The Two Minute Review: Tucano

Tell us about with Tucano?

If you came across Tucano on Instagram you might think they were in Curitiba rather than off O’Connell Street, with their posts almost entirely in Portugese. There's little or no food on there either, just videos of staff talking animatedly into the camera with all the effects - they could as easily be promoting a casino or supermarket.

Word is out in the Brazilian community, and the only language in the heaving room was Portugese - our server tried to take our order in it. There are lots of Brazilian restaurants in Dublin, who all seem to serve the same style of food to the same people, but barely any have had a national review, or featured on best restaurant lists. Is this a journalistic oversight, or are none of them hitting the heights? We wanted to try one of the most talked about to get some clarity.

What should I eat?

Our server recommended the most popular dishes - picanha steak, and feijoada (Brazil's iconic bean and meat stew). We added mini chicken coxinhas and fried tapioca - snacks that anyone who's visited Brazil ate their body weight in.

Mini coxinhas (€7.99) are easier to eat than palm-sized ones, but eight was overkill. The stodgy snack of breaded, deep-fried dough had shredded chicken in the centre, and while well seasoned they needed the garlic dip - even still they lose their appeal fast.

Fried tapioca cubes (€7.99), another carb-heavy snack, are often served with red pepper jelly in Brazil - here it tasted like bottled sweet chilli sauce. They're crispy and satisfyingly chewy, but after a couple there's no reason to keep going back.

Feijoada, a slow-cooked bean, pork and beef stew (€14.50), is a warming bowl, but we would have liked to know what parts of what animals were in there – at one point we lifted something resembling a pig’s snout. It came with "crackling" (unpleasant chunks of skin and fat), "cabbage" (raw kale), "vinaigrette" (Brazilian salsa), farofa (toasted cassava flour), and rice.

Asking how we wanted our thin steak cooked was moot, but the Brazilian meat (€17.50) had expert flavour and seasoning. You get a choice of black or brown beans, farofa to dip it in, vinaigrette, and cassava or fries. The cassava was extremely bland, but the rest was the best thing we ate here.

There are six desserts including honey bread and passion fruit mousse, but when in Brazil, it's got to be pudim.

Similar to Spain's flan de queso, or France's crème caramel, it's made with eggs, milk, condensed milk and caramel, and is very sweet, but this is an excellent version.

What about drinks?

Soft drinks and beer, as well as fresh juices like cashew, passion fruit and acerola (similar to cherry). Our guava was more like a smoothie or a slushie - no bad thing.

Why should I go?

We don’t think Tucano is about to go viral with an Irish crowd, but we can see why Brazilians flood the place. It's the type of food someone's Mum or Aunt would make, and clearly the taste of home so many are missing. It’s also a fun, inexpensive option the next time you want to try something different.

Tucano

4 Talbot Street, North City, Dublin 1

instagram.com/tucanodublin