All In the Name of Quality Research

One thing that Recife does well is restaurants, and one is always able to find an excellent plate of food taking into consideration one's budget, taste, style, and location. While the variety of São Paulo, where one can find food from most corners of the world, is not available, the options in Recife are next in line. In fact, the Recifenses reluctantly agree that São Paulo has more options, but they attribute this fact to population size more than anything else.

Earlier this week, a friend from Rio was in town. This friend authors a couple of the travel guides for Brazil and it is always fun to discuss travel locations, great restaurants, and out-of-the-way nooks waiting for discovery with her. So in the name of research and for the future enjoyment of her readers, we set out to discover some previously unfrequented restaurants here. Our first night was a bit of a challenge seeing that it was Monday. Mondays here are slow. Very slow, with all musueums and a majority of restaurants being closed. Unfortunately we had to give up on our A-list and ended up going to the top of our B-list. Needless to say, our choice was a bit of a disappointment which I suspect will make it neither into the guide book, nor into my gastronomic roteiro.

The next night, however, we went to Biruta, Recife's only bar which directly overlooks the beach. Voted as one of the city's best bars, we enjoyed drinks & seafood, the great atmosphere, and the salty sea breeze. Seeing that it was Tuesday, it was still pretty quiet, but I suspect that the live music on the weekends draws quite an animated crowd. In order to access Biruta, one has to skirt through a fairly poor neighbourhood. Not exactly the place where you would want to have to change a flat, apparently some taxi drivers refuse to go all the way to the bar. We had no problems in either direction and the trip was well worth it.

caipirissima rating: Two thumbs up and a definite addition to the Roteiro do Chopp*.

* Draught Beer Route