Ipanema Restaurant

Good service and solid food (though my meal probably raised my cholesterol 25 points).

I trotted into this restaurant completely hopeless and out of no where just before their closing time.
But very glad I did. Since I was only a party of 1, after a little hesitant look I was seated on the upper level immediately. The server came and off loaded a bottle of water on the table and a few bread pieces and butter. Bread was good homemade bread. Glad I did not open the bottle, apparently it was not free! I had my own bottle of water that I was sipping from and then they filled the glass with tap water. Mind games??? really? common grow up guys or just ask the guest!
From there on everything was uphill. I did not want to waste their time and asked for a suggestion and was promptly directed to the first steak preparation on the list. It was a little aged steak, topped with lobster meat ad shrimp and melted cheese which was served with a side of roasted potatoes and rice and beans.
It was a very juicy and flavorful preparation. Worth a repeat trip and from what I hear they keep busy so reservations might be the way to go.

I had high hopes given all these good reviews, but my visit here was less than satisfactory.
The night started off when the host, who was missing from his station, came out to greet us. He had his suit jacket and tie sitting on a chair rather than being worn on person, as you would normally expect. Even so, if he chose not to wear it I don’t recommend you leave a tie so visibly crumpled up on a chair next to the host station, where it caught my eye multiple times both entering and exiting the restaurant. His greeting was without emotion and he never said two words, just waved at me and my fiancé to follow after asking for a table.
However, I digress from the key factors that landed a poor review for such an establishment. The place is nice and has a pleasant décor. Their tables have foam cushion underneath to keep from banging your knee. An added bonus, but did little to bump up a star in this review.
As mentioned by fellow patrons, the water on the table is their filtered water in glass resealable bottles. At no time was this bottle identified as special water by any of the staff nor was there ever an offer to get tap water instead. It was not until we finished the bottle did we get offered tap. This is a shady and misleading tactic. Other places would have the bottle sealed or clearly stated with a sign or tag on the top that says special filter water. Their reasoning for using resealable bottles is to lower the carbon footprint of plastic bottles; I’m all for the environment but my rebuttal is I have no way of knowing if that is truly the Vero water or just plain old filtered water with some other system. Especially since the resealable bottles are identical to the resealable bottles used by many restaurants which are filled with tap water. I don’t mind paying the 3 dollars for filtered water, but not being told upfront is disrespectful to a customer.
The staff was friendly, but the food was hit and miss. You order their 12 dollar Salada de Palmito and what you get is a small plate with 5 half-​slices of tomatoes and one sliced Hearts of Palm tossed with a handful of raw onions and shredded lettuce. The cost to make this is less than half their price. You can’t put one more handful of lettuce? This plate was just small, sad and tasted bad. I didn’t even taste a drop of their «Portuguese olive oil» because the onions were so raw. A bag of prepared salad from the supermarket would be better than this salad, and it wouldn’t cost me as much.
The only other vegetable I ordered from this place was a plate of asparagus. I wasn’t expecting a lot but what I got was three stalks of burnt asparagus, which costs you 4 dollars. The math comes out to $ 1.33 per stalk, which I must admit is the most expensive burnt asparagus I’ve eaten in the entire New York City. A total ripoff, even for Manhattan standards. It wasn’t seasoned and tasted unprofessionally cooked.
Their Picanha, aged top-​sirloin served on a sizzling plate with pineapple, was not served on a sizzling plate. The plate they used was not even hot. The rice and beans that came with it weren’t bad. However, a good portion of the sirloin was pure fat, the heavy oily sort of blubber. I understand fat gives it flavor but nearly a third of the sirloin was inedible fat. On top of that, the pineapple was diced and pickled and served in a small saucer. That’s what you call «with pineapple»? You can barely consider it a garnish. Poor description or false advertisement, you be the judge.
The one good dish was their Paelha Negra, a paella made with squid ink, shrimp, octopus and squid. The dish was covered in black ink and the rice was well cooked. They never provided me with a knife to cut the thick rubbery portion of the tentacle; not the end of the world but it would’ve been nice. The big issue I had with this dish was the large octopus tentacle tasted burnt because one side was charred and not in the good way. It was like eating extremely over grilled meat. Just like the asparagus which tasted burnt. It’s such a waste since it looked so delicious until I had my first bite.
This meal was well over the $ 50 per person range, with one drink and tips included. I don’t understand how it’s rated as $$ on their profile. There seems to be a consistency with inaccuracies of descriptions and misleading facts regarding Ipanema. There’s so many issues that I have a bad taste in my mouth and its not only from their raw onions or burnt food.

