In April 2020 Mr A and I stayed at the Belmond Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio de Janeiro for four nights. The hotel has three restaurants, two of which hold a Michelin star.  This is my review of their one-starred Italian restaurant, Hotel Cipriani, which is so named because that famous hotel in Venice is also part of the Belmond group.  You can see from the featured image that the restaurant is on the ground floor of the Copacabana Palace’s newer block, overlooking the swimming pool.  The restaurant only opens for dinner between Tuesdays and Saturdays and serves only a choice of two tasting menus.  One very unusual thing is that you need to specify which menu you’ll be having, at the time of booking!  We chose to have the “Chef’s signature dishes” at BRL410 each (about £65) for seven or eight courses, which is very good value compared with London!

The restaurant is smart, elegant and calming, with white table cloths, very comfortable chairs, bespoke carpets and some Italianesque paintings on the walls.

Our meal began with a delicious ‘aperitif’ of kombucha, which came with some fragile bread sticks planted in powdered cheese, and some crackers which we dipped into lardo di capponato. I really liked this simple beginning. 10/10

We were then presented with five canapés each. In the image above, going clockwise from the bottom left: smoked potato croquette; gougere with pistachio; crispy pasta carbonara; a tartlet; and a cocoa nib ‘leaf’ with raw shrimp.  These were all very delicious and demonstrated fine kitchen technique, creativity and technical skills.  10/10

Then came another, final, canapé: a crisp-fried pizza dough parcel containing tomato and onion, topped with mozzarella and basil. It tasted like a good fresh Margherita pizza!   At the same time a beef and pork ragu was served with warm, crusty sourdough bread to dip into it. Or there was butter and olive oil for the bread.  This was all very nice in terms of giving us a familiar taste of Italy, but I thought it was a little heavy for so early in the meal (I’m always wary of getting full early on!). 9/10

Our first course was a carpaccio of wagyu, served with onion puree, pine nuts, truffled oil and crispy onion. It was divine!  The little pieces of crispy onion brought just enough texture to this melt in the mouth delicacy. 10/10

The second course was an artichoke barigoule containing a slow-cooked egg yolk, with a parmesan veloute and black truffle.  As you might imagine this was a very rich dish, and I think it needed balancing with more acidity from somewhere, rather than with the bitterness of artichoke.  7.5/10

The pasta course was tortellini with chicken cacciatore, a provolone foam, and grated black truffle.  I enjoyed this dish for its simplicity and well-balanced flavours. 8.5/10

One could choose between cod and beef for the main course, and, despite having it for my starter, I chose the fillet of wagyu served with different textures of onion and a demi-glace jus. It was delicious, though not as tender as I was expecting it to be, and it came with a brioche bun which I didn’t eat because I really was getting quite full. 8.5/10

We then had a ‘pre-dessert’ of the chef’s deconstructed tiramisu. It tasted very good as a dessert, but it wasn’t palate-cleansing, which is what a pre-dessert should be. 7/10

The ‘proper’ dessert was an eye catching show stopper: a chocolate cigar served in an ‘ashtray’ with a quenelle of laphroaig ice cream on the side.  The whisky ice cream had a pleasant subtle flavour, so I thought this dessert was just great. 10/10

Just as we thought the meal had ended we were presented with a bowl of soft-whipped vanilla gelato. I only tried a little, because I was so full, but it was delicious. 10/10

And then they came along with a trolley of petit fours!  I had to pass on this, but I thought the concept was stunning. 10/10

At the end of our meal Executive Chef Nello Cassese came out of the kitchen to have a short chat with us, and I complimented him on his great cooking.  We had had a great dinner at Cipriani; better than in Michelin starred restaurants in Italy. 9/10