Pabu Izakaya — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

I was pretty stoked to try this place as it showed up in a lot of my searches for places to eat in Rio. The service was friendly and great. However the food was not good at all, I am not from Brazil and have not had any other Japanese food here yet , but I Hve been to Japan and many other cities and had a lot of Japanese food all over the world.

The fish is my nigiri was very warm, like alarmingly warm, the rice should be warm but the fish being that temperature scares me from a food safety perspective.

The buta no kakuni was inedible, the pork was incredibly tough, I'm not used to it being served in such a light broth, however if that's how you want to serve it, it still should have had more flavours of dasbi, soy , mirin and sake. The broth was relatively flavour less.

The karage was decent tasting but not a typical karage, the chunks of chicken were quite small and didn't taste like the chicken was marinaded before hand .

Gyoza, unfortunately also not good, not a great sear on them , pork filling was lacking flavour, could have used some ginger.

The Toro, O Toro seemed like they were cut sloppy.

Overall I love the open air street seating and it had great clientele in there but the food was unfortunately a waste of a meal in my limited...

Ok, so when we lived in Rio a few years ago Papu was one of our regular places to go to. Coming back we had to go there again and get the feel back..

Maybe it was just that we had such high ecpectations? But we where quite didsapointed. The first was the idiotic menu pr app... why?! We struggled through it, but really, does not work very well.. small..too slow internett, and for us with foreighn phones actually expensive as well... the karaage and tonkatsu was good, but the fish i did not like..cjevy and tasteless..

So, i am writing down my stars from the used to be 5.. to 3..

Hope they can come back :)

The old review: 5*: This place is amazing! It is a small, simple but efficient walk-in restaurant serving delicious authentic Japanese food. The staff is super friendly, the long bar solution and glass door entrance, Japanese looking guests, with the pub and busy street outside, gives a unique atmosphere, maybe a feeling of a silent oasis in a crowded, busy street in Tokyo?. But the best part was the food. The varied menu. Great tastes! We tried sashimi, squid, lamen, and a range of other dishes, many that was bringing back old childhood memories for my Japanese descendent wife!. Really recommend this place and hope they keep up...

A nice and cozy restaurant with one of the most flavorful Japanese food in Rio. Everything is amazing in Pabu Izakaya, from the most simple, like the eggplant and tuna with missô, to the most refined like scallops and crawfish sushi. It's easy to notice that everything has been carefully chosen on the menu.

The best way to enjoy Pabu is by sharing the food with friends or a date, ordering almost the whole menu and being extremely happy with your stomach full after that. Sushi and sashimi are amazing and diverse specially the chirashi sushi, with the shari temperature always perfect and well seasoned. All the deep fried stuff are also great and don't hesitate in ordering the exotic ones like tongue and fish cheek, you will be surprised by how good they are. And if you like sake, you are in Disneyland, after all you are in an Izakaya and one thing they do have is good sake.

For me it's a top 3 Japanese restaurant in Rio. Don't let be fooled by its modern look and indie music playing inside, what Pabu does is very traditional and prepared with excellence...