Boteco do Manolo Windermere — Restaurant in Florida

My friend is Brazilian, and she highly recommended we meet here in Windermere for lunch. I've been to various parts of Brazil with her over the years and she said the food here is as close as you can get to being in Brazil. She was definitely on the mark!

The restaurant is open and spacious. The look is sleek and relaxing. Our waiter spoke both Portuguese and English and menus are available in both languages. (You may have to ask for an English menu.) My friend and I discussed the menu (it is huge!) and made recommendations as there are more options than you can imagine. She noted that everything here is fresh and that the Caipirinhas are made with real fruit juices. (Caipirinhas were my favorite drink of choice in Brazil and the ones made here are amazing!) I tried two of them - one made with coconut and lime and the other the traditional lime Caipirinha. The presentation of the coconut one was picture worthy (see pic) but maybe had too much ice as my glass was still half full of ice when I finished it. The lime one was superb! My friend ordered a virgin pineapple and mint mocktail and loved it.

Although the prices seem a little high, you get plenty of food for the money. We took half of our meal home with us because we could not eat it all in one setting - and we only had an appetizer and an entree! I understand half orders can be placed so you may want to consider that as an option also.

Now for the food! For the "appetizer" (it is huge!), we selected the Full Fritters Manolo Combo Special ($42). The dumplings consisted of 2 codfish, 2 shrimp with Brazilian creamy cheese, 2 black beans, 2 jerked beef and 2 short ribs. WOW!!! The fritters were amazing! They did not taste like dried-out fried fritters but were soft and moist and full of flavor! (See pic.) They were definitely a meal in themselves, and we took half of them home. What a savory mixture and an awesome way to start off my Brazilian food adventure! Fluffy pillows of happiness are how I would summarize these delicious fritters.

My friend then recommended the Moqueca Capixaba for our entree. It was a velvety combination of mahi-mahi fish stew with shrimp, served with white rice and smooth fish yuca puree. She told me to place the puree on the side of the stew close to the rice as this puree is also a Brazilian delicacy. She was correct in all regards. What a delicious main course, and again, enough food to take home for additional enjoyment.

Finally, the service was quite good. Our server was pleasant and although my friend and him conversed a lot in Portuguese, he also spoke English to make me feel comfortable as well. He even gave me a Boteco do Manolo rubber coaster as a small gift for my first time there. It definitely will not be my last visit! Obrigado, Boteco do...

My husband and I went to Boteco do Manolo at Windermere this last Saturday. I asked for picanha with farofa and fries. However I received yucca instead of fries. I raised to the waitress I have requested fries and she said “no, you asked yucca”. I don’t eat yucca, in fact I hate it since childhood. I would never requested for it. In the end, she said “I’m sorry!” and that’s it. The yucca was kept on my table and the fries never came. And obviously I didn’t eat them due I don’t eat yucca. She tried to be friendly at some of the moments she came to check in on us, but she was extremely rude and amateur on not solving her mistake. She tried the “jeitinho brasileiro” on not solving an issue, the food is Brazilian but here is not Brazil. I’m totally ok on paying high prices for good service and food, but this was...

I placed a simple lunch order from this location through DoorDash, and I’m extremely disappointed with the experience. It took over an hour just for them to prepare the food. I ended up losing my entire break waiting for it. On top of that, two drivers canceled, and it took an additional 10 minutes to find another dasher. When the new driver finally arrived at the location, the order still wasn’t ready. In total, it took almost 1 hour and 35 minutes for my food to be ready. Completely unacceptable. I won’t be ordering...