Came here to meet a girlfriend for dinner before our mutual obsession: a Marvel movie (Civil War).
I tried to be a fashion girl and just get two appetizers… Only to decide I also wanted steak as well. Oops.
Food:
–get the crab-​stuffed avocado! So amazing.
–the octopus salad is also a great appetizer option. Mmm.
–skip the shrimp in sauce appetizer… Impossibly messy to eat as it comes with heads/​shell on and is a tiny portion.
–everything here is presented in the prettiest manner. My steak looked like a work of art.
–the portion sizes are on the smaller side, but the quality of the food is amazing.
Service: great. They were very attentive to us throughout our meal. I loved our waiter.
Atmosphere: this is such an impressive spot for midtown/​theater district. It would be great for date night before a show.
Verdict: worth it if you want a foodie-​friendly restaurant option that’s not overcrowded before a show.

First of all, the fact it says $$ on Unilocal is misleading considering it was more $$$, with the entrees around $ 30 each. Being college kids on a tighter budget, it threw us off when we were seated and handed a menu.
Also, the toilets here have the WEAKEST FLUSH IN THE WORLD! YOU GUYS NEED TO FIX THE TOILETS!
We decided to just split 2 entrees between the three of us, but then were told we would be charged an extra $ 8 so we ended up ordering an appetizer too, one that we didn’t really want.
We ordered the croquette appetizer,
Churrasco with crab meat, shrimp& melted cheese, and a paella. The paella and steak were DELICIOUS.
The service was so-​so, with the main waiter being very friendly and attentive and the other waiters constantly mumbling and buzzing around us. We could NOT understand what they were saying at all. I almost felt they were talking bad about us and it was an uncomfortable experience.
I wish I could’ve have rated the place higher because the food was great but unfortunately our overall experience was only deserving of 3 stars.

The good: The monkfish stew was delicious. Cooked with coconut milk, shrimp, and peppers I think. Balanced flavors and served with rice and beans.
The bad: The grilled codfish. It was WAY too salty. I tried my best, but after three bites, I just couldn’t stomach it. I’m pretty sure it was just a one-​time mistake, and apparently the fish itself is salty already, but I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be served like that.
The service was good, and they were happy to replace the codfish dish for me. Décor was really nice as well.

This is going to be short so I can get back to enjoying NYC, but here it goes:
Service: Amazing, sat us immediately an hour before our reservation.
Food: A.m.a.z.i.n.g.
Location: Perfect for us staying at The Roosevelt.
Boom. Check this place out for sure.

Absolutely amazing! Service was great and was the perfect place for a reunion!
I ordered the steak with pineapples and the steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare!

Mm. Twas my first time tryin salmão recheado (grilled salmon rolled with cured meat, paired with veggies and mashed potatoes) and I was so delighted. The fish and meat complemented each other well and the veggies were cooked in an undetectable light (possibly butter?) sauce.
My brother and I decided to eat here right after we unloaded our things. This place is fancy so dress up (I felt slightly out of place with my casual clothes) and be prepared to spend $ 20+. Waiters were attentive and nice but I felt like they hovered too much. Besides that, I’m glad this was my first meal of my trip!

