Ten addresses serving lunch Monday to Friday, with opening hours checked, sorted by the kind of day you're having: a quick set menu, a table for business, or lunch with no rush.
Almost every restaurant guide to Botafogo has the same flaw. It points you to places that only open at seven in the evening. Excellent, if you have lunch at seven in the evening.
Here are ten addresses that serve lunch on weekdays, with the hours checked. They are sorted by situation, because where to have lunch in Botafogo is never a single question.
There is the day when you need to eat in forty minutes and get back. There is the lunch with a client, where the room does half the work. And there is the day when nobody is in a hurry.
Three things happened at the same time.
The waterfront is packed with company headquarters, and it is the office that sustains lunch on a Tuesday. That lets these places keep the kitchen open at midday, which is rare in a neighbourhood that lives at night.
The streets Conde de Irajá, Vicente de Sousa and Paulo Barreto hold old townhouses and mews that have been taken over by original kitchens. The result is a neighbourhood where you change restaurants on foot, in five minutes.
And Botafogo metro station, on Lines 1 and 2, puts Centro, Copacabana and Ipanema a few stops away. Lunch stops being a commute.
A gastrobar most people know for the night, with original cocktails and live music, and almost nobody knows for lunch. That is exactly the advantage. From noon to 4pm, Monday to Sunday, the same kitchen behind the evening menu serves the Surreal Lunch in a townhouse that at this hour is calm.
The menu has individual dishes and salads from R$ 39, and a full menu with starter, main and dessert for R$ 69. The original cocktails are available at lunchtime too, which is rare midweek.
The window until 4pm suits anyone who can only leave the office after two, and opening on Sundays puts the house on the route of people who would rather not cook at the weekend.
Comfort food made with technique, in the format a working day demands. Recognisable plate, fast service and no invention that holds the table up. Runs a set lunch menu during the week and works as an address of habit.
A recent arrival on Vicente de Sousa that has become a fixed lunch route in the neighbourhood. Direct cooking, no ceremony in the room. Closes at 4pm Monday to Wednesday, which already tells you who it works for. It is the rhythm of someone who has to be back for the 2pm meeting.
A buffet inside an old townhouse, with live music at some lunches. It solves the day when there are eight of you, nobody can decide anything and everyone has a time to be back.
An Italian on São Clemente specialising in gnocchi, with doughs that go beyond potato — think parsnip and pumpkin. Open right through the day, every day, which solves the 3.40pm lunch.
A French bistro on a residential street. A restrained room and trained service, which are the two conditions of any work conversation that needs to get somewhere. Midweek, you can actually hear what the other person is saying.
The teaching restaurant of Le Cordon Bleu. Classic French cooking, a short lunch window and a bill that doesn't embarrass anyone. It impresses without apparent effort, which usually works better than impressing on purpose.
A Portuguese tavern in Botafogo Praia Shopping, with tables facing Guanabara Bay and Sugarloaf. Salt cod, octopus and fish. When the guest is from out of town, the view makes the argument on its own.
A bistro on Mena Barreto with one of the best reputations in the neighbourhood and portions that make dessert unnecessary. The picadinho is the recurring order. Small house and always full, so arrive before 12.30pm or book.
Brazilian cooking in a house with a terrace looking out at Christ the Redeemer. The menu marks what is vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free, which settles a table with dietary restrictions without a half-hour negotiation with the waiter. The terrace is the contested part, but at a weekday lunch it is usually free.
Restaurant guides tend to imply there is a best on the list. There isn't. There is the one that works for a Tuesday with a full diary, the one that works for a table with a client, and the one that works for the Friday when nobody is going back to the office.
Botafogo has all three within walking distance, and that is the real advantage of the neighbourhood. Save two or three of these addresses on your phone and decide on the spot, according to the day you are having. Just check the hours before you leave, because the lunch windows vary quite a bit between them.
And if your day is one of those with no rush, Surreal serves lunch every day from noon to 4pm, in the townhouse on Paulo Barreto. The house has three rooms, so you can choose between the buzz of the main floor and the light of the veranda.
Botafogo has a good lunch every day of the week. All that's missing is you getting up from the computer.
Rua Paulo Barreto, 102, in Botafogo. Individual dishes and salads from R$ 39, or a full menu for R$ 69. Groups, work parties and company events on WhatsApp (21) 96894-6337.
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