Rei Momo

What's the scoop on Rei Momo?

The new(ish) Brazilian bar on Drury Street used to be Bootleg, whose short-lived attempt at bringing vintage wines, disco nights and Spanish-style small plates to the city centre never really caught fire. A collaboration from the people behind Big Fan, Sprezzatura and Bow Lane, they cut their losses and put their thinking caps on about a new concept in the same space.

What they came up with was Rei Momo (which translates to King Momo, the King of Carnival), a Brazilian bar serving all the iconic snacks, grilled meats, and an almighty list of caipirinhas. The food seems to centre on their Brazilian chef Bruno, who regularly features on their social feeds, and they're pitching it as a fun place to go with friends, or just stop for drinks and snacks on the eternally buzzing Drury Street. In a city where once again it's become impossible to get a table anywhere good without extreme levels of planning, more places like this encouraging spontaneity, walk ins and no minimum order can only be a good thing.

Where should we sit?

First things first, this is a bar, not a restaurant, and a lot of the chairs are high ones at high top tables. If you're coming with a gang you can request the large table in the centre which sits up to 12, or the ones on the side could seat six. There's bar seating at the counter too if you feel like dropping in solo for a drink and a snack, and don't want to take up a whole table.

If you have a friend or family member who likes their feet on the ground and proper back support, ask for the booth seating on the right hand side of the room, and if you're into city centre people watching, ask to sit inside the window. We'd least like to be sat at the low tables for two in the middle of the room, which feel a bit lost at sea and are too small for the amount of food we'd end up ordering.

What are we drinking?

When in a Brazilian bar, it's mandatory to start with a caipirinha, and this must be the best selection in the city. There are six flavours, from classic to coco verde, and three frozen ones, with mango, açaí and a whole young coconut. You can also get batidas (a creamy cocktail with condensed milk), spritzes, Brazilian beers, and a "tiny beer" for €2.50 (we've been waiting for tiny cocktails to hit Dublin, but beer beat them to it). There's a decent wine list and a really excellent N/A selection too, featuring soda, juice, Brazilian lemonade, N/A beer and wine, as well as beer and coffee. No one will be left wanting.

We had to dive right in with a frozen mango caipirinha (like a fruity, freezing cold slap to the face), and a coco verde caipirinha, and both just made us want to try more from this list. They're both high on alcohol and sugar though, so we're not sure we could do more than a couple.

What about food?

Again, it's important to remember that this is bar food, and not a three course meal. A lot of it is fried and meaty, so perfect for soaking up cocktails, but it might feel like overload if you're picturing a three-course meal situation.

Start with the bougiest version of Pão de Queijo we've ever seen, the cheesy, chewy, dough balls coming with the lovely addition of whipped Parmesan butter (€7 for three).

Then move onto coxinhas, Brazil's famous teardrop-shaped, deep-fried croquettes, on the menu here in four better the average flavours. We had to try the Irish crab and Gruyère with chilli jam and lemon mayo, and while you can't go far wrong with Irish crab anything, we couldn't taste any Gruyère (maybe a stronger cheese, higher quality version or more of it was needed). The fact that they arrived lukewarm didn't help.

The smoked short-rib version with requeijão (a Brazilian ricotta-like cheese) and guava ketchup was much better (€14 for three) - a mound of meat collapsing into a pool of more lemony mayo, with a tangy dot of guava on top (we would have liked more).

Salt cod is another ingredient synonymous with Brazil, as are bolinhos de bacalhau - salt cod fritters (€12 for three). We thought these could have gone lighter on the potato, and heavier on the fish, but they came alive with the little pops of sweet and spicy peppers, and a squeeze of lemon over the top.

Pastels, a deep-fried pastry pocket, are again more upmarket than you might have seen on the streets of São Paulo, and we went for the one stuffed with oxtail and Durrus cheese (€13). It's a sizeable snack and could be enough to fill a gap on its own at lunch time, but we did find a chunk of the pastry at one end was empty, which is always a bummer. The vinagrete on the side provided the perfect lift to all that meat and cheese.

One of the must orders here is the wood-fired garlic butter chicken hearts (€12), even if they came without the advertised caipirinha yoghurt. It didn't matter, because a squeeze of lemon is all they needed, and if you're squeamish about offal, just trust us and pop your cherry with these.

Also from the grill you can get Peri Peri chicken, pork ribs and moqueca prawns, but it had to be pichana with thyme and chimichurri after Entrecote-gate a few streets over. Despite being more cooked than we would have liked, it had great flavour, and we love dipping it in the accompanying farofa which brings welcome texture to the soft meat. There was nowhere near enough chimichurri, but staff brought more when we asked.

If you're stuck on which sides to order, our favourite was the white rice with coconut milk and crispy garlic, with the deep-fried "punched" potatoes with garlic mayo coming in second. Charcoal sweetcorn with fondue lacked any bite and we found the cheese slightly random (don't worry, it was still eaten).

Desserts didn’t overly appeal, with more deep-frying in the form of a pastel de dulce de leite, gelato, or the condensed milk based brigadeiros, but they tick the box for something sweet in a bar setting.

How was the service?

Despite the bar not being busy when we went for lunch, there was a long lag between ordering and any food arriving, to the point where we started to panic that it was all going to come at once. We asked that a few plates be brought out at a time, but almost immediately four arrived together. To add insult to injury, three weren't hot enough and had obviously been cooling in the kitchen as we sat outside riddled with anxiety about having to eat too much food at once. Our advice? Order as you go. It's a bar so they won't mind you ordering two-three plates at a time rather than the full order at once.

Saying that, we did find the staff hard to wave down when we needed anything, and at times some seemed more interested in their phones, but the online reviews for service are fantastic, so we think we were unlucky and maybe someone more senior was off.

What's the verdict on Rei Momo?

In a city where bar food offerings are more often than not dire, Rei Momo joins the ranks of places like Caribou and Sister 7 where dinner is not just a mid-drinks afterthought. Added to that, Brazilian food is having a real moment in Dublin right now, finally rising above the comfort food spots that expats flood into each day for a taste of home, and Rei Momo is having more fun with flavour that most of the rest. We might not come here for a three course meal, but for casual sharing plates between friends, alongside a drinks list we'd like to deep dive into, it's worth a space on your "to eat in list".