Sìsì Cucina — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Visited in June 2024. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro.

We stumbled upon this restaurant and decided to check it out because it was packed. Italian food is pretty popular in Brazil and we were curious to try it. The place is small and the tables are really close together, which wasn’t the most comfortable.

Food:

We were hoping to try the pizza because it looked good in the pictures, but they didn’t have any. Strange, since they were still making focaccia. For our main courses, we had the tortellini pasta with gorgonzola and jam inside. It seemed like a good combination, but the ravioli was too big so it wasn’t balanced. It was hard to tell if it was a main course or dessert. They brought it out on a plate with a chip on it, which is not sanitary and kind of ruined the impression of the restaurant. We also had the fish of the day with lemon risotto. I liked the risotto more than the fish. The fish was a little dry and not very juicy. The crispy skin was good though. For dessert, we had tiramisu. It was good but a little heavy. It needed some more balance and lightness.

Service:

The waiters didn’t speak English, but that’s no big deal. Service was fine, though we had to wait quite a while for our order.

Overall:

We felt like there were better Italian restaurants around. Plus, there was no pizza, which was weird since they still made focaccia. For us, this was a...

Horrendous. I just really can’t recommend, rude waitress and waiter. Got the order wrong and didn’t even apologise, waited a really long time for the correct order to come, the rest of my table were almost done eating. The meal was extremely dry, the octopus was the worst I’ve ever had, it was inedible but I was starving so tried to eat as much as I could and not complain. I finally saw the dish come out of the kitchen before it had to go back in for several minutes so who knows what they dropped or did to the food then. Had to borrow sauce from a friends pasta dish, the sauce was also horrible, far too sweet and rich for tortellini. The octopus couldn’t be cut with a regular knife it was so tough and burnt, I had to ask for a steak knife, twice. And even then it was hard to cut, so you can only imagine how tough it was. It was like dried up old octopus that was overheated in the microwave, (probably what they did). Worried it’s going to make me sick in the morning because I’ve got a really bad stomach...

Very tasty food, pleasant ambience (we sat outside and were very comfortable). Variety was great and even though we do not eat meat, and try to eat a plant-based diet (which we did not do this time), there were several options available for someone who prefers the same type of diet.

We did not order a vegan pizza, but they had one. They also have a very nice wood-burning, brick pizza oven.

They have a fried rice gnocchi that is not only unique, it was absolutely wonderful. Crispy on the outside and soft inside they were the size and shaped like mini marshmallows. They were sprinkled with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese and came with a dipping sauce, cream-based. Definitely something to have as an appetizer...