Ipanema

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Brazilian
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 10
Value: n/a
Environment: 10

Frequency: Uncommon

Note: This review is based on 2 dinners from 5/7 and 5/8. Photos in the Picasa album are also from 2 separate days.

Saturday, 5/7
For our first visit to this place, yesterday, we weren't that familiar with the routine. I thought it was going to be the same as all of the Brazilian places in NYC where waiters walk around with meat on swords and just keep offering different cuts until you flip the disc on your table to signal them to pause. In Ipanema, it's more like a multi-course meal. You get appetizers at the buffet tables first. Then there's an optional paella dish. After that, the same waiter walks back and forth with different cuts of meat in a fixed order. This time around, everyone ordered a paella dish, which made us full too early. I ended up skipping the last 3 or 4 cuts of meat. I felt the beef and pork cuts were dry. The chicken came out pretty good and the paella was above average, but I've had better.

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Sunday, 5/8
We actually came here 2 days in a row because many others in my group liked it and felt it was a better value for dinner occasions. If I was vacationing alone, this place would have been a one-time visit and have a rating of 7. It turns out that Ipanema is hit or miss, which is why I have the "frequency" stat. That way readers can factor in my experience with each restaurant. For our second visit, every cut of meat the waiter brought by tasted great. If I had come on this day only, the food would've gotten a 9. So I gave it the average of the 2 visits... 8. Today was also Mother's Day, but since we were on vacation, no one really remembered it except me. But I kept it quiet until dinner time. At the right moment, I talked to the waiter privately to see if he could do something for the 3 mothers at the table. Of course I had to explain the holiday to him first! I guess all the other American families forgot about it too. We worked out that the staff would bring out cakes that they normally give to birthday people, but no need to sing.