I’ve been hearing about Ipanema from a buddy of mine (hi Adam!) for years now… literally. He raves about this place almost as though it were his or family owned 😉 so a bunch of us gathered on a muggy day to check out the goodies…
Chorizo or was this kalabeza? Spiced sausage, pretty tasty… I was picking this up and just eating it alone!
Various empanadas filled with yummies… I like the croquette-like ones, deep fried mashed potatoes.
The extremely potent looking hot sauce. I avoided this except to take a picture… Adam is insane. He was eating the chiles like candy… as was Sir Eats-a-Lot, amusingly. I was kind of scared watching them.
Very strong caipirinhas… loads of tequilacachaca in there.
M.’s seafood dish. I think she liked it.
Blondie’s coconut filled with shrimp curry and mashed potatoes…
Blondie couldn’t wait so she dove in.
My steak topped with a fried egg. Small complaint: my fried egg did not have a runny yolk. HUGE complaint: that sauce is like crack. Just looking at it, I want to reach into my monitor and tip that bowl, drinking all that glorious liquid into my bloodstream and just enjoying that high you get until your next fix… ahem. I mean. This came with fried disks of potato and rice, which I didn’t take pictures of, but dipping the potatoes into the sauce was amazing, and the rice was good in it too, but who cares. I said fried potato. OMG.
Chris’s seafood dish… I hope he’ll chime in with his thoughts.
CT’s “salad” which, she informed me, was good but didn’t really contain as much greens as she’d thought it would – as in, it was covered in meats and assorted animal parts. Not that this is a bad thing, just surprised her since she wanted something small… looks really good though! (Hopefully she’ll chime in with her thoughts as well!)
Yvo says: So my dish was covered in liquid crack. I think that alone would be worth a return trip. The steak part was ok. The egg was alright. The fried potatoes covered in that sauce, though? Amazing. I clearly paid no attention to what everyone else ate nor what they thought and instead focused solely on my delicious sauce. Mmm. I have to say, though, as amazing and garlic-infused as that sauce was, I don’t think I could eat here more than once in a long while – it was way too rich for me to comfortably eat that often, as much as I’d like to…
recommended
TT says
was I not there? what happened to the pic of my dish?
🙁
it was very good. Adam was right to talk it up as much as he had.
Feisty Foodie says
I was going to say I don’t know, I uploaded them all, but I just looked. I found 5 pictures of something very very blurry that I had no idea what it was or what it could possibly be. Was that it? Good job with the steady hands 😉 <3 So tell me what you had and what it should have looked like? And how good it was? Thanks!
TT says
i think i had this: CARNE DE PORCO À ALENTEJANA
Chunks of Loin Pork, Roasted Potatoes and Clams in a Herb Sauce.
It was good!
I took a great picture, I always do 🙂
mike says
Did the caipirinhas really have tequila? I’m pretty sure they are supposed to have cachaca.
Feisty Foodie says
Sorry – I had a vague notion I was wrong when I wrote tequila – my drinks knowledge is pretty lame. I’ll fix that!
CheeeeEEEEse says
When I was there I had the steak with the fried egg on top too….same conclusion, I would take that sauce intravenously, snort it, or freebase it….only I must have it. MOAR!
Feisty Foodie says
Suggest it and organize a whole group outing – especially for the FBM’ers who missed out last time! 🙂
Chris says
I agree, the butter sauce on the bife portuguesa was delicious, almost too decadent. The “seafood dish” was vatapa – very generous with the monkfish and shrimp, and good flavors from the dende palm oil and coconut milk. Again, very decadent (ie. fattening), but very tasty.
I usually get the feijoada, it’s quite good here, and less oily than the vatapa or the bife portuguesa. Their bolinhos de bacalau are also excellent.
T.C. says
Man, the dinner at Ipanema looks wonderful. I want the bife portuguesa!! Hopefully another dinner gets set up here soon.
The chili sauce looks good too. Illuminating Red!
Hungry says
I missed this meat fest!
CT says
Boy, that was the most meat-tastic salad ever. Too bad I was sick and that was the reason I wanted a light salad to begin with. But how could I resist once it was in front of me?!
Lamchop says
I’ve been to Ipanema!! Their paella was to die for. Not to mention they give you generous portions and I believe free chips too. Ah, I think I will head back some time soon.
kcijones001 says
this place looks awesome.
skippymom says
I want mashed potatoes in a coconut. How awesome is that? Were those black olives on it?
“The sauce was crack” made me laugh. I know how you feel. “Oh waiter could please bring me a straw? I feel the need to snort this.” HA. Looks delish, sorry about the egg – there is no purpose to having an egg over a dish like this if it is hard cooked. The whole point IS the yolk.
Walker says
it funny, the restaurant i bartend at serves tons of caipirinhas and at least 2 a night get sent back because the person thought i used tequila instead of cachaca