Casa Restaurant
“We ended our great meal with the "manjar branco," a light, smooth, coconut flan with prune sauce.”
“Brazilians love having a beer while nibbling on calabreza sausage disks, and yucca sticks.”
“We had the Limao verde com menta & coco caipirinhas for drinks and they not only tasted great but looked pretty too!”
Casa Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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Boom. Best meal I've had in New York to date. There I've said it.
Totally new to Brazilian food (chain stuff aside) so decided to skip appetisers and fire straight in to the mains – having Cinxim de Galinha (chicken and shrimp stew) with Yucca sticks and fried banana as sides
Ok, I knew the flavours, simple hearty flavours, but my, oh my, done so, so well.
Dessert was coconut pudding with THE most Devine plum sauce ever….not too sweet, not too sickly – just.spot.on.
Service was brisk but courteous, place seemed unpretentious and I'm sitting here with a full belly wondering if my wife will agree to go there for brunch tomorrow, that good…..
(Oh and the soft drink – Guarana Antartica…where have you been all my non alcohol drinking life! – if anyone knows where I can buy this in NY, please please let me know)
Top notch.
Meh. That's the most appropriate word. Pao de queijo was passable but nothing special. Everything else was… meh. It's not cheap either.
Great spot. Romantic candle lighting at night. Great service. Waiter recommended delicious dishes.
Try:
– Porção de pasteizinhos (Brazilian street market fried empanandas)
– Camarão ao alho óleo (shrimp sautéed with garlic & extra virgin olive oil)
– Filé mignon do Morais (Filet mignon with whole garlic cloves, fresh watercress, white rice & friend yucca sticks)
– Strogonoff de alcatra (Little strips of beef, fresh cream, mushrooms, tomatoes, white rice & match stick potatoes)
There's a significant amount of happiness to be found here. It was my first go at some real Brazilian food (aka not fogo de chao) so I'm not about to go out on a limb and go on record with whether or not it's authentic. I will go on record and say it's delicious, because that's just true.
Here's the run down of what I tasted (I'm going to write the english descriptions cause that just makes more sense to do):
Appetizers
1. Little basket farm cheese bread – tell me that doesn't sound amazing in and of itself, but if you must know, the're like little balls of cheese bread. Crisp on the outside, soft liek a cloud on the inside. Cheesy but not too heavy, cause the heaviness comes later.
2. Yucca sticks with parmesan cheese – I'm only now just realizing we had two appetizers with cheese but I'm okay with it. Yucca counts as healthy right? This was fine, I think I don't know enough about yucca to tell you if it was amazeballs or not. It was yurm though, but not as yurm as the bread.
3. Brazillian pork sausages with onions – this was good, but I probably wouldn't get it again, only because I was slightly bored with it. Only slightly.
Entrees
4. Feijoada – the Brazilian national dish: black bean stew with prime meats. This is really delicious, and I'm told, extremely authentic here. It's a hearty dish and it's got that great "depth of flavor" (that phrase is so over used, but I can't think of what else to use). It's got a great play of textures and its the sort of food I totally think Brazilians actually eat.
5. Moqueca de frutos de mar something or other – THIS IS WHAT I GOT AND I HAVE NO REGRETS. It's a seafood stew basically, but not only is it perfect seafood (which is my desert island food which is good cause on a desert island that's all I would be able to get) but the broth/sauce is so unbelievably delicious that I have no words. If you're a seafood fan and you like curry-like things, this is the dish for you. Give it to me hot, give it to me cold, give it to me spilled on the table.
NOTES:
You get lots of little side things if you ask, you know? Like two types of hot sauce and rice and purees and stuff.
Hot sauces are bomb diggity tasty buuuut not spicy enough.
We also got rounds and rounds of cocktails – I continuously got the cashew fruit caipirinhas made with the top shelf avua cachaca. Cashew fruit, not something readily found anywhere, right? Doesn't taste like cashew. Still tastes delicious.
So too long didn't read? (Or tl;dr for people who are REALLY busy and/or actually have lives unlike me)
I have no idea if this is authentic, but it is definitely food that makes me happy.
Don't expect to get full for under $30 though.
TL; DR: As B.B. King sang, "…the thrill is gone…" I can no longer recommend folks going here, as there are far superior area options for the same – if not fewer – ducats. It just doesn't feel like it's namesake "Home" any more (servers donning jeans, t-shirts, and accents alone do not a home-like Brazilian experience make).
