Bossa Nova

Cool Brazilian restaurant that’s great for an intimate dinner. Good drink selections and lot of small dishes to share for appetizer like the jalapeño cheese bread and sashimi dishes. Neat little bar in the basement that can be a good place to lounge after dinner. Unfortunate that it is now closed.

One of the hood’s most well known spots has finally bit the dust. It feels strange to know that Bossa Nova is no more, I’ve been coming here on and off for roughly the last 7 years. I didn’t know when I came here a few months ago that it’d be my last time. Now it’s closed. Time is fast and life is cruel.
For what it’s worth, I liked the joint. There are better Brazilian spots where I am in NYC, but it was nice to know there was a solid option in SF. The place was small, ambiance was intimate, and the food usually ranged somewhere from decent to really tasty. The drinks were a strong selling point in the day — the capirinhas, mojitos, and house cocktails always helped us get toasty.
Though the prices creeped up steadily, the service was always one of their main downfalls. More than once I’ve dealt with a snooty waiter or two, but the food usually made up for it. The pao de queijo + fejoada weren’t always up to standards, but the kebabs were an easy entrée to enjoy some juicy cuts of meat.
I remembered calling for reservations my last go around here and being incredibly surprised we were the only people in the entire place. The food was a little off but the company was so good it didn’t matter. I also recall being a tad surprised at how much the bill was considering how little we ordered. Yet, the service was on point.
Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked after all. Rest in peace.

Was fresh outta school back in 2007, and I recall heading to Robert Half for recruiter interviews. The recruiter I met was this chubby bald white guy who was probably in his mid to late 30’s. Somehow we started talking about Joy Divison, Depeche Mode, and how he is a «music producer» on the side. He plays the keeeboards. So we exchanged personal contact details and had our first «date» at Bossa Nova. (I wouldn’t really call it a date– I wasn’t interested romantically) I don’t really remember what we had here except the fresh caprinhas and friendly service. Bummer this place is gone.
So he proceeded to invite me to a 1 on 1 weekend vacation at his hometown, Tahoe. I was like, can a bring my gf? He didn’t react to that well and got upset. He was so excited about meeting me every time though, like a child with a new toy, so I felt sorry for killing his enthusiasm. The whole thing was pretty awkward anyway. I never got a job interview via him, he left his company at some point, and we never spoke again.

The highlight of the meal was the Cheese Bread. Best discovery of my life. Other than that, some things to note are:
–There are really few workers (maybe 2 spotted — the owner and a cook? is my guess) which explains the slow service in general. Usually I’m not too patient, but I came on a Monday night when it was dead.
–The steak skewers I had were the toughest, rubberiest thing. I didn’t bother finishing it. My jaw literally hurt trying to get through that dish. Why would you do that to me.
–Pork belly was very tender and good. Except I felt/​could see that 80% of it was fat…
–I would have liked to see desserts specifically Brazilian, but we ordered Coconut flan and Bananas foster (²⁄₃ dessert items available) and they were ok.
I would come back for the cheese bread but would most likely pass on everything else.

Went for a friend’s going away last night. I loved the lounge feel of the downstairs. 5 people ate and cocktailed for $ 170 and we ordered a bunch of stuff. We kept ooing and ahhing at how delicious each dish was in it’s own way. The table next to us did the same. Kevin the bartender downstairs took great care of us. I’m fairly sure we over tipped (Kevin…) but hey: everything was great. I’ll definitely be back.
Steak and Seafood Platos Grandes
The smaller plates are also amazing!
Skip the spinach. It was boring.
This is my new favorite restaurant!

