ottawa foodies

A friend of mine recently moved back to Montreal after decades of living outside of the country. During her teenage years her family lived in Brazil and she misses the Brazilian food. She is already scouting out the Montreal area for Brazilian food but she comes to Ottawa sometimes to visit me so she was asking if there is anywhere she could get Brazilian food. She is basically looking for Brazilian restaurants or Brazilian grocery stores. I think she might be willing to visit businesses that carry Latin American food, for example, but has a Brazilian food section - if that makes any sense... She might be willing to expand her search to Gatineau. I really can't think of anywhere to take her so I was wondering of anyone on OF knows of anywhere in Ottawa-Gatineau we can get Brazilian food?

I don't think there are any Brazilian restaurants anymore (Ekko de Brazil was the only one I knew of) but some of the latin/international markets might have some of what she's looking for. Bienvenidos Latin Market or Geeland International Grocery could be worth a look.

I suspect your friend has already found La Milsa in Mtl. Nothing here comes close since Ekko folded.

La Tiendita has S American groceries and the attached restau Cabana is quite good. Not specifically Brazilian, closer to Central American i am told.

Amazonas in Aylmer is Peruvian and very good.

...and to my ongoing irritation with ottown, that's all i've got.

I miss Ekko de Brazil. Too bad it couldn’t last. Chicago has a great Brazilian Grill my family tells me.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will pass them on to my friend.

There's a Brazilian resto stall set up at the Carp farmer's market .. actually, Brazilian-Lebanese! But the food offered isn't a mix of both cuisines.. they just have them both. The name escapes me offhand, and I don't know if/where they operate in the winter months when the market is closed. They mostly offer little snacks (fried cheese balls, etc.) for ~$2 each and have a few mains each week

I wish we had more Brazilian and South American options here for sure.

There is a Tim Horton's on almost every corner.

I heard a Copacabana is in the works in the old Pier 21 location. That would be so awesome - I miss Eko De Brazil so am excited to see what that's like. Seems they have locations in Toronto.

Rizak: "There is a Tim Horton's on almost every corner."

When Tim Horton's has staff walking around with Timbits on swords is when that will excite me.

Copacabana is delicious. It's your typical Brazilian bbq joint :)

Copacabana did lease that old Pier 21 location... Almost 4 years ago now I think, from what I had heard the building was in a lot worse shape than advertised, and they incurred significant costs they weren't expecting.

I'm not sure whatever came of it, but the property doesn't look any better than it did last time I was in the market, so I'm not terribly sure if it will ever happen there.