Yayá Comidaria Pop Brasileira — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

The food and beverages were delicious. The food and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages tasted clean, like the restaurant clearly uses natural and fresh ingredients. I didn’t feel guilty about overeating, lol!

The acaraje was flavorful and seasoned well. If you want more spice, then the restaurant provides hot pepper sauce. The moqueta de camarao was a generous portion and it was full of complex harmonious flavors. My partner and I ordered the coconut rice to accompany this dish but we wish we hadn’t because the rice was delicious on its own and we felt the two meals competed against each other.

The food is filling and flavorful. The service is attentive and professional. The prices are reasonable. The bathroom was clean. The playlist was a vibe and the environment was welcoming, chill, mature, artistic and sophisticated. You could dine here with a date, friends, or a business partner.

The only complaint I have is the limited space between some of the tables. A clumsy and full bodied patron kept knocking into my table when he got up to go to the bathroom. In addition, the customer sat so close to us that when he swung his hair it caused us concern that his hair and or sand would fall into our food. (He had clearly just come from the beach.) The customers’ inconsideration wasn’t the fault of the restaurant but I recommend they either provide more space between tables or make the restaurant more formal.

Overall, I would return but I would choose a table away...

Brazilian cuisine is actually so yummy! We are trying local cuisine during our whole stay, but this place blew our minds. You gotta try this! The fusion of tastes is indescribable.

We had Pork Rumpsteak in cachaça, Roasted meat with Yayá potato salad and we tried for appetizer one piece of Banana dumpling with dried meat. The portions were good, and each part of the dishes was so well combined! For drinks we had a Tangerine Ginger Caipirina and Coconut Lemonade (omg that one was fantastic - I will try to make it at home).

The food came quickly, it was nicely presented, they have English menu, the waitresses were kind, smiling and tried to speak some English, you can pay with card and in the end they even give you a small survey to fill in on a tablet (admittedly in Portuguese but ok).

The only thing is that the place looks like seating indoors but it has ACs to cool it down and all the doors were open when we were there. If it is cold outside, then it's not ideal, because you feel like sitting outside, but just so you know to come prepared. They allow you to switch tables if you...

Amazing Brazilian food, we ordered as starter the combo de petiscos (croquete de moqueca, Pastel de carne com pequi and bolinho de banana com carne seca). All of them were amazing but our favorite was the moqueca one.

As main dishes we ordered Arrumadão de picanha de sol com pirão de queijo (it was beef with some onions + white beans + mandioca powder and a cheese puree) and the Moqueca de frutos do mar (seafood moqueca). Both were amazing, our favorite was the beef, but the moqueca was absolutely spectacular though.

The cocktails are also good, we had caipirinhas, and then we changed to a cocoa Negroni and other cocktail of maracuyá.

Now talking about the service, there was a waitress that made our night with her kindness, patience and amazing service attitude. So I wanna thank her for explaining us everything in a way we could understand each other (Portuguese- Spanish), for gibbing us recommendations about the food and for giving us a smile every time we...