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This Soho corner site opened as a Brazilian café-bar-restaurant in summer 2013. The vibe is casual, the décor bright, the beats samba and bossa nova, the staff Brazilian. A short menu serves simple snack food and main dishes, very much in the Brazilian way – nothing too fancy, quite a lot of starch, and hunks of meat which could do with a bit more in the way of seasoning in flavours. Galeto – which means 'small chicken' – makes a bit cluck about its half chicken dish being marinated for 24 hours then 'grilled to perfection', but the piece we tried was oddly insipid, if generously portioned; Nando's do a better version. The burger also used bland tasting beef. Much better were the starters and side dishes. The coxinhas (pear-shaped stuffed snacks) transported us back to Rio, as did the little bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fish cakes). The fried manioc chips were also well worth their £3.70 price tag, crisp and intriguingly textured. But Galeto seems to be primarily a place to pop into for a caipirinha (£6) or Brahma beer while en route somewhere else.
Reviewed by Guy Dimond