Restaurants

Brazilians might be very cool, but they are also patriotic souls and prone to saudade, a desperate longing for the homeland. The walls of Boteco Carioca - Boteco is 'bar', Carioca is someone from Rio de Janeiro - are hung with moody black-and-white photos of beaches and dancers, and a fresco of the viaduct in Rio's trendy Lapa district. Milton Nascimento's jazz samba is piped in - at too high a volume - and the logo and flyers are an explosion of the green and yellow hues found on the flag.

Service here is Brazilian too, meaning friendly, laidback and keen to educate on the intricacies of the national dish - feijoada, a stew of pork cooked in bay leaves with black beans and rice - plus the relative merits and health-related consequences of drinking guaraná and cachaça.

Whereas other Brazilian restaurants in London opt for the buffet approach, Boteco Carioca cooks to order. It may take 20 minutes for them to warm the stews slowly so as to keep the meats tender and allow the subtle flavours of Brazilian cooking - cashew, lemon, red peppers, coconut - to work their magic, but the wait is worth it. The prawns in butter, basil and white wine were succulent and arrived at the table sizzling. A huge green salad, a pot of rich, smoky feijão (black bean and pork broth) and a saucer of nutty farofa (toasted manioc flour) arrived unprompted - so don't over-order.

The mains of moqueca baiana (fish and coconut-milk stew) and xinxim de galinha (chicken and prawn in palm oil, cashew and peanut sauce) were delicious, the former scented with the Brazilian coast's signature herb, coriander, the latter oozing in garlic and onions. The creamy moqueca was abundant, with three decent-sized swordfish steaks in a tiny cauldron - so share if you want to save space for the caramel puddings, fried bananas and chocolate truffles.

Time Out London Issue 1894: December 6-13 2006