I came with a party of 6 last week; we had a reservation and were seated almost immediately.
The bottle of water that comes on the table is not free (it’s not a sealed or branded bottle of water — just a plain glass refillable bottle, similar to a carafe). This information was not shared when we were seated, nor did the waiter mention it until after we had already filled our glasses from the bottle and he had brought us a new one.
The bread that came to the table was much appreciated, but it was cold and the butter was cold as well, so it was difficult to eat. I know the bread was free, but it makes a world of difference to at least have room temperature butter.
Our sangria was fine, and the food was solid. We ordered two appetizers — the linguica frita, which was quite salty but still tasty, and a sampler of croquettes, which were delicious. We tried the paelha, churrasco Ipanema, churrasco mixto, picanha, vatapa, and salada Ipanema. For the most part, everyone enjoyed their food — some was a bit on the salty side, but overall I thought the food was well-​seasoned and well-​cooked. Portions were average sized. I would have left barely satisfied had we not ordered appetizers.
Service started out great, but became disappointing. The server was friendly, but it seemed like he was rushing through serving our table in order to serve other parties (who arrived after us). When our main dishes arrived, he served us; then, the instant the last plate was on the table, he turned to the table behind us to tend to them. There was no explanation of our dishes, no brief «Can I get you anything else?», not even eye contact long enough for us to say thank you. Again — he was very polite, but service became very slow by the end of our meal. We literally didn’t leave the restaurant until 45 minutes after we finished our meal because that’s how long it took to politely decline dessert and settle our bill.

4 star average?! I feel so duped.
It had just started to sprinkle and we didn’t want to trek all the way to Hell’s Kitchen so we stopped by Ipanema because I love Brazilian food. The inside is clean, and the staff is all pretty nice.
We tried the croquette sampler (SUPER yummy, especially the one with chicken and cheese), Husband got the steak with crab and cheese (it is literally exactly what it sounds like — steak topped with cheese), and I got the paelha (paella) negra, which was made with squid ink, squid, octopus, and shrimp.
Bland, bland, bland. The paella had zero flavor, but fortunately the grilled octopus was charred nicely and wasn’t overcooked, which kept it super tender (although having a gigantic tentacle across the dish was not appetizing). I wish there were more shrimp and less giant squid rings, as I had only 2 shrimp and like 16 jumbo squid rings.
Husband also said his steak was bleh, especially the cheese topping. Had he seen the picanha, he would’ve ordered it, but he was operating on tunnel vision because he was so hungry and the steak was the first thing on the menu.
Some tourist traps can be good, but this was definitely not one of them.

PRO TIP #1 — That bottle of water on your table is NOT FREE. Do not open it unless you want to pay an extra $ 3 for distilled water. (They’ll come and fill your glass with distilled water from their pitches eventually.)
PRO TIP #2 — Check in on Unilocal for a free beer.
PRO TIP #3 — They have a minimum order $$$ amount. We came here wanting just a snack and wanted to share an entrée (and a jug of sangria!) but they made us order an appetizer as well.

I was impressed by the waiter here — he was one of the most dedicated service I have run into in the city. He seemed very enthusiastic about his job and explained a lot to us. I don’t think he had similar taste with his customers (because what he recommended tasted just okay…) but I enjoyed having this guy as our waiter.
Back to the food, which is the reason why I give this place a 3-​star. I haven’t tried many Brazilian food before, but I didn’t really like the food here. For appetizer, we ordered a plate of 4 kinds of fried meat — pork, shrimp, fish, and the last one I forgot. This tasted just so-​so…
For the main course, I ordered squid ink paella with sea food, which is a typical Spanish food. Maybe I was totally out of my find ordered paella at a latin american restaurant, but since the waiter highly recommended, I decided to go with it. The octopus came in as a whole large piece, which scared me a little bit. The calamary tasted okay. Recommend you try another main course if you come.

Always a good time here. Authentic Brazilian food, fresh, hot, delicious.
The Abacate Recheado and Churrasco Gaucho are our favorites, but everything is really good and authentic as if you are sitting on the ocean in Ipanema.
Try the Paelha and Banana frita, you won’t be sorry.
Service is friendly and culture abounds. Owners are very hands on and insure good service and food. Top notch location where customers come first. Food is excellent, prices are reasonable and customer service is stellar.

First time I came here, I loved it. I had to recommend it to my friends for our get together and boy am I sorry for doing that… the food was overall too salty… we got full off of water instead of the food
— Some lobster seafood stew thing: salty, used a lot of rice to combat it
— Steak with sunny side egg and potato: too salty… I think I ate a chunk of salt too… potatoes saved the dish (nice thin cut potato slices)
— Grilled octopus salad: not salty thank gosh… octopus was nicely cooked and paired with a nice vinaigrette
— Fried calamari: can’t go wrong with this
$ 3 a bottle of water too… please put less salt next time for the food so I can come back! Thanks!

I had the grilled chicken and that was done pretty nicely. It was flavorful and tender. The mashed potatoes, however, were really bland. I had to salt and pepper it myself.

Ipanema welcomed us, a bunch of Unilocal elite nerds for a fantastic meal and we got to try out fantastic bites!
We started off with a delicious fried shrimp cocktail on a bed of pineapple and crab salad and oh vey– that was delicious!
We then tried a rare tuna slice with a fresh scallop and a little dollop of guacamole. Yum yum yum!
I loved the traditional steak and egg we were served! I am from France and we do that too actually, so it was fun to visit the Brazilian version of it!
The dessert was something I had never even tried before. There were two custardy layers, the top one was more like a fresh whipped cream, the bottom one was like a vanilla custard, and there were separated by a soft cookie. I actually really loved that. They called it a Brazilian tiramisu but it has little to do with the Italian dessert besides the stacking.
The event was sponsored by Leblon Brazilian cuchara and it made the night even more fun because we were given the goodies to create our own caipirinhas!!! So much fun!
The night was a success! Thank you for Leblon’s awesome activity, thank you for the fantastic food provided by Ipanema and thank you Unilocal and Ruggy for another successful event :)

I was fortunate to come here for a Unilocal event! Ipanema was gracious enough to reserve space for 50+ people! Having so many people to cook for at one time must be overwhelming, but Ipanema’s chefs and servers /​hosts did not disappoint! :)
Food: prepared so well, high end quality seafood for the diverse dishes! And, presentation was sophisticated! We were able to try a new app (fried shrimp with lobster) and it was so delicious! And the seared tuna with scallops was a great app too! Steak and eggs were one of my favorite (and their specialty) — and my favorite because they cooked it rare with a runny sunny side up egg! Also a must try is the Portuguese tiramisu — which was so well flavored, not overly sweet, and was more like a custard with some coconut flavor.
Interior/​Ambiance: clean, spacious, and cozy all at the same time. Given the spaciousness, you can eat comfortably yet still hear everyone talking. And the table setup was nicer, with placemats and replaced silverware between meals!
Drinks: must try the signature Caipirinhas (Brazilian cocktail made with Cachacas [brazilian rum])

Unilocal event!!!
the family who owns this is so gracious and generous! Portuguese and Brazilian! wow!!!
the food was amazing, please come try it out. We sampled one staple item, a new candidate for the menu, and a chef special custom dish!!! oh gosh this was such a friendly, fantastic, fun Unilocal elite event! :)

Value was excellent. The clams cooked in garlic was excellent and it had lots of slices onions in it.
The bacalao croquette was tiny and not very hot. It wasn’t my favorite as it seems to lack flavor. Thanks for the spicy sauce they brought me.
My kale soup was good with thickened broth to my surprise. I guess this is the way it is served. I had to ask for a little more kale which they brought. Nice touch.
For dessert I ordered coconut milk pudding with wine sauce because it was the most different dessert in the menu. I like trying something new all the time. He assured me it has less sugar than the flan which looked good. But it was still sweet. It’s dessert. This reminds me of a coconut dessert in my Chinese dim sum place I like except this has a sauce and coconut flakes on it.

Recomendado!!! La comida es excelente y la atención es lo máximo!!! Enamorada de este restaurante!!!

Cuisine originale et savoureuse aux prix de New York .
Mais personnel indifférent et mal aimable voir impoli, ni bonjour ni au revoir.

Das Restaurant liegt im dunkleren Teil der 46. Starße. Leider hatten wir nicht vorbestellt und so mussten wir an der Bar ca. 45 Minuten auf einen freien Tisch warten. Die Drinks an der Bar waren lecker und professionell zubereitet.
Wir bekamen dann einen recht kleinen Tisch im hinteren Teil des (schlauchartigen) Restaurants.
Die Bedienung war etwas unterkühlt, also nicht überaus freundlich, aber korrekt. Das Essen war wie überall in den USA recht fade; in Brasilien und in brasilianischen Restaurants in Deutschlanf schmeckt es viel besser.
Die Preise waren angemessen, gemessen an anderen Restaurants in NYC waren sie sogar recht moderat.