Boteco Brasil Restaurant

A Brazilian restaurant and bar in the heart of East Vancouver, Boteco Brasil is an establishment with a range of traditional dishes and a cozy atmosphere.

Vancouver’s Boteco Brazilian Restaurant

Founded in 2012, Boteco Brasil is part restaurant, part bar, part pub. It aims to provide a taste of Brazilian culture in a fun atmosphere. There are semi-regular live music performances at the venue, and always plenty of food and drinks on hand.

The restaurant itself is very yellow! There are also green highlights. This makes sense as the colours of the Brazilian flag are green and yellow, plus blue and a tiny bit of white. Decorations at the restaurant include a few knick-knacks from Brazil and Brazilian flags. It’s what we imagine a small family-owned restaurant might look like in Brazil.

The building looks a bit like a house from the outside. It has an outdoor patio at the front which has heaters in the winter. It’s not a big place. Including the patio, it seats up to just 44 people.

The place looks very Brazilian, both inside and out. The restaurant is very popular with Brazilians, which attests to the authenticity of the food.

Boteco Brasil Outdoor Patio — The Outdoor Patio in Winter

Location and Hours of Operation

Boteco Brasil is located at 2545 Nanaimo Street in Vancouver. It’s right off East Broadway about one kilometre from John Hendry Park and Trout Lake.

As of the last time we checked, Boteco is closed on both Mondays and Tuesdays. It’s open in the afternoons and evenings the rest of the week. On Wednesdays and Thursdays the place opens at 4:00 pm and closes at 9:00 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays it’s open from noon until 10:00 pm. It’s open from noon until 9:00 pm on Sundays.

You can normally make a reservation for up to 10 people just days or even weeks in advance on the Boteco Brasil website.

Appetizers at Boteco Brasil — Croquette-Like Appetizers

The Brazilian Menu

The food on offer is authentic Brazilian fare with a wide range of appetizers, mains, sides and desserts. There are plenty of vegetarian and gluten-free options along with the meatier dishes.

Some of the most popular offerings include the following:

Picanha – a sirloin steak with a different cut than is typical in North America. It’s delicious and comes as an entrée or appetizer.
Fejioada – a black bean and pork stew. It also comes in a vegetarian option. This is one of the most traditional Brazilian items on the restaurant’s menu. Brazilian’s love it, as do most people who really like black beans.
Bobo de Camarão – a creamy shrimp and coconut stew. It’s kind of like a mild curry.
Coxinha – potato croquettes filled with chicken and different spices. Bolinha de Queijos are sort of similar, but filled with a yummy gooey cheese.

More about the Food

The restaurant is particularly well-known for its appetizers. Several of them are deep-fried with things like chicken, cheese or fish inside. They are good for sharing and come with a type of tartar sauce. It’s not tartar sauce, but it’s sort of similar.

The dessert menu includes chocolate cake, coconut balls and passion fruit mousse. The restaurant’s brigadeiros are especially decadent.

The restaurant also has an extensive beverage menu with multiple variations of Caipirinhas along with local craft beers and other drinks. For those too young or not in the mood for alcohol there is Brazilian-style lemonade as well as fruit smoothies.

The traditional Brazilian alcoholic beverage is the Caipirinha. It’s a lime-flavoured drink made from Cachaça which is a rum-like alcohol derived from sugar cane. The Caipirinha is like a Brazilian version of a margarita. We had one of these. It was really good and came with fresh squeezed lime. You can get other flavours too, including mango which was also tasty.

Boteco Brasil Restaurant — Caipirinha and a Bottle of Water

What We’ve Had

When we went to the restaurant we had the Picanha Steak dinner and Bobo de Camarão entrée (which is the creamed shrimp and coconut dish). Both were delicious. The first came with both fries and rice. The latter came just with rice. For appetizers we had a mix of fried croquettes with cheese and chicken inside. They too were really good.

For dessert we had the condensed milk flan and a Beijinho (coconut ball). The flan was excellent. As we expected, the Beijinho was tiny, rich and delicious!

Live Music at the Restaurant

Boteco likes to book musicians to perform live in the evenings at the restaurant. They usually play Brazilian tunes, or other styles of Latin music. As an example of how often you might be able to expect live music, below was the schedule for December, 2021. Future months may be comparable.

Sunday, December 5th, 2021: Brejera Band played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Sunday, December 12th, 2021: Ciranda played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Saturday, December 18th, 2021: Brejera Band played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Sunday, December 19th, 2021: Forró do Cana played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021: Sara Magal played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2021: Brejera Band played from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Friday, December 31st, 2021: Brejera Band and Sara Magal played from 8:00 pm to midnight.