Friday, May 22, 2009

Berimbau Brazilian Restaurant

Last night we checked out a new Brazilian restaurant in the West Village called Berimbau. It opened four weeks ago by owner Mario Espindola and general manager & designer of venue, Sergio Larosa. It's a small yet intimate restaurant that seats 74 inside and has two tables outside.

Our meal at Berimbau was one of the best meals we've had in a long time. The food was delicious and the service was attentive but not obnoxious. It was a place where you can hang out for a bit after your meal and not feel rushed out the door. The food, a fusion of Brazilian and French cooking, includes mainstays like acarajé (a black-eyed-pea cake) and new creations, such as duck breast with a cachaça-lime sauce; scallops crusted with black pepper, and shell steak with yucca and a Malbec reduction.


For appetizers we ordered a mixed salad and a black bean soup with Brazilian sausage. We did not try it but the tuna salad looked amazing. For the entrees, we tried the special of the night, which was a flat iron steak with salad and rice with vegetables. The steak was cooked to perfection. The rice had a nice flavor and it was moist. The second entree we tried was the Salmão, coconut crusted salmon in a sundried tomato, asparagus and lemon sauce with a tomato bagne.

Last but not least, our favorite part of the meal, dessert!! We ordered the passion fruit mousse and coconut flan. The flan was good but nothing compared to the passion fruit mousse. The mousse was mouth-watering. We couldn't put our spoons down. It was so good we told the waiter they should put it in to go containers and sell them.

Berimbau is located at 43 Carmine Street (Btwn Bedford & Bleecker St), New York 10014. The phone number is (212) 242-2606.