Batuqui Cleveland: A Taste of Brasil

With some friends, I visited Batuqui, a Brazilian restaurant opened in the Larchmere/Shaker/Buckeye area of Cleveland, Ohio to test drive the restaurant and the menu. This is a soft opening; A soft opening is like a dress rehearsal for restaurants. Batuqui owners, Carla Batista and Gustavo Duarte invited a small group of people to practice on before the official opening.  Firstly thank you so much for opening your restaurant in the neighborhood.

Batuqui fills a culinary void and I predict much success for the restaurant. I enjoyed the experience the dishes are exceptional. Batuqui has a patio in front for diners. Being in a converted house it, of course, has an intimate feel inside and out.Our entourage had a great time enjoying appetizers, salads, drinks, and entrees. The first thing to greet our taste buds is Bolinho de Bacalhau, a Codfish croquette appetizer. Cooked to perfection. Batuqui serves slightly larger than bite-sized croquettes breaded and deep fried. The proportion of bread to Cod is perfect and pretty traditional; the bread coating is coarser than I’ve had in past food forays. This provided for a fantastic contrast of the exterior crunch to the pâté like Cod interior; served with lime garnish which to my surprise complimented the Cod well.

Pao De Queijo, another traditional dish of chewy cheese puffs is wonderful! I made sure these stayed at the other end of the table so as not to eat them all. Pão de queijo is a lot like French gougères. With both the end result is a tray of hollow pastry puffs. Unlike the French gougères, you make pão de queijo with tapioca flour or cassava flour and doesn't seem as crisp as the French counterpart, but are kind of melt in your mouth chewy.

The next fantastic dish catching my palate is Calamari Samba. The second time I can remember having good calamari in Cleveland. I enjoy the red, light, tomato based, sauce, though it ever so slightly overpowers the calamari ringlets. This appetizer comes with mouthwatering crostini, a thin, crunchy, seasoned toast. Xim Xim (de Galinha) yet another smashing dish; OK this dish is plain addicting! Sublime, I think I had a dream about it for a couple of days afterward. Xim xim in many African tongues means “stew,” and galinha means chicken in Portuguese. Traditionally made with palm oil, dark meat chicken, coconut, shrimp, garlic, ginger and other sundries this dish opens your nose as it arrives at the table. If you have allergies, make sure you ask as this dish is often made with peanuts or cashews. Although this is chock-full of solid foodstuff it is more of a flavorful soup as opposed to a thick stewy mixture. Often though the process and intent decide whether a stew or soup. On the eco-tip I’d love to see this made with olive oil rather than palm oil, though it would alter the taste and tradition, still, the verdict is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Churrasco Misto is a style of cooking I love. The flavor is wonderful. The chicken and sirloin tasted like a great dry rub. Is this ever made with chicken dark meat?? Great with the farofa, tomato relish, and rice. Farofa is a toasted cassava flour mixture, sometimes cassava flour is substituted with maize flour (Farinha de milho). So when you see that sawdust looking stuff on your plate that often accompanies meat… yes, go for it! Eat it directly, sprinkle it on your food, mix it in, revel.

Batuqui should fool around a bit with the plating and presentation a bit. I don't recall being wowed by any presentation coming to the table.

DessertPudim de Leite is rich and creamy, it’s a flan made with condensed milk something sweet like sugar or honey and eggs. This is OK but doesn't do much for me. It got the least attention at our table and I think was the last to disappear. I don't remember any comments about it. I'm used to the more delicately textured, thicker flan and this is thin and the texture more toward chewy than melt in your mouth. I'll try it again next time I go.

By contrast, the Coconut Butter Cake is such a delight and what a surprise and extra added treat that it comes to the table warm! I liked the plating and presentation on this one though the whipped cream was watering a bit (from the heat of the cake?) Once again, I hope Batuqui rethinks some of their plating and presentation choices. I do note that on some dishes the presentation does not bespeak how marvelous the dish, dishes should look as exciting as is practical, ergo plating and often the garnish. Long gone are the days when an establishment would plop a sprig of parsley on the dish and call it a day. All being equal in the restaurant business the experience is as important as the fare and can make a big difference.

Another dish is Mousse de Maracuja or passion fruit mousse. One person at our table wants some addition to the taste, to break up the flavor and although that would work I enjoyed savoring the layers of taste and how some hit my palate in at the back and other flavors settle near the middle just a lot of great movement lingering at the back of my mouth. Once again, I dont think much of the presentation and would love to see a single raspberry or strawberry top or thinly sliced strawberry ring garnish or something to contrast the color, this would also speak to one of our party’s wish for a contrasting taste to play against it. I sometimes see this dish sprinkled with edible passion fruit seeds which is visually interesting.Our server was fun and engaging and made us feel comfortable.

I love the atmosphere and the decor is fun. Exciting seeing a guitar in the corner and the young man on the Cajon or box drum is a great addition which may have been impromptu. Batuqui plans to have music on Sundays.

Batuqui should not overlook promoting that they have vegetarian dishes and should seek to offer vegetarian versions of some dishes they have on the menu. I spoke to someone about trying Batuqui out, they responded, "don't they have meat? Doesn't sound vegetarian to me." They have two veggie dishes and nice salads, but I think they can turn at least one other dish veggie with not a lot of trouble, for instance, they can do a veggie Xim Xim without the chicken, with seafood for pescatarians, without for vegetarians. I don't know if this challenges being totally Brazilian, but they have a lot of great tastes and flavors with which to work. They can marry the sauce and calamari at the last minute, which they probably do anyway, and that sauce is a possible soup base. Samba soup and salad with a side of Pao de Queijo or with crostini. I'll stop showing how much I don't know about the cuisine. My point is to make sure they capitalize on their inventory and the vegetarian market out there today. Well try this place out you will love it.  Support your neighborhood indie establishment