo” is Brazilian slang for “takes it in the ass” . So basically I was asking the waiter if he took it in the ass. He brought our check and talked some more to my date. No doubt as we left he told his coworkers I had solicited him for a three way in which he is to be “completo”.

I had a steady girlfriend in Rio for awhile and she always like to meet me to eat here with her daughter. I remember the food as okay but she just loved the restaurant, seems she always ran into people she knew, so locals do go here.

Yodcha, that's a great story about using terma slang at the restaurant. I guess I better watch it when I go. Hopefully I will have the basics down so I can order something to eat.

This place blows and so does the wait staff. COMPLETE IDIOTS who can not count! Food who average at best for a local lanchenette.

Garota de Ipanema is a great place, but some waiters are definitely better then others. Not sure why you would say it blows. Order Picanha - it is awesome! The price right now (its enough for two people) is about R$52 (i.e. aprx $25 USD - i just divide by 2 now with the horrible exchange rate :-). Remember most items on the menu are for two people.

I've never met a waiter anywhere in Rio who wasn't an idiot and it's rare for them to not try and screw you in some way.

I used to play football with one of the waiters so get good service from him but I can see your POVs. Some of the older guys are completely useless but I wouldn't take their ineptitude personally. I have a friend who lives in Ipanema and has been going in there most days after the beach for 15 years and he still gets crap service from them. Now he point blank refuses to sit at the tables allocated to the bad ones. The picanha brasileira is good but relatively expensive. I enjoy the same dish at Tio Sam's in Leblon which is much tastier for about 60% of the cost.

The thing about this place that cracks me up is the mongers who bring their GdP "girlfriends" there to a "regular" place away from Copa when everyone in the place knows they're obviously a puta with her client.

One thing that annoys me at Garota De Ipanema is the street band that plays a cheesy song thumping the drum in your ear and expects you to throw a couple of $$ into the tambourines. wow i need to see my shrink!