London’s diverse restaurant culture never fails to impress me. My latest international eating experience in the capital is lunch at Bossa in Marylebone, a recently opened, modern Brazilian restaurant.
What an appropriate name Bossa is, instantly evoking the feel of Brazil. It’s taken from the phrase Bossa Nova, which means new trend or new wave in Portuguese, and describes the beautiful Brazilian music that evolved in the late 1950s from a union of samba and cool jazz.
Bossa Nova is one of my favourite music genres, and from the instant, we walked into the stylish, sophisticated space that is Bossa, I could feel myself falling for its namesake, too.
The carefully crafted menu is the creation of expert chef Nilson Chaves and closely reflects his Brazilian heritage. He and sommelier Lais Aoki (recently voted Brazil’s best sommelier) upped roots and moved to London to open Bossa, and their passion shines through in the food, wine list, and warmest of welcomes. My knowledge of Brazilian food is not extensive, to say the least (something I’m very keen to remedy), so we listened carefully as dishes were explained in detail. The lunch menu is a pared-down version of the full offering, making explaining and decision-making more accessible for our first-time Brazilian taster.
We started with a flavoursome citrussy mussel escabeche and sweet potatoes served with coppa, brazil nut cream and turnip greens. Mains of grilled bavette and sea bass had an exotic touch in the form of dry banana farofa, delica pumpkin cream, okra and bean vinaigrettes. And the delicate desserts of egg and coconut custard and white peach made the perfect ending to our fabulous lunch.
The dinner menu is much more comprehensive with a range of dishes that made my mouth water simply from reading it, with classics like seafood moqueca, crab pastel, grilled red prawns and crackling pork belly with feijoada broth. There’s also an excellent wine list reflecting the superb offering from the South American continent. This means another visit to this Brazilian foodie paradise has to be on the cards. And luckily for me, it’s just off Oxford Street so I don’t have to travel very far to get my fix.
Words by Sandy Cadiz-Smith