Casa da Feijoada — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Our first dinner in Rio started here. My spouse found an article on Lonely Planet of this place that serves one of Brazil's well-known dishes, feijoada.

ATMOSPHERE: The no-frills space is your typical mom & pop kind of place with indoor & outdoor seating. We had a late dinner so the place was dead due to the hour and time of month we were here. Late June is Rio's off-peak tourism season, we were told.

MENU: Feijoada, traditional Brazilian cuisine, desserts.

BEVERAGE: Lime & Passionfruit Cocktails - A shot glass of the stuff comes with the feijoada meal. I believe it's similar to the national drink of caipirinha.

Bohemian The national beer which is a smooth brew.

FOOD: Fried Sausages We were served a spoonful each of diced chorizos which of course was tasty and went great with our beer.

Bean Soup The smallest cup of the tastiest bean soup was consumed. I'm not a fan of black beans, which I think they were, but this was absolutely tasty and piping hot.

Traditional Feijoada It's a Portuguese stew loaded with jerk meat, sausages, ribs and pork loin. We axed the pig ear, feet, tail and tongue. The pot came bubbling to the table, everything still cooking in the savory, dark brown gravy. Accompaniments were rice, fried manioc (AKA cassava which is a tree root), garlic collard greens, farofa (toasted cassava flour with the texture of bread crumbs), torresminho (pork rinds), and slices of orange which is said to aid in digestion. You just spoon each food on your plate like normal, keeping the pork rinds and manioc separate to keep their dry/crunchy textures. It was extremely hearty and tasty. We could not finish the pot nor the accompaniments which can be replenished.

DESSERT: Included with the meal were three flavors of homemade compotes; pumpkin & coconut sweet chutney, banana, and milk. Not having a sweet tooth, I tried a tiny spoonful of each. They all tasted spot-on to their titles, with the milk recipe being my favorite.

SERVICE: Female server took great care of us! She was very friendly and professional, even aiding us with the serving of our feijoada. Communication was a breeze.

TIPS: Try to pay with cash. My credit card got compromised while in Rio and I'm not sure where it happened, so this tip appears on all my reviews where I paid with it.

The surrounding neighborhood was a little shady at night, so definitely Uber/cab it.

They're open from noon till midnight-ish, depending on demand.

OVERALL: Quaint vibe, great food...

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated immediately and we were given menus to select the smoked meats we wanted in our feijoada.

After placing our order, we were given some crispy sausage and a cup of soupy beans as an appetizer. The sausage hit the spot. However, went I went to drink my bean soup, I found plastic (pictured above) in my cup. Our waiter was busy so I brought it to the attention of the manager as she spoke english. She apologized, took my cup away, and brought me out what I "assumed" was a fresh cup.

At this point, I felt very uneasy and questioned the cleanliness the place as a whole. While replacing the item may seem sufficient to some, the germaphobic American in me expected more in terms of customer service. I mean I found PLASTIC in my food!!! I could have eaten that! The manager didn't offer a complimentary drink or dessert. NOTHING!!! I truly believe she just went to the back, took the plastic out and poured the soup into another cup. UNACCEPTABLE in US standards!

However, what I have discovered from traveling around the world is that customer service is almost nonexistent in some countries. I still haven't gotten used to this concept. I mean, I was raised on "the customer is always right"! Thankfully, this experience didn't negate my love for feijoada! I just won't get it from...

I don’t know If this restaurant qualifies as a tourist trap but I’m quite sure I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone visiting Rio. Went for dinner with newly met friends from the hostel I was staying at and we were welcomed by a rude waiter and a not too friendly environment. We first asked if we could share a feijoada dish and we were promptly denied by a grumpy waiter who was reluctant to communicate in anything other than Portuguese. Aside from the service, the food was good and even though I’m not the biggest fan of feijoada, their specialty dish was tasty. The main issue was the price, I ended up paying more than 200 reais (around 30€) for a mediocre dinner when I could’ve paid 3 times less for better meal anywhere else. At the end of the dinner, at around 22:50 they rushed us to get up and leave the restaurant as they were closing, I found this quite rude but coming from Europe I understand we might have a different dining culture. If you find yourself around Ipanema I would recommend finding another place to eat at, the food might be decent but it’s not worth the money or...