PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

Two women, two flavors, one hip eatery. Mestiço is run by a woman from Bahia and her partner from Thailand -- each brings her own culinary traditions to bear in the cuisine. Traditional Thai noodle salads sit side by side on the menu with acarajé, a Bahian fast food made with beans and shrimp and served with hot sauce. The salads are outstanding; the Malibu comes stuffed with tuna, carrots, rucula, lettuce, and mango in a balsamic-honey dressing while the Cubana boasts squid, palm hearts, grilled banana, and an intriguing variety of lettuces. For more substantial meals there are Thai dishes like chicken with shiitake mushrooms in ginger sauce, and grilled prawns with roasted peanuts in a sweet-and-sour sauce. The room is quite pleasant, lots of light wood with high ceilings, dimmed lights, and soft yellow walls decorated with exotic photos and masks. Service is friendly, and the prices are very reasonable. Alas, we're not the only ones to have discovered this restaurant; in the evenings, especially on weekends, the wait can be at least an hour.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Brazil, 4th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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