El Born — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Looking for dinner at 11:30pm in most cities would've spelled disaster. But not in Rio! Sorry, no menu pics as the lighting was too dim and flash on laminated page protectors does not work!

ATMOSPHERE: The intimate space looked like an eatery straight out of NYC. Outdoor seats, dimly lit interior, small bar, background music. Perfect.

MENU: Mixed genre of apps, salads, meats, poultry, seafood, desserts.

FOOD: Verdaguer The tiniest Le Creuset pot came out, filled to the brim with a searing hot stew of lentils, carrots and smoked sausage that stayed warm till the very end. A few slices of crostini accompanied. The smoky and savory flavors were outstanding!

Montaner An omelette shaped like a pancake was stuffed with diced potatoes, cheese and other savory seasonings, with a small green salad to the side. Very tasty.

Casa Batló A mound of couscous came topped with flavorful strips of caramelized and savory chicken, similar to a teriyaki chicken dish. Some parts of the chicken were a little tough but not enough to ruin the dish.

SERVICE: Our server was friendly and food delivery was quick.

TIP: 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.

OVERALL: Open late until 2am,...

Let’s be honest, Google reviews can often be miss more than hit, but this place was excellent. We ate there two nights out of four, and on both occasions, the service and food were excellent. It’s a mixture of Brazilian dishes and Spanish tapas. There’s a full menu to order from, but a waiter also comes around offering tapas, like Spanish yum cha. Everything we ate, either from the menu or what we were offered as tapas was delicious. Prawn risotto, tenderloin with broccoli purée, jamon Iberico with melted cheese and tomato on bread, ceviche. The place has a great atmosphere and was busy both nights. Drinks were great too. Bartenders were super efficient. If you’re a couple and you get there before about 830pm you should be fine to get a table, but it is worth booking if larger groups. If this restaurant was in Sydney, Australia, I would be eating there regularly. As an aside, we were recommended Viasete in Ipanema, and it was super average and overpriced. El Born is so...

We had tapas and two draft beers.

The beer was well served with a nice foam. However, we wanted to order some other beers from the menu and it turned out the basically only had two of the other around 8 beers in the menu. Somehow badly organised and pretending to offer great beer which they don’t…

The tapas in general were good quality and tasty. However, you cannot call them „tapas“ as it was basically nothing to share for most of them (that’s normally the concept of tapas) as it was only one piece. So you would have to share one croquette. Never seen something like this. Further, we think (or we are rather sure) that the so called „tapas“ are super overpriced. You can go to a super good restaurant with high quality food and pay less.

Overall we are a bit surprised by the good ratings. Don’t get me the wrong, the place is cozy and the people are nice but the „basics“ are just don’t given. So we would not...