Whaaaat. I can’t believe this place is 3.5 stars. To make this wrong right, I am reviewing this place.
Went with a girlfriend a few weeks ago and am still raving about it. The food was hearty (calorie bomb decadent — but you can probably order «right» and make it lean) and delicious. The service (we were served by the cook) was excellent and he made great recommendations. I can see how it might be slow for a few people, since he was a bit late with picking up our check, but we were engrossed in conversation anyway.
First off: they offer pitchers of Sangria (!). I want to come back just to hang out in its cute and cozy interior just to sit and drink copious amounts of sangria.
Under the recommendations of our waiter/​cook/​owner (?):
Corn and cheese risoli — what you expect, but what you expect should be that it’s delicious. It’s fried pieces of breaded corn and cheese. Yumm.
Pork belly — Fatty with a mouthwatering sweet glaze. Favorite. Good pork belly takes too long to make on its own (all that basting in lard and stuff) so I’ll definitely be back here for more,.
Lamb — More savory… I liked it, but not as much as the appetizers. More of your average well-​cooked piece of lamb. I kept dipping the lamb into the pork belly glaze since I liked that sauce better than the lamb sauce. The sweet mashed potato side made the dish stand out.

Had a great time here for my birthday dinner. The food is really great but the service could use some work. If they got the basics right– silverware for everyone, menus, checking in often-​it would be a great place. The food also came out slowly and in strange waves.
Try the skewers (all three are great). The coconut rice is wonderful as are the dipping sauces. Cheese bread is also good as are the plantain chips. There is a coconut-​based stew with mussels that was also wonderful!

My wife and I had our lunch reception here after our ceremony at City Hall. Our family and friends have been raving about it ever since. John, the owner, helped out with everything. He made sure every detail wasn’t overlooked. The pricing was very reasonable, also.
Having the party here made our day memorable and joyful. We couldn’t be happier with making decision to have it at Bossa Nova. John, you have two customers for life! Thanks so much!

For all you SoCal folks, this is NOT part of the Bossa Nova chain in Los Angeles. So do not be deceived! Also, we were swayed by the «free glass of wine» check-​in, which apparently only works after a 8pm reservation (yeah, the fine print…)
Bossa Nova is a cozy (a euphemism for tight), dim-​lit spot in SoMa. The menu is on the smaller size, but we found our selection of dishes to be surprisingly good. The steak skewers were nicely cooked (medium-​rare as requested) and impressive especially for the price. We also loved the pork belly appetizer — sweet glaze sauce which complemented the fatty slices. We ordered a pitcher of their house mixed drink, which was intense! Perfect if you want an instant buzz, but it’s definitely beyond strong.
I’ll echo what the Unilocalers seemed to have mentioned: the service was simply alright. While our female server was great, the host seemed to overestimate the restaurant’s demand. He seemed reluctant to offer us a private table and sat us down at a community table when there were open seats all around us. Amusingly, the place was not even packed on a Sat night. Not sure what was going on there, but it was going on.

Amazing food and friendly customer service. The owner himself served us dinner. The mussels, pork belly, and steak were phenomenal — we finished every last bite. The portions are on the smaller size so order accordingly but it more than makes up for it by sheer quality!
Will be come back again for sure.

If I could give NO STARS I would! Food seems like it WOULD be god, but I don’t feel like I’d know… Reservation was at 9:00pm, it is 9:57pm and not appetizer or food. Two groups that was seated after us have already been served food and drinks! Still nothing for us.
When we walked in at 8:45pm it took until 9:15pm, mind you the table was already clear and ready. Once seated we ordered drinks and NOTHING for a very long time!
I WILL NOT be coming back to this place. I advise everyone if you want some goo Brazilian food with OUTSTANDING service got to Espetus!

I came here last night with an impromptu dinner with my boyfriend before going to a show at the Orpheum. The place is very small, so we were very please upon showing up that we were able to get a table. I would probably consider making reservations before trying to come here. It was packed when we arrived so we felt pretty lucky (this may have been due to the a fore mentioned show though).
Anyway, the food was delicious. It is tapas style so we got a few dishes. The sashimi yellowtail was fabulous. We also got the pork shoulder which was decent, though I wouldn’t get it again. Our favorite dish was the tuna tar tar with plantain chips! So good. They also accidentally gave us the cheese and corn risoli. I’m not sure if we paid for it or not, but I’m really glad they gave them to us! We would have been hungry otherwise as all the dishes are quite small.
For dessert we had the ‘lava cake’ though it wasn’t very lava. It was just a fluffy piece of light cake. Not very memorable. I wouldn’t recommend it if you like chocolaty dense cakes and expect some type of liquid chocolate in the middle. I was very disappointed.
We had a couple of cocktails, which were decent. Not amazing, but fine. Very small.
Overall the food was fabulous! Why the 2 stars then? The service was HORRIBLE. We were sat fine, order was taken fine. When it came to try and order something else? Good luck getting anyone’s attention. After we were done with the 1 drink and some of the plates, we waited around for 20 minutes before I had to wave someone down frantically to try and get some wine and dessert ordered. After that it took a half an hour to get us the desserts. We almost had to cancel them because we weren’t expecting dessert to take an HOUR.
I really don’t think I’ll be coming back here. Yes, food was good but I can get that elsewhere with way better service.

