Restaurants

With its odious name and a website that gabbles on about 'a big eclectic family that has grown organically throughout time', it's easy to distrust this ultra-hip venture, sister to the original Parisian enterprise. Yet Favela Chic gets away with its pretensions. The spacious interior mixes circus hoops, abundant greenery, bits of timber and flock wallpaper in entertaining fashion, and the events calendar is full to bursting: chilled, with a funky multinational crowd and jazzy DJs early in the week, and lively, with a cover charge (after 9pm), and bands playing anything from garage to world music, at the weekend. Drinks (cocktails or Brahma beer) aren't cheap.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9