The finest regional cuisine in South America

The restaurant’s name stands for Dominus Optimo Maximo, signifying chef Atala’s desire to have the “home” of the “best” “and greatest” cooking. It has been named the 7th finest restaurant in the world by the S. Pellegrino “World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2011”, and the top restaurant of South America. 

All of this recognition and prestige is due to the chef Alex Atala, who was vaulted to international fame for using Brazilian ingredients in majestically executed contemporary dishes. One example of this is the scallops marinated in coconut milk with a crispy mango chip that resembles a dragonfly wing. 

 

 

The service, attentive to what some would consider a fault, includes greetings from everyone, pushing your chair in under you when you’re seated, that kind of attention to detail. The staff is knowledgeable and bilingual, and perfectly happy to call over the sommelier even though you’re just deciding between the two cheapest bottles of wine on the menu.

The crowd can be starkly divided into two groups: elite and the foodies. It is expensive in a way that puts it out of reach of most Brazilians, but restaurant lovers will recognize that they are in the hands of experts, a combination of production perfection and creativity.

The aforementioned scallops in coconut milk are delicious, as also is the salad with thin cozily curved slices of abobrinha squash dotted with tiny flower petals; crayfish hiding out underneath, and an extended ellipsis of pastel-orange passion fruit dots serving as an underline. It creates one of those eat-it-or-stare-at-it-moments, where one could feel inclined –quite embarrassingly– to take a picture of what is served on ones table. 

Entrees like the baby pork ribs and forbidden rice with catupiry are another blow-out success. Forbidden rice, a purple-black heirloom strain works fantastically with the catupiry, a creamy cheese that is a sort of national spread that goes in or on everything from fried appetizers to pizza. And the ribs manage to be in the zone where falling off the bone meets slightly crispy.

You can order desserts like cagaita sorbet or you could just wait for the outrageous tray of sweets that comes with your espresso. They include Dadinho candies, little cubes of sugary peanut paste that anyone who was a child in Brazil in the last three or four decades will recognize.

Diners are advised to make reservations well in advance, given that the restaurant opens for lunch from 12pm to 3pm on Monday through Friday, and from 7pm to 12pm for dinner on Monday through Thursday, whilst Friday through Saturdays opens for dinner from 7pm to 1am.

 

 

 

 

Text: AMURA ± Photo: D.O.M