This Brazilian restaurant in Astoria is one of those foodie destinations that continually gets bandied about on the outer boroughs section on Chowhound. It's not that much of a trek for us but even if it were, the simple, flavorful preparations would be well worth it. We went for a late weekend lunch and found the place nearly empty at 1:00 and the waiter to be very courteous. As the meal went on however, the tables kept filling (and everything I spied on the other diners' plates looked fantastic).
Nothing here screams of its specialness: the decor is simple, smart and clean and so is the food. At first I wasn't too impressed and wondered what all the fuss was about, but sometimes, especially in big cities, you forget that everything great doesn't have to be ostentatious. We all shared a couple appetizers, the meat pastries and the linguica sausage with yucca and garlic mayo. With my recent aversion to fried things (could this mean I'm getting healthier?), I wouldn't order the pastries again, but they were really tasty if that's your trip. The sausage with yucca was excellent though and surprisingly light–highly recommended. For our main dishes, I had a light but highly seasoned red snapper with rice, Jim had a rich pork tenderloin with an awesome crispy garlic and collard greens side, and Mike and Shaun both opted for the shrimp stew with coconut milk and palm oil which looked great (photo from bridge and tunnel). The cabernet was a perfect accompaniment. I've heard that the place might require reservations in the evening, so keep that in mind.
But what do you think?