JOAQUINA: A POPULAR RESTAURANT LOCATED RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM COPACABANA BEACH
The Cost -$14 per person
The Atmosphere –Whether you are coming in from the beach for lunch or heading out for a nice dinner before exploring the Rio nightlife, Joaquina offers indoor and covered outdoor seating about fifty feet away from the sand. The indoor seating is really nothing to rave about with basic décor and bad lighting; the fun happens outside where the crowd tends to be a lot more lively. The restaurant does not accept reservations and there is often a wait to get a table, especially during peak hours and on weekends. The clientele is skewed more toward tourists because of the location but there are locals mixed in. Casual attire is perfectly acceptable, including beach wear.
Located right on the famous Avenida Atlântica on the border between Copacabana and Leme just a few storefronts down from the Hilton hotel, this location of Joaquina is the restaurant’s second. Its first, at Cobal do Humaitá, opened in 2007. The restaurant serves traditional Brazilian cuisine using local ingredients and takes pride in the fact that it makes all its food in house including its sauces, bread, and desserts.
The Order – Fish and Plantain Moqueca and Mexido da Fazenda.
The Good – The Fish and Plantain Moqueca, a very traditional Brazilian entrée, was presented nicely with the white fish and plantains stew on one side of the dish, the pirão on the other, and a strip of rice with farofa in the middle. The pirão, a thick, gooey liquid made from fish stock and manioc flour, flour made from the cassava root, was nicely done and combined well with the rice and farofa, a powder-like side dish made from toasted cassava. The plantains, which are not commonly included in a moqueca that you would find in Rio de Janeiro, were cooked well and gave the dish some sweetness. Unfortunately, the one thing that prevented this dish from earning a higher rating was the fish itself; it was a basic white fish that failed to soak in the flavors from the stew and had a very plain, underwhelming taste. Luckily, the other ingredients carried the moqueca and made it enjoyable to eat, though I’d try other menu items before ordering it a second time.
Mexido is a mish-mosh of various ingredients that are cooked into a white rice and scrambled egg base. It is a traditional dish that comes from Brazil’s Minas Gerais state and it is often made with leftover ingredients from a previous meal. Joaquina’s Mexido de Fazenda, which means mexido from the farm, was made with red beans, collard greens, and bacon bits, which were all mixed into the rice and egg, in addition to chicken and sausage which were placed on top of the mound of food. It was a nicely done dish that truly felt like a mish-mosh of ingredients. Mexido doesn’t have a sauce so it can be a little dry and that was the case here, but it was a solid version of a uniquely Brazilian dish.
The Verdict – While the food at Joaquina isn’t amazing, it is a solid place to enjoy Brazilian cuisine in a bit of an upscale environment without a huge hit to your wallet. Especially given the restaurant’s location in a very touristy area, Joaquina is a decent value for the price and offers better quality food than the terrible food offered on the beaches and in many nearby tourist traps.