Boteco: Restaurante Brasileiro, BKC, Mumbai

***** Rated
Visited in January, 2019

Celebrations are often celebratory and certainly special, all the more so if the occasion happens to be the birthday of your special one :)

Our lunch at Boteco early this month was one such momentous moment and the expansive space, airy and brightly lit restaurant, located in BKC, was most inviting. Not only was it easy to avail a booking, the courteous staff made our experience more delightful. The spacious and well laid out tables was refreshing and a welcome change from restaurants that otherwise try to juxtapose people into an unwelcome proximity wherein a couple out on a first date will be much privy to the corporate discussions and taxation policies being discussed at the next table! Despite the afternoon lunch hour, there were few diners but as relevant as the ambience of the place. The decor boasted of the easily identifiable Christ looking down at our meal to a vivacious wall with the dancing maidens at the Brazilian carnival, all of which infused a mood of celebration and gaiety. 

We started our meal with Soupa de Espinafre Spinach soup with pumpkin mousseline that was actually preceded with a complimentary veggies soup shot accompanied by a cheese croquette. The soup was as exquisite as it sounds, with the right balance of aroma, flavour and consistency. Not only was it served hot, it was distinguished in its presentation too. Our choice for the principais or the main course was the exotic sounding, Carne na Pedra, thin slices of tender meat cooked at your table on a hot stone, served with fries, vinaigrette and salad. From the three options on butter, we chose the thyme butter and marvelled at the way in which tender slices of red meat (imported as the waiter informed) was cooked to perfection right in our presence on the hot stone. The array of accompaniments for the meat were veggies salsa, rock salt, biafra, olive oil, and the thyme butter. The hot stone was lathered with a thin layer of olive oil to begin with and the tender, sliced pieces of meat was gingerly placed on the spluttering hot stone followed by the addition of the thyme butter and rock salt that lent it the flavour while the plated piece was then topped with the biafra and the salsa. This main course, comes with peri peri fries made of sweet potato and a very tasty lettuce-dominated salad! It is an understatement to affirm that this was a delectable experience for us. Not only are the portions generous, they are made to perfection and compel the most discerning of us to smile in appreciation. We nearly forgot to dig in to our second order, the Pato Assado-do Boteco, Peking Duck that is wood fired and over marinated with special spices and served with sweet potato puree and sautéed vegetables. Needless to say, the dish was as exotic and as fulfilling as the plating and a huge challenge for us to finish it. My advice is that if you are like us, souls that eat in moderation, stick to one of these two fulfilling dishes. We washed this all down with their signature cocktail made with passion fruit, lime and sugar, Caipirinha. It was light and heady to the hilt. 

The highpoint of the day was when much to our delightful surprise, the waiter bobbed up beaming with a carefully placed lemon moussè with birthday wishes on the plate written in Spanish with chocolate syrup! Overall, it was an enriching experience in indulgence of the senses and we ended our meal with happy snapping of the place and gushing gratitude to our helpful waiters. I shall end this review with a quick note of appreciation for the spacious, well maintained and a rather peaceful washroom. 

Plating Pato Assado-do Boteco

Brilliant Boteco

Unveiling, Carne na Pedra

A G K