I really really wanted to like Bossa Nova, everything my husband and I ordered was delicious. (Pork belly, ceviche, jalapeño bread, plantain chips, hamachi and a cocktail each)
At first everything was great. We were seated at the end of the communal table, in the middle of the restaurant and our server was happy and ready to take care of us.
After we received our last dish it was like we were invisible. We both desperately needed water and could have had another cocktail. (We’d even discussed dessert.) We waited and waited. Then my husband pulled out his phone and turned on the timer. After 15 minutes I stacked our plates to symbolize our being finished. Another 10 minutes later our waitress came back to us. According to our waitress she was the only one who knew how make drinks so they threw her behind the bar. This was apparently code for «no one else knows how to pour water, look you in the eye, or bother with you at all.»
Such a disappointing end to our delicious meal.

Cute little place slightly off the beaten path. I actually thought it was a location of the LA chain, which I enjoy, so it felt like a good choice.
Realized when I saw the menu that it wasn’t the same place, but that was okay. It was LGBT Pride, it was hot as hell, and we just needed to sit and eat and have one more cocktail.
The food was tasty, though a bit pricey. The cocktails were delicious. The servers were friendly, if not overly attentive. But that may have simply been because we looked tired and not in a rush, so no demerits there.
Truthfully, the LA chain is better… price-​wise, quality-​wise, and portions-​wise. But it was a cute little place and if I were in the mood for Brazilian food and nearby, I’d go again.
There WAS a pretty serious fly problem today that was pretty disasterous for the aesthetic.

3.5 stars.
Came here on a Friday night with my bf and was surprised to find it pretty empty. It was also smaller and darker than I expected; we were really hoping for the lights to come on at one point. Service was good for the most part; our waitress always checked to see how we were doing and it wasn’t particularly slow like I had read in some reviews.
We ordered chaipirhanas for our drinks, which were pretty pricey ($ 12) for what they were (basically a mojito). They did have interesting flavors though, like watermelon jalapeño! Pretty interesting and I actually liked it! For food, we ordered the fried plantains, corn and cheese croquettes, mussels and lamb from the entrees. The plantains were okay, but the croquettes were amazing! Melted cheesy goodness with corn mmm. The mussels were good, but I’ve had better and I didn’t try my bf’s lamb but he liked it. Best thing on their menu was the coconut rice! So goood. especially with the coconut shavings on top, which made it just sweet enough. We also tried bananas foster and the doughnuts for dessert, both around $ 8 each. Wish we went for ice cream instead because their desserts were overpriced and not that great.
I really would have given this place 4 stars, but I thought most of their food was too pricey for what it was. Also, I ordered the seafood entrée, but we received only mussels because of miscommunication. This was fine, but when we brought this to our waitress’s attention, she apologized but did nothing about it. I think a place with excellent service would have at least offered to change it to what we actually wanted.

This place is a bit hard to find — there aren’t any big signs. Look for the door with «139» on it. The restaurant is intimate and kind of old-​timey feeling. Upstairs has a long high-​top table and some smaller tables that can be slid together for groups. Downstairs has some sofas and small tables tucked away.
The food is decent. My boyfriend has spent a lot of time in Brazil and claims it’s not terribly good Brazilian food. We tried the caipirinha, the steak churrasquinho, and the feijoada. We ate it up, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Service was friendly… but slow. Really slow.

