brunch @ caesar park (ipanema)

i've never been to the caesar park hotel which is supposed to be one of the nicer hotels in rio. my friend kyle stayed there for our wedding b/c he snagged a lehman corporate rate, which is probably the only way i'd stay b/c it wasn't all that.

i had some work to do in ipanema in the afternoon so we decided to take laila for lunch too. i figured most of the hotels should have high chairs & i wasn't disappointed. yay! mommy & daddy can eat at the same time!!!

caesar park has a mediterranean brunch in the rooftop restaurant on sunday for R$80 pp. this means lots of hot & cold seafood options - yummy for mommy ; samy's worst nightmare - he had pasta with bolognese sauce. no one was there so we snagged the best table in the corner overlooking ipanema/leblon. one of the best views i've seen in rio! there was a trio eletrico on the calçadão so we even got samba music to accompany our lunch. i was very disappointed at the english translations of all the dishes however, you would expect more from a top hotel.

R$80 pp is definitely pricey but worth it b/c there was no one there in case laila started her shriek fest, the staff was totally attentive (smiley laila tends to get us better service), decent high chair & great view. the biggest problem was the bathroom which did not have a changing table. i managed to maneuver laila into a position on the counter between 2 sinks but i had to make it a super fast change while balancing her so she wouldn't roll into one of the sinks or break off the pump of the l'occitane hand soap that was tantalizing within the laila danger zone. but i showed my dissatisfaction with the baby changing infrastructure by using the available hand towels to wipe laila's butt. (i felt kinda bad about that afterward but i didn't have a hand free to open up my bag & pull out the wipes - i swear!) i think there is a feijoada there on saturdays so maybe we will check that out some day.

so i give the caesar park ipanema - out of 5 chupetas
restaurant: 4 (great high chair - very secure w/ seatbelt)
bathroom: 2 (no changing table but soft handtowels)
staff: 4 (very smiley)
public: 3 (i think if the restaurant was fuller, we'd get dirty looks)
infrastructure: 3 (very steep ramp at the entrance, smallish elevator so the stroller placement was awkward)

http://www.caesar-park.com
Hotel Caesar Park
Avenida Vieira Souto 460
CEP 22420-000
(55 21) 2525 2525 tel