For my partner’s birthday, we decided to head to a beautiful and fancy Michelin star restaurant called Olympe near the Lagoa (lagoon) in Rio de Janeiro.

My partner loves a fancy meal; therefore, this made for a great birthday present.

We’ve been to many fancy restaurants in the past. Sometimes, these fancy restaurants are all hype. So, I went into this thinking Olympe is just another restaurant trying to be as elegant as possible.

Olympe has one Michelin star. Even with one star, I was still skeptical.

However, I should mention that a Michelin star usually means the food is pretty great. 

Olympe blew me away! I was so impressed by everything. I highly recommend it. Nevertheless, I want to give you details of what you can expect at this restaurant.

Olympe Restaurant Space

The restaurant is in a cul-de-sac. At first, I thought our Uber driver was in the wrong place. I didn’t know where to look.

The door of Olympe faces the curvy cul-de-sac area. Therefore, even if you’re looking at it, you might not see the sign or the door.

Once they pointed it out, we notice people walking in and out of it. There is also a doorman waiting for guests.

Nevertheless, the doorman opened the door and let us inside Olympe.

We greeted the hostess and told her we had a reservation. She immediately sat us.

I should mention we arrived early and the entire place was empty, except for one other table. 

The restaurant itself is charming but also very small. 

It’s dark. The wooden beams of the restaurant are exposed — dim lighting made for a pleasant and sophisticated atmosphere.

You can see into the kitchen from our table. Although the glass walls also contained bottles of wine.

The lamps hung down from the ceiling nicely.

The one chandelier over the middle of the room made a statement.

The waiter greeted us as we sat and observed our surroundings. He spoke broken English but enough to get us through everything we needed to know.

We ordered sparkling water to start and chatted as the night continued.

The Menu at Olympe

The menu consists of all prefixes. In other words, you can order a five-course meal or a seven-course meal. These prefix courses make it simple. You choose one, and the chef makes what he desires, and you get each course as it comes out.

There is also a smaller option. It’s the two-course a la carte meal. In other words, you can pick any two items on the menu plus a dessert at the end. So, this means you can choose an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. Or any combination you wish to have.

The one thing you should keep in mind as you have these types of prix fixe meals is that it’s never just five-course or seven courses.

For example, we each chose the two-course dinner. But it ended up being five different courses.

The two-course dinner is also the least expensive. In any case, I’ve gone to restaurants and chosen the seven and 10-course prix fixe meals. In the end, I seriously thought I needed a wheelchair. Therefore, a two-course meal is perfect for me.

The Meal’s at Olympe

The two-course meal is R$250 — That’s Brazilian dollars or Reais. Currently, the Reais is four to every one American dollar.

Anyway, getting back to the food. I ordered the cauliflower squid dish as an appetizer. It’s grilled with cheese and spices sprinkled on top.

It was delicious. I also love squid and calamari. The dish is just fantastic! I recommend it.

I also ordered the açai covered lamb and gnocchi. The gnocchi I didn’t like so much. The taste was too bitter for me — something about the combination of spices I didn’t like so much.

Regardless, the lamb was the best I’ve ever had. Just this dish itself makes Olympe worth coming here to try.

For dessert, I got a chocolate macaroon with fluffed yogurt inside. It was delicious. To top it off, it came with a scoop of ice cream on the side.

Even though this was the two-course a la cart meal, it was actually five courses. Or six if you count the fantastic bread they gave us beforehand.

They provided sliced bread and spun cheese sticks to start. I had way too many.

They start you off with an amuse-bouche.

It consisted of a buttery soup. It was the most delicious soup I’ve ever had. The waiter did not tell us what it was, so we tried guessing.

My partner’s aunt (who was also on the trip with us) said it tasted like pea or snow pea puree with some Indian spices and a whole lot of butter!

We ordered some champagne and Caipirinhas throughout our meal. In the end, they gave us chocolate chip cookies, sugar muffins, an Italian dessert, and a marshmallow coconut square.

It was too much food for us. But, we managed to eat every bit of it.

My partner and his aunt

They chose different meal options, which I really should talk about. 

My partner choose the liver pate, which I tasted, and it was creamy! It was so tasty it felt decadent. It comes with thin cheese crackers that were so delicate they broke if you aren’t too careful.

He also got the duck as his main course. He thought it was too tough and chewy and didn’t enjoy it as much, which is too bad considering my dish was amazing.

For dessert, he got the chocolate option, which consisted of two types of chocolate, a chocolate wafer, a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate cream.

His aunt

My partner’s aunt got the beet salad, which she said was incredible. The lobster dish followed it. She let me taste it. I can tell you that it was the best lobster I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if it was just caught and cooked an hour beforehand, but it was unbelievable.

She also got the same chocolate dessert afterward.

Everything was very grand.

Let me break it down for you:

Olympe has prefix courses. Five courses for R$390 or seven courses for R$450.

We opted for the a la carte option. Its two courses plus dessert for R$250.

Collectively, we got the cauliflower and squid dish, the beet salad, and the liver pate as an appetizer. As the main course, we got the duck, the lamb, and the lobster. Each was spectacular.

My partner didn’t like the duck so much, though. He said it was tough and too chewy for him.

The deserts consisted of the macaroon and the chocolate dish. Each was incredible.

I absolutely, 100% recommend Olympe.

If you’re interested in checking out their website, I’ll post it here: https://olympe.com.br/.