3.4
Overall a very satisfying dinner before watching Lang Lang passionately play his heart away at Davies Hall…
the place is cute in an otherwise nondescript, gritty stretch near Civic Center. At first, was even difficult to recognize the façade of the sophisticated little joint.
We had a multiple course meal, starting with a few raw starters, and then going from there. The standout for us was the lamb ordered. Impressively cooked, and full of head nods. server even told us a few tables away, party ordered our dish after spying it being served. Plaintain chips. yum
Came away stuffed, having been whisked away for a few hours to a little tease of Brasil. Our caipirinhas were very yum… were there 3 in there… perhaps 4?!

Another diamond in the rough, of which there are quite a few in San Francisco. Granted, there are many «roughs» in SF, so it just makes sense that there’d be diamonds, right?
N-​E-​Wayz!
Bossa Nova is truly my go-​to place whenever I want to have a semi-​fancy, but not high maintenance, dinner for a special occasion.
The last 2 times I came here, they were out of the croquettes, which was so tragic, but from what I remember about 4 times ago past that I went, they were not all that special, but still delicious.
The skewer plates are definitely a great value, and comes with a selection of dipping sauces, as well as flavorful coconut milk steamed rice, and can honestly be a complete meal in and of itself.
The service here is also fantastic all times that I have gone. The waiters are friendly without being overtly or fakely DTM (Doin Too Much), and when I reserved and told them it was for my BF’s birthday, they hooked us up with birthday shots!
We did have to buy a dessert to have them bring it out with a candle, but you can’t get everythang you want in life, ya know?

We had Caipirinha, Hamachi Tiradito (a bit salty), Churrasquinho & Coconut Rice, Brazil Nut Crusted Goat Cheese, and Corn & Cheese Risoli (yum).
Food was good but the waitress was flighty. 45 minutes in and we are still waiting for our food. The next table came after us, had already had their food and about to leave.

3.5
Reservation for 3 at 9pm on a Saturday night.
From the outside, this place looks like a bar. The only indication that we were at the right place was the small Bossa Nova over the door and this dude standing by the doorway smoking a cigarette. The entire street was empty.
Our friend was already inside and I was mildly surprised how the interior is so modern. I loved the feel of how there were different types of seating. It is definitely a nice place to go to dinner or to take a date who can eat a lot.
Unfortunately we were given the worst table/​booth in the entire restaurant. We were seated by the low slant of the ceiling. I didn’t have enough light to read my menu and it was a bit unnerving having the ceiling so close to my head.
It was probably a long dinner service but our waitress was a bit cold the first half of our meal. I think she probably think we were cheap because we didn’t order anything to drink.
I love TAPAS because you can taste a bit of everything without getting blogged down with a giant helping of one item/​taste.
Brazilian Cheese Bread $ 5.50 — 5 small pieces of bread. Each is about the size of your typical macaron. Tasty but nothing special. Hard outer surface. Must use hands. Fork will be difficult. Probably something they could have offered as complementary bread. If I come back I would definitely stay away from this.
Chicken Croquettes «Coxinha» w/​Aioli $ 7.75 — 4 pretty decent sized pieces. See picture. It is yummy and I want 3 more pieces please. I love aioli sauce so I love this dish. Must use hands too. Hard outer surface. Fork will be difficult. My friend’s favorite dish.
Tuna Tartar w/​Ginger, Radishes, Avocado, Amarillo Amarillo
$ 12.75 — This was my favorite dish. Probably not too difficult for them to make but I love how all the favors blended together. The banana chips were a bit too salty.
Chicken Skewers $ 9.75 — Each entrée comes with 2 skewers so we ordered two. The big surprise was that it came with a scope of very tasty coconut rice. Each skewer had three very big pieces of chicken interspersed with onion and green peppers. This dish also came with three sauces for dipping. Because of this dish we can say our hunger were satisfied.
Donut holes with three sauces — 5 pieces. This was probably the most interesting item they had on their dessert menu, not listed on their site. If I remembered correctly, it is the rainbow donuts. It tasted like regular donut holes that you can get at krispy kremes. Comes with chocolate, caramel, and coffee sauce for dipping. The sauces were good but the dessert itself as a whole is a thumbs down.
One bathroom. Clean, spacious, and modern. I had to wait 10 minutes for this bathroom. Would be nice if they had another one.