Mercearia da Praça — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Visited in July 2024. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro. We chose this restaurant based on reviews because it was close by. It’s a restaurant and a grocery store, where you can buy some food and wine. The restaurant itself is pretty big with lots of seating, but the tables are pretty close together.

Food: We tried two appetizers and two main courses. We had the cod mousse in a zucchini flower. It was okay, but the filling lacked flavor. You could barely taste the cod. We also had the crab croquette with a tom yum style sauce. It was a delicious dish with a vibrant sauce and a crispy croquette. For our main course, I chose the seafood skewer, because a lot of people had raved about it. The squid was completely chewy and rubbery. You might want to take the squid off the position and replace it with mussels or something else because squid is rarely cooked so that it's soft and juicy. The shrimp wasn’t peeled, which is strange. We had to dig through it with a fork because it didn’t peel well. The fish was cooked well, but the octopus was on the verge of being dry. My husband ordered grilled octopus, and his was cooked much better—it was softer and juicier. All of the dishes had some kind of flaw.

Service: The waiters speak English, which is a plus. The service was really slow. We were at the restaurant for 1.5 hours. For people who just want a quick bite, that’s a lot of time. We waited 20 minutes for our dessert, which was ready. The waiters were mostly chatting with regulars, so it was hard to flag someone down. We had to ask for the bill three times.

Conclusion: The menu is interesting and has a lot of things I wanted to try, but the dishes we tried were all average at best. It’s a one-time visit for us. We don’t...

I don't get the raving reviews. The food was ok. No better than any fast food chain and I've had better at those places. It's hard to mess up pasta and this place did and at the price charged, it was not value for money. It felt like a frozen meal thawed out. There were 4 of us and nobody finished their plate. The male waiter was really great, fun, gregarious. He made it an experience. He even upselled the desserts and after dinner brinks. He did it well and very pleasantly but the female waitress was appalling. Not friendly and had the nerve to demand 2 more reales from us to get her 10percent tip. Very unprofessional. It's not an entitlement, it's a gratuity based on service. As we were last to leave, even though we were outside, they pretty much stared us down to leave the area although we were waiting for an Uber. Yeah the owner said the right things but his lack of warmth betrayed his words. I'd avoid this place as there are better food to eat than to come to Brazil and eat fast...

Great food in an atmospheric setting. This restaurant / delicatessen was obviously very popular, as when we arrived there were no tables available and we had to wait about 15 minutes. It was certainly worth the wait however, as the choice of traditional Portuguese dishes was varied. We opted for some small appetizers prior to selecting the seafood risotto, beef rib risotto, seafood skewer and sausage and octopus moqueca (stew). All of these dishes were generous in size and very tasty. Some of us still had a little space for dessert - the chocolate torte was really rich but lovely. A great setting - with hundreds of bottles of wine all around. We only had individual glasses of wine with the meal but a semillier was on hand for advice on selecting bottles. The staff were very friendly and efficient and if we had been staying in the area longer, would have revisited...