In a city where restaurants and bars come and go, the colourful mural of Rio’s Cristo Redentor gracing Camden Market’s Inverness Street for the past 20 years has earned Made in Brasil its status as a veritable North London landmark. We came to review the Brazilian restaurant when it first started in 2004 – indeed the year LatinoLife was also born. Between then and now, It also won a LUKAS (2015) for London’s Best Brazilian Restaurant, voted by the public and then visited by a panel of three Brazilian judges. Today, under new ownership, we were pleased to see that both eye-catching exterior and vibrant interior has remained the same, capturing the spirit of a Brazilian beach party with warm colours and tropical décor.
Made in Brasil has always been a bit different to most Brazilian restaurants in London, who use the rodizio ‘all-you-can-eat’ model, where waiters return relentlessly with skewers of different meats and is popular particularly with Paulistas. Made in Brasil is more reminiscent of a beach bar on the Copacabana. London’s plentiful carnivores can still devour the red stuff in the form of Brazil’s most famous dish feijoada, a hearty stew of black beans and pork (perfectly accompanied by a classic caipirinha), or picanha, the traditional Brazilian rump steak. But for those who don’t want to stuff themselves with non-stop meaty morsels, there are plenty of fish, seafood and vegetarian options.
First and most importantly, however…the cocktails. There is an excessive cocktail list with lots of choice, but for those of us who don’t get to eat and drink Brazilian every night, the caipirinha is surely the only choice. I can’t resist the passionfruit variety, or the devilishly fiery “Chilli Raspberry Caipirinha” – a much loved classic from the early days - but the classic is always the first on my list.
The thing about caipirinhas is they create an immediate urge to eat something fried: the taste of cachaça, sugar and lime kicks off my craving for the fried frango (chicken) I used to soak up the copious amount of cachaça I enjoyed in those heady days in Brazil. To my great relief, I spotted the frango a passarinho (fried chicken) on the tapas menu (ask for this if they don’t appear on the starter menu), along with other Brazilian delicacies such as coxinha’s (Chicken croquettes) and pastel de queijo (fried cheese) and bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fishcakes). If you are like me, and want to absolve your guilty pleasures, I recommend the palm heart salad, so you can follow your tasty fried morsels and caipirinhas with nice fresh slices of palm heart.
Miraculously, I still had room for a main. I opted for the moqueca, a seafood stew made with fish and seafood and coconut milk, served with rice and farofa, the cassava flour that Brazilians seem to serve with everything, which again mysteriously generates cravings – no Brazilian meal tastes complete without it. My vegetarian dining partner went for the bobó, a creamy cassava puree with palm hearts, again with rice and cassava shavings. Both of us enjoyed these very much.
We then forced ourselves to indulge in deserts: quidim da colonizacao, basically Brazil’s take on a flan and mousse de maracuja (passion fruit to you and me) - both excellent ways to finish off the evening.
Some restaurants transport you to a world where summer is endless and this is definitely the case of Made in Brasil, helped by the warm and effusive welcome from Otávio and his team. I am happy to say that the ambience is as lively and friendly as it always has been – which gets more intense, I am told, in the Copacabana Beach Bar downstairs in the basement, home to DJs and bands playing bossa nova, samba and Latin house on weekends.
Call me sentimental but its difficult not to like a restaurant that has existed as long as LatinoLife has - it feels like we’ve come on a long journey together. Others obviously feel the same about this much-needed oasis in London’s grey urban landscape. If it continues to exist in this constantly changing corner of the city, Made in Brasil is obviously serving a need for homesick Brazilians and those of us who just want to be transported to tropical pastures where the air is sticky, the light is soft and the sounds are sweet.
Made in Brasil, 12 Inverness St, London NW1 7HJ Daily Happy Hour from 4pm-7pm and all day Tuesday.
Weekly band on Friday's and Dj's late nights every weekend.
For bookings email: bookings@madeinbrasil.co.uk or Tel: 020 7482 0777