Earned rant:
My theater companion and I dined here, yet again, last Friday evening, after yet another performance at Cherry Lane. Since discovering Casa nearly four years ago, we have both made a tradition of always dining here after a CL show (or one of my readings/rehearsals), whether it's with each other, someone else, or a group. I've personally given extensive word of mouth business. We're both quite sad to say that we won't be giving our business or recommendations again after this last meal.
Service used to be perfect, if a bit overly attentive. Friday's service was on that level for select tables; not ours. Our orders were taken (very brusquely), drinks/food were delivered, and that's it until our server went on break, and another server took over (she was excellent, but we were already done by the time she arrived. Had she been our server for the entire meal, I may not be posting this update. But does it really matter; why give so much money and business to a restaurant not offering her level of service across the board?).
We never had our waters refilled (though we watched tables next to us and throughout the place never hit bottom), my empty diner plate sat in front of me for a solid 15 minutes, and our server never asked about a second round of cocktails or how our food was. He did not clue in that one side dish sat untouched, while everything else was being eaten. By the time the lovely female server got to us and asked about the dish – which was served to us cold – we had no interest in it, though found it interesting that the dish should have been served warm.
Just abysmal stuff at this price point, especially considering how small this restaurant is, and doubly so when 1) we were sitting by the door (which the server went in and out of many times while checking on his friends at the bar who had stepped out to smoke…), and 2) when we're seeing the table next to us being taken care of perfectly.
Had the food remained on point, we could have easily shrugged off one night of subpar service. But the quality and quantity of certain dishes has also diminished, while the prices have gone in the opposite direction.
In years past, we have spent around $75-80 each for at least two cocktails, two apps, and two entrees. On Friday, we had one entree and one drink each….and both dropped around $55. I checked my area (we're talking Astoria near 30th avenue….so not cheap, by any means) Brazilian restaurant to make sure I wasn't being unreasonable.
While one expects restaurants to be slightly more expensive in Manhattan, particularly in areas like the WV, we're talking $5 more per caipirinhas of the same size, $2 more and half the portion size for the small bite pastries I didn't order due to their price tag, and $7 more and half the portion size for the same entree, with which the other place would have included beans as an additional side).
My dish was so slight in portion that I was still hungry by the time we left. Additionally, the flavor of the protein was completely off from when I've ordered it before (here and at other Brazilian restaurants), and quite salty. My dining companion has never – in a decade of knowing her – finished a full meal due to her petite appetite; she finished everything just fine, and was "comfortably full, though could have had dessert".
On to our new CL "home" we shall go!
I am typical Brooklyn/Staten Islander who usually eats in the outer boroughs. But this was a special case for me because my classmates and I were celebrating our last class of the semester. The place is very small but very clean. The waiter was very nice and patient with us because we are learning Portuguese and wanted to learn how to order in the language. The reason why I gave it 4 starts is because my plate was 22 dollars and it was all vegetarian (then again what do you expect, youre dining in the city). I would come back for a special event.
P.S. they have real cloth placemats! 🙂
After a couple of brunch drinks at the Standard, my girls and I were craving Brazilian Food. This place came highly recommended. We managed to walk over to Bedford, this time had invited some new friends from Italy…4 to be exact…to join the festivities. When we arrived, there was a tiny wait. The place is not that large, but I actually preferred that. Size is not everything (that's what she said).
The place is nice and cozy…it has a small bar, and a few tables. The tables are situated along side the windows which give you a great view of the street and Bedford's lovely cobble road. The place had great attention to detail, we loved the beautiful table settings which included delicate white lace place mats (I hate to be the person who has to wash these every night). Being the hungry group that we were and being with 4 very hungry Italians—we ordered a plethora of dishes. The menu had a variety of your traditional Brazilian dishes such as feijoada and the different array of meats….lots of meat (that what she said…ok i'll stop). I decided on their seafood stew in coconut milk. It was sooooo f-ing good. I MADE everyone try it, that's how good it was. By the end of the night, we got a little rowdy (too much wine, too much Caipirinhas), but the staff and management were still pretty cool about it. It was a definite great end to our day….great company, new friends, great food, great wine, and a great atmosphere. Definitely coming back!!!!!
First time having authentic Brazilian food aside from your commercialized Churrascarias. Cozy and friendly place w. refreshing Caiparihnas and great service. Food was nothing fancy but rustic and tasted very much homemade. Enjoy my experience and hope to go back.