Amir

AVOID AT ALL COSTS This is the first time I’ve ever given a one-star review, if zero stars were possible, Amir in Rio de Janeiro would deserve it. Our experience tonight was uniquely disappointing, combining failures across every dimension: Terrible value for money: overpriced dishes with nothing to justify the cost. Rude, dismissive staff: customer service was shockingly poor, and the owner was stuck-up and borderline dishonest. False advertising: the restaurant has imagery of Mecca on its walls, suggesting a halal establishment, but they do not serve halal food. Nickel-and-diming: they tried to charge extra just to pack up our leftovers!!!! Atmosphere: the entire vibe was cold and unwelcoming—you leave feeling scammed. Middle Eastern cuisine is known for warmth and hospitality. Amir manages to deliver the exact opposite. Save your money and your night. Go anywhere else.

Amir in Copacabana offers a classic Middle Eastern menu with staples like hummus, tabbouleh, kibbeh, falafel, and shawarma. The cold mezze were fresh — the tabbouleh and hummus were especially good. However, the “hot” dishes were more room temp than hot, which took away from the experience a bit. Outdoor seating is a nice touch, but if you don’t eat quickly, the food can get too cold. Not a perfect meal, but still a good spot if you’re craving Arabic flavors in Rio.

Fabulous food perfectly prepared & presented. And portions are generous. As an added bonus, go during lunchtime on weekdays and choose from one of their affordably priced executive options. I love their Michui (kebab) de filet mignon with side of tabouleh and side of rice with lentils and crispy onions. See attached picture. This has quickly become one of my favorite eateries in Rio.

Great place my wife had falafel salad we were expecting about the size of a squash ball it was more like the size of a slightly squashed base ball, with a beautiful garlic sauce in the middle. I had lamb kebab yum full of flavor was well worth the visit well done guys 10/10

As a vegetarian I was very curious about the fried eggplant sandwich. I really feel like it could have been great, if the oil had not tasted old, and if the eggplant had more spices than just salt. Still pretty tasty. Would recommend the tiny cup of mint tea after lunch. Staff was friendly.

We really enjoyed the food here. The service was friendly & quick and the location great. Pretty good options for vegetarians as well. They have outdoor and indoor seating. We like it so much we went back a second time.

We were not even hungry and we decided to eat here anyways because it smelled so good. Everything was amazing! Great service and good prices. I highly recommend!!

I don’t even know where to start. I can’t believe this restaurant has such a high rating. This is honestly the worst Arabic food I’ve ever tasted in my life. The hummus had nothing to do with real hummus, the tabbouleh salad wasn’t fresh — it tasted like vegetables from a week ago — and the shawarma… we couldn’t even finish it because it had such an awful aftertaste that made it impossible to eat.

I called the restaurant after I saw that it says it takes reservations and the lady that answered the call hung up on me. I called back and asked if anyone spoke English and she said "NO" and told me they don't take reservations and spoke Portuguese and wasn't helpful at all. We are a group of 22 people and needed to make a reservation that was guaranteed. Oh well!

The food is good and the atmosphere is nice. However the treatment from the worker BIRA was very rude and unprofessional to us. We didn't appreciate his attitude and it honestly ruined our experience at this restaurant.

Our tour group recommended this place as an option for different type of food. So we went and tried and were very impressed by food and service. Portions were big.

This was delicious Lebanese food. Shawarma and shish taouk could easily feed three as portions were huge. Just off the beach so very convenient. Fresh draft beer on tap. Very reasonable prices considering the portion size. Nice little sidewalk seating to dine Al fresco. Super friendly servers and owners.

This restaurant servers authentic Lebanese food and is centrally located in Copacabana beach. Do try their Shawarma Plate - it is as good as it can get. The portion size is very generous, so be cautious when ordering for a group. The plate comes with hummus, shawarma and rice. Ask for the hot sauce and you will love the preparation even more. The restaurant has outdoor seating and definitely get a Caipirinha to drink. They make a good strong drink :) The restaurant is centrally located and is walking distance from most Copacabana hotels. They have outdoor seating as well with free wifi. Pricing : Moderate Will I return? : Absolutely!

