Cafe Bossa Nova. Brazilian Cuisine.

What a wonderful weekend! The weather was perfect, food was amazing, and the company was great.

This week I wanted to go somewhere with my girlfriends. We started messaging to try and figure out where to go for a weekend lunch, and the vote was for Cafe Bossa Nova. I had heard great things about the restaurant from several people and was looking forward to trying something new.  The restaurant is located in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock. This area is known for their close-knit community, clothing boutiques, and trendy restaurants and bars. Their annual Harvest Fest was this Saturday, so we made an afternoon of it.

Harvest Fest is a festival for the whole family to attend. There are all kinds of vendor booths, crafts, live entertainment, and kid activities. Harvest Fest is on Kavanaugh Blvd. in between N. Monroe and Walnut. Cafe Bossa Nova is right in that vicinity.

This Brazilian restaurant has been open since 2002 and is growing more popular everyday. They started serving just lunch, but now because of popular demand, they serve dinner and brunch on Sunday. I’ll have to come back on a Sunday. I love a good brunch! 

None of us girls had been to Cafe Bossa Nova, so we took our waiter’s advice and had the Panquecas De Frango. I was also told to order the Pao De Queijo from one of my oldest friends’ mom that I saw at Harvest Fest.

Don’t ask me how to pronounce it any of it, just point to it on the menu when you order.

Pao De Qeuijo. This is a Brazilian style cheese bread ball that hit my taste buds just right. There wasn’t cheese in the center, but the actual bread had cheese baked within.

Another plus was that it was made with gluten free flour, so everyone can enjoy it. Many of their other dishes are gluten free, vegan, or vegetarian.
(I need to research more about gluten free products. I don't know if I could follow the diet.  It would probably limit my bread consumption, and that would make me cranky.) 

The center was light and airy making it a nice snack before lunch....or before anything. 

I think I would love cheese bread from any country.

Our lunch dish was Panquecas De Frango.

These Brazilian chicken crepes were delicious! For those of you who have never had one, a crepe is made by frying a very thin batter on a smooth pan. They have the consistency of the thinnest pancake you can imagine. People often have sweet crepes, but they can also be made for savory dishes.....like the one we all tried. 

The inside of the crepes were filled with a rich chicken and catupiry cheese mixture. The cheese is native to Brazil and is soft, creamy, and a bit tangy. It reminds me of our cream cheese.

They were served on a bed of rice covered in the catupiry sauce, making the rice soft, tender, and very flavorful. I gobbled up all the rice because the cheese sauce was so good. Why don’t more restaurants use it!!??

Served along side the crepes was a nice light Mista Salad. The base of the salad was organic mixed greens tossed in their house salad dressing. The combination of the sweet vinaigrette dressing, Mandarin oranges, and caramelized almonds made it hard to resist. There were a lot of textures in the salad making it unique and exciting. The oranges were soft, the greens were chewy, and the almonds were crunchy. Mista Salad is no ordinary side salad. If you cannot get enough, they also serve it for a main salad dish.

I would highly recommend this dish for your next outing with the girls or your significant other for date night. The four of us ordered Panquecas De Frango and all loved it. Go ahead, get out of your box, and try a Brazilian crepe. Your hungry teacher approves.

Cafe Bossa Nova is a nice, cozy restaurant right on Kavanaugh. Just look for the yellow and green awning. We had the perfect view of Harvest Fest and would have people watched if we weren’t busy catching up.

After our bellies were full and satisfied, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and walked around to all the neat booths and boutiques.

This makes the second trip in a row where I worked off my meal. Dondie's and now Cafe Bossa Nova. I’m on a roll.