Guacamole Jardim Botânico — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

The good: everyone was nice, service was alright, ordering from a tablet on your table with 3 different languages including English takes away any confusion and theoretically speeds things up. They really try to make the atmosphere fun with the whole Mexican theme, the "mariachis," el Chavo del Ocho, shots of tequila for all, and a DJ and hypeman. The bad: the food. This place is very far from authentic Mexican or Tex-Mex. It doesn't seem like anyone in that restaurant has been to Mexico or Texas or even anywhere near it. The margarita was just ok and the other mixed drinks were not good. There's only one Mexican beer available, the subpar Corona. The "michelada" on the menu inexplicably comes with lime juice in the beer instead of the proper clamato or bloody mary mix or even tomato juice in a pinch. The 3 dip appetizer comes with a small basket of chips and you are charged for any extra. The dips are a fake guacamole that definitely has some kind of filler in it instead of pure avocado, a "sauce" that is just a non-spicy pico de gallo, and sour cream. Plain sour cream is definitely not a dip! The same ones come with the fajitas. Where's the proper salsa? The fajitas are presented on a skillet but do not come out sizzling. As for the tortillas, you get a few that are folded and stacked upright in a basket. They are not cooked or warmed properly, so they end up falling apart. Why would you not present them flat and covered so they can stay warm? The burrito was also subpar with no real Mexican flavor. I would say go here for the ambiance and have a few beers with friends to get the night started, but don't expect...

I’ve been here 3 times and each went diferent: On a saturday, had to wait almost 2 hours for my food and they brought me three extra beers I never ordered, which they argued I had to pay for because they were already opened. The service was awful, I had to remind different waiters because I was constantly waiting 15-30 mins for every drink I asked for. I ordered a beef quesadilla and it was good, but nothing extraordinary. They had mariachis and the ambiance was good. On a monday, went for the rodizio. The service was lackluster but much better than last time. The food wasn’t awful but wasn’t good at all either, I had a little bit of everything but nothing was really tasty. On a sunday, for the rodizio once again. The service was pretty good this time, they had mariachis once again and they were even better. Thing is, the food was still not tasty and just ok.

As for the desserts, the ice cream doesn’t taste that good and for the churros the dulce de leche is alright, but the churros themselves are nothing, to me they have no taste whatsoever.

Overall, the ambience is good, the service is hit or miss but the one time it missed for me it was just horrendous, the food is eatable, just not good.

I was told this was the best mexican restaurant here in Rio, but I can’t quite believe it, I’ll keep looking for decent...

We stopped by Guacamole after leaving Sugar Loaf. Big mistake and a waste of our time. My wife added our name to the list. I checked in about 15 minutes later and the girl at the host station pretended like she didn’t even have her name on the list. I checked in again and asked how long was the wait time and both the girl and guy at the host station said they couldn’t tell me. I checked in one last time as I was traveling with 5 people and didn’t want to have to leave and find a new restaurant. Still no confirmation on the time. I was literally told “they couldn’t tell me”. I finally gave up after being there an hour. I saw multiple people going in after we arrived. I don’t know if they all had reservations or not. I get it that it was a Saturday night, but that’s not an excuse to not be able to manage your guest list and at least communicate. So it’s a hard pass for me. Maybe others will have a better experience. To top it off my wife had a boot on her foot because she broke her toe. The guy at the front told her she couldn’t sit inside in an empty chair. SMH. Very poor customer service. I was looking forward to some Méxican food in Brazil, but I’ll just get some when I get...