Stopped in for dinner - apx. 1 hour before closing; they seemed to remain busy with delivery orders. Seating available inside and outside. Service was a bit slow, but I enjoyed my veggie platter. Good flavor, but too much for one person in one sitting - better for sharing. My cousin enjoyed her chicken kabob.

Hands down one of the best Schwarmas I've tasted I was extremely pleasantly surprised by this place. The food was excellent. We also got a lot of other dishes since it's Arabian/Lebanese food. Definitely coming back here in the future!

Traditional,delicious and convenient! After a long day of catching multiple events at Summer 2016 Olympics my friend and I were looking for a great place to dine. Something not too busy not too expensive but oh so yummy! We were told this restaurant would be a good pic from our host and indeed it was. The wait for this place was rather long, about 25 to 30min but since it was on the main drag along the RIO beach near the hotels all the other places you were about the same wait time so we decided to stay. I ordered the falafel plate with rice and tabouli while my friend had the lamp plate, both of us adored everything we ate! One side dish stick out to me more than anything else was a simple potato dish. I can't remember what it was called but I feel like it was a fried potato seasoned in a certain way that just drove me crazy. The whole table ate them all so fast we had to order another batch. So look deeply in the menu to try those! If I was to ever return to Rio I would definitely be back here for those amazing falafel's and those "to die for" potatoes!

This place was packed on a Monday night. And for good reason. There was a mix of foreigners and very friendly locals enjoying authentic middle eastern food. Tons of vegetarian and vegan options. We shared the vegetarian sampler which included a bunch of delicious dishes. The falafel was excellent, as were the lentil rice, babaganoush, tahini sauce, stuffed grape leaves and fatoush salad. Our favorite was the fried eggplant salad, absolutely to die for. When you order the dessert or sweet of the day, they bring out a three tier tray with phyllo pastries in different shapes, all stuffed with different nuts. They then top it off with rosewater infused syrup. Our dinner with drinks and desserts was about $15 per person. Highly recommend this place.

After spending two weeks in São Paulo and Rio, Amir had the best food. The hummus and tabbouleh were amazing. The falafel was extremely delicious. The rice pilaf was very good, and the lamb was outstanding. They made strong and inexpensive caipirinhas; the food was served quickly, and the staff were very polite. Amir is great! We came back the next night and got the minced meat kabob and the Greek salad. No surprise, they were both delicious. Same great waiter, same great drinks & falafel!

Probably the absolute best Mediterranean food Ive ever had. Normally im not a fan of this cuisine but went with-the majority of my groups choice for dinner and i ended up being very pleased. I had chicken kebabs with lentil rice topped with fried onions along with hummus. SO GOOD. Vegetables with it would have been perfect but im not complaining. I ordered a steak kebab too but def preferred the chicken so flavorful.

This is a nice restaurant near the ocean front. It's on a smaller street near the main boulevard. Love the falafels and fresh hummus. The service was great. The waiter did not speak English or Spanish, but with sign language and pointing he was able to work with us. the place was clean. It's a great Lebanese restaurant to go to and I definitely recommend and will probably return here before leaving.

We stopped in at Amir and were delighted to see that there was an English menu available. The portion sizes of everything we had was huge and very satisfying. All of us agreed that the Hoummus da Amir with fabulous with fresh hummus and cooked ground beef and almonds. I had the Kafta de Frango no Espeto which was basically chicken kebabs nestled within pita bread and served with rice with lentils and fried onions on top. One person in our group said that their shawarma tasted too game-y, but the other two thought it was perfect. With friendly (and patient) service, this was definitely a place I'd come to before hitting Copacabana beach.

With the world famous Brazilian steakhouses