Chale Ipanema Restaurant Review
My father lived in Ipanema for several years and adores going to Brazilian restaurants. He had gone to Chale Ipanema in the past many times, but in 2009 the restaurant was now under new management. He took me and a friend down to see what it was like.
First, the restaurant now has a loud TV over the bar. We could barely hear each other during dinner even if we talked quite loudly. The waitress could barely speak English - which you might expect in a Brazilian restaurant - but she couldn't speak Portuguese either. When we asked for a caipirinha - the national cocktail of Brazil - she had no idea what it was and was very dismissive. We finally convinced her to please ask the bartender to try to make one.
The menu was no longer Brazilian. It was a wild mish-mash of a variety of things. We ordered a mixed appetizer plate, and my dad and I ordered the beef medallions, the dish he felt was most authentically Brazilian on the menu.
Eventually drinks and water started coming out. Our appetizers came with just two plates and we had to ask for another one. The list of items had included roasted potatoes but the main item on the dish was french fries. This photo is after we'd eaten a fair amount of them.
When the beef medallions came out, they weren't medallions. They were just two cuts of meat with tons of mashed potatoes.
The food was good - but it wasn't Brazilian, and the atmosphere wasn't worth the long drive we made to get there. We could barely hear, the service was extremely poor. Here was our parting dessert. Coconut chew.
A great disappointment from what it had been before.
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