Koral has bold menu with many oscillations in Ipanema

What to expect from a trendy restaurant whose chef (and business owner) has not yet reached 30? At best, boldness. At the worst, a house with dishes prepared by someone who, as talented as it is, does not have much experience yet.

Koral fits the first option. It is bold on its menu when making a mix of raw and embedy options, with Brazilian, nordic, Asian influences. Boldness, however, is not always synonymous with good executions.

In three visits to the restaurant, the experiments oscillated, with starters and desserts as positive highlights.

At the head of the endeavor is Pedro Coronha, 28 years old. He interned at Noma (yes, the noma), went through the award -winning Eleven in Lisbon, and tested his skills in Mäska in the same carioca neighborhood. He is a young man with respect for respect, who feels comfortable doing his experiments at Koral.

The house defines it on Instagram as “Casual de Basas and Mar”. Casual she is not much, no: prices are sometimes somewhat high (individual rib dish with fried vegetable rice, egg and mayonnaise kewpie at $ 182, and so on). But from the combination of seafood and wood oven can come out good requests.

Among the seven appetizer options were the shrimp salad snack with phylum pasta and avocado cream on the ember (R $ 38)-but crunchy, the tartlets were crash, as they say in Portugal. Also light and refreshing, the fish tartare in the brioche (R $ 32) preceded the only unfortunate option of this first phase: pineapple guions with pineapple, vegetables and ponzu (R $ 29). With less neat and excessively salty presentation, they thirst to remember.

Pig meat seems to be a challenge for Koral, as in the main ones, the belly to pururuca with oriental potato salad and apple puree (R $ 89) was what left the most to be desired. Part of the skin was gelatinous, and it is a little embarrassing to have to take a little piece of the mouth and leave it in the corner of the plate.

All of these experiences were at dinner, when another main option was Cruudo Tonno with Spaghettini to Pesto, Straciatella and Basil (R $ 98). Very good. The sauce was gaining a velvety touch as the cheese melted and was incorporated into the pesto, and the tuna was clearly fresh. It made it beautiful, just like the smoked steak tartare with oyster sauce and fries (R $ 69).

Koral is more worthwhile at lunch, in its executive menu. Take the brave brisket with creamy polenta and toasted corn vinaigrette (R $ 89). It includes as a focaccia entry with lemon-sycilian butter and, to close, an excellent roasted cocada with cheese ice cream- attention, may already have come out of the menu, which varies with frequently. Also above average was choux with raspberry ice cream and red fruit cream filling (R $ 38), served separately, at any time.

To remove the hat were the simple pan meat croquettes, the option of entry to the executive of that day. You need to pay $ 12 more to replace the focus with them, but it’s fair. They are as they have to be: crispy on the outside, with well -seasoned meat, shredding inside. Without boldness and with a lot of flavor.