Tambaqui de Banda — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata de Manaus

This restaurant surprised me with its food and service! Right off the bat a server brings the menus out, in Portuguese and English (a big plus), asks if I'd like to drink something (because in Manaus is very hot and over 93% humidity), then promptly asks if this is my first time, and since I answered yes, it was brought caldinho de tambaqui (tambaqui fish broth) with spices and not spicy at all but very tasty and packed with flavor.

I ordered grilled tambaqui fish for one, it came with baião de dois (Brazilian dirty rice with beans), farofa (roasted manioc flour), and pico de Gallo. This has been the best-grilled fish I ever had, I could taste the burnt fish skin which tasted much better than grilled chicken skin. If you happen to be in the Amazon region, please try grilled tambaqui and pirarucu fish and you'll thank me later.

Oh! When I asked for chili, the server came up with fresh chilies and a small bottle with olive oil, and tucupi in it. He then asked how spicy I wanted, muddled the chilies, and mixed them with olive oil, tucupi, and salt, and bam!

Despite Manaus' hot and humid I opeted to sit outside on the balcony, to my great surprise, it didn't bothered me at all because service was great and kept me hidrated and the view of the opera...

I don't know how this place gets so many 5 star reviews.

The only plus for a foreigner is that they had an English menu. Unfortunately, apart from the presence of the menu in English, none of the staff knew this language. Ok, I got used to it in Brazil..

But the food and the service? Failure.

The historic center of the city, seating only outside, and chairs such that after 20 minutes you wish you could sit on something else. There were two of us and We only ordered 2 dishes, one per person, and overall the tables were less than 50% occupied - yet the dish was served for one person. The second person didn't get their dish until 15 minutes later when the first person was finishing their meal. If only the dishes were worth the wait, but no! We ordered Pirarucu fish - fried in one dish, in stew in the other. In both versions, the fish was dried to piece and without taste at all. It must have been frozen for a long time. It was absolutely not fresh fish, which I have already eaten in other places.

I have no idea if they serve us such bad quality fish because they saw 'tourists' in us, or this is normal every day quality fish.

I do...

We dined at Tambaqui de Banda twice, once for lunch and again for dinner on a Friday. Both times we were seated prompted and food was delivered quickly, hot and fresh. They have an English and Brazilian menu. We had their famous grilled Tambaqui (local Amazonian vegetarian piranha), Pirarucu (giant freshwater fish), Pacu (related to Tambaqui/Piranha), Tacaca soup (shrimp and tucupi), and their garlic shrimp. Everything was phenomenal and very tasty. If you're in Manaus this is a must-visit restaurant. It is conveniently located in the Centro district adjacent to the historical opera house. The restaurant also provided dancing and live music as entertainment in the evening. Price was not bad either.

Lots of other bars, cafes, and desert shops nearby after a hearty meal at Tambaqui de Banda. Area is safe with locals and tourists having...