Lasai

Lasai is the gastronomic restaurant of chef Rafa Costa e Silva — a Carioca chef trained at Mugaritz in San Sebastián under Andoni Luis Aduriz — opened in 2014 in the Botafogo neighbourhood and awarded the second Michelin star in the 2026 guide. The restaurant occupies a converted Belle Époque townhouse with the most intimate two-Michelin-star dining room in South America: a single ten-seat counter facing directly into the open kitchen.

The cuisine is vegetable-led contemporary Brazilian. The surprise tasting menu runs ten to fourteen courses depending on the day; vegetables take centre stage, transformed into striking textures and compositions. Ingredients come from the chef's own gardens in Itanhangá (the Tijuca Forest foothills) and Vale das Videiras (the Petrópolis mountain valley), or from a hand-picked circle of Brazilian small-scale producers. Signatures include a fermented manioc-and-tucupi broth; a hand-rolled palm-heart cannelloni with Amazonian botanicals; a slow-roasted heirloom-tomato tartare with cupuaçu butter; the famous 'jambu-and-pequi' course — two protected-origin Brazilian wild herbs combined in an emulsion.

The wine list runs to 600 references with deep Brazilian smallholder coverage, a serious natural-wine section, and a tightly chosen European programme. Pairings at R$380 are heavily natural-led. The cellar's emerging-Brazilian-natural-wine vertical is the country's deepest.

The ten-seat counter format is the experience. One seating per night; the chef and three brigade members work the entire menu in front of the diners; total run-time is roughly four hours; the menu is rewritten weekly. Costa e Silva is genuinely accessible to diners during service.

Lasai is the proposal-grade table in Rio de Janeiro — the ten-seat counter means total privacy with one seating per night, the four-hour pacing accommodates a slow-moving evening, and the vegetable-led cooking is genuinely distinctive. Brief the team three days ahead.