The restaurant, Figueira Rubaiyat in São Paulo is definitely worth a visit for its unique restaurant design and its contemporary Brazilian food.
Fun fact: this is the restaurant where Kanye West had an orchestra playing Sam Smith for Kim K when she was in São Paulo in May 2015.
Food
Figueira Rubaiyat is well known for its steak and seafood, which they source from different parts of South America, their own Rubaiyat Ranch, as well as Australia.
In Brazil, many restaurants have a cover charge (called a couvert) per person for appetizers that they bring you. For our appys, we were presented with Pão de Queijo – a Brazilian cheese bread that was so soft and warm, a foccacia-type bread served on a bread stand, and a charcuterie platter of olives and chorizo. We felt so satiated after snacking on all the appys and we hadn’t even started on our mains!
For mains, we ordered “baby steak” and pommes soufflées (little air-puffed potatoes), sea bass and a side of mixed vegetables. I had to send the sea bass back because it was overcooked. The server was apologetic, and when the sea bass was served the second time, it was perfectly seared with each piece flaking off like butter. I don’t mess around with my sea bass!
The Other Stuff
The restaurant is built around an impressive century-old banyan tree, which lends its name to the restaurant Figueira – Portuguese for fig tree. It’s also the name of the restaurant group and the Rubaiyat Ranch, where all the leather and wood for the dining chairs come from.What makes the fig tree really special is that the tree is hard to reproduce, since its fruits are seedless and the pollinating agent doesn’t exist in Brazil. The ceiling over the dining area is covered entirely by glass, letting in lots of natural light and creating a magical and romantic ambience. At night, it felt like we were dining under the stars.
The service was amazing – there was always someone around if you needed attending to. Best of all, one of our servers took fantastic pictures using my iPhone, given that the lighting was really dim. He knew how to adjust the settings to lighten the image – if only all servers knew how to take great photos!
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