Made In Brasil Boteco

Name: Made In Brasil Boteco
Address: 48 Chalk Farm Road, London, Primrose Hill, NW1 8AJ, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7267 4868
Rating: 7

Restaurant & Bar in Primrose Hill

7 / 10 from 1 review

Address
48 Chalk Farm Road
Primrose Hill
London
NW1 8AJ

Map

History

Telephone
020 7267 4868

Cuisine
Restaurant & Bar

Region
Primrose Hill

Nearest Station
Chalk Farm
0.25 miles

Opening Summary
Mon - Wed: 17:00 - 00:30
Thurs - Fri: 17:00 - 02:00
Sat: 13:00 - 02:00
Sun: 13:00 - 00:30

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Boteco pronounced Buteco‚ or Botequim‚ is traditionally known as a place where alcoholic beverages were sold, serving as a meeting place for bohemians who looked for a good drink, elegant snacks and a chat without obligation.

On a warm day take a seat in the roof terrace and enjoy the open air, sip on a glass of Prosecco and enjoy some people watching reminiscent perhaps of that day on Copacabana beach.

Sip on a Batida or indulge in one of the many superb cocktails on offer whilst you nibble on a Coxinha listening to the rhythms of Bossa Nova and perhaps even dance to the beats of the Samba playing in the background.

Enjoy Brazil at your doorstep!

Made In Brasil Boteco Picture Gallery

All In London Review

A cheerful, crowd-pleasing place with very decent Brazilian food

The site where this colourful Brazilian bar and restaurant is located seems to change hands every few years. Most recently it was a Russian vodka bar, then a similarly lively Brazilian by the name of Coco Bamboo. Looks-wise it’s pretty much the same as its predecessor: the carnavalesque decor, the happy hours and the lengthy list of cocktails remains, but with a dining area separated from the bar and roof terrace and £15 main courses they're aiming to be more than an exotic after-work-drinks bar.

The national dish of Brazil is feijoada, a slow-cooked stew of smoked sausage, various cuts of pork and black beans, traditionally cooked for a large group of people for Saturday lunch. It’s on the menu here, but instead we order the bolinho de feijoada, a Scotch egg-like fried ball that packs all the stew’s ingredients and retains its smoky aroma. Our other starter is misto frito, a platter of fried squid and prawns remarkable because of the delicious baby octopi cooked whole, the best, most tender part being the heads.

As one of the world’s top exporters of beef it naturally takes pride of place on many menus. The finest cut is the picanha or rump; here it’s sliced, grilled with onions and garlic and served still-sizzling. Moqueca is another traditional stew made with fish and seafood, in this case white fish, mussels, langoustines and slightly overcooked squid, but in a satisfying broth with peppers and coconut milk; both mains come with generous bowls of rice. A soupy side dish of black feijoa beans is rich and comforting enough to replace chicken noodle as a cold remedy.

There are bottled Brazilian lagers and cocktails under £8 – we like the Japanese Caipirinha with sake replacing the usual cachaça, and the Gin Carioca with grenadine and apricot brandy, dangerously easy to drink. It all adds to the cheerful, crowd-pleasing vibe of the place.

Reviewed by Leila
Published on Apr 14, 2015

Flippant party image aside, Coco Bamboo’s food is good

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, and this rings true with Brazilian-Caribbean bar and restaurant Coco Bamboo. Its image is all about fun fun fun - bright lanterns and plants adorn the ground floor bar, and the walls are a loud orange where the restaurant is. DJs play from Thursday to Saturday and there is a large menu of tropical-flavoured cocktails to choose from, with a happy hour.

We approach with trepidation; can somewhere with such a bouncy atmosphere offer a decent meal? As it turns out, Coco Bamboo do a mean steak. The cut is called picanha, which roughly translates over here as the top sirloin. It has a considerable layer of fat which keeps it juicy and flavoursome, and it’s served sliced, so that the first thing we notice is the bright pink colour in the middle, followed by a deliciously chargrilled exterior. It comes with a cake made from cassava and callaloo - a spinach-like vegetable of Caribbean origin – which is slightly grainy and mostly tastes of cassava, a bit like a polenta cake.

The feijoada is also very successful, as my Brazilian dining companion notes. It’s an aromatic, smoky stew made with black beans and chunks of pork, served with green beans, basmati rice and rather curiously, orange slices, a typical side dish in Brazil. It also comes with farofa, which is coarsely ground manioc flour (from the same plant as cassava) that has been fried with onions, butter and palm oil. The result is like salty breadcrumbs, which go very well with the stew.

The ackee and grilled palm hearts with sautéed peppers and scallions is presented very daintily, with the ackee piled high in the middle of the plate, topped with fresh coriander and slices of sweet peppers, with nuggets of palm hearts dotted around it. It’s a light starter, and the different flavours complement each other. Spicy seafood gumbo has tiger prawns and green lip mussels, both giant and very tender, as well as heaps of chilli.

The desserts are uber-sacharine; there’s cheesecake with raisins and banana in the biscuit base, smothered in caramel, and the crème caramel with dulce de leche is super-sweet, with a few fresh strawberries to counteract its gloopiness.

Naturally we can’t leave without sampling their caipirinhas, but other cocktails include the Amazonia, which blends cachaça with the superfood açaí berry, lime juice and banana liqueur, a nice mixture of fruitiness, refreshing lime and creamy liqueur. A less sweet, robust option is the Brazilian Way, made with Chambord, cachaça, lychee and lime.

Coco Bamboo manage to uphold a party vibe while producing food that is - to use a cliché - “authentic”. Fans of Brazilian and Caribbean cuisine should have this one on their radar.

Reviewed by Leila
Published on Oct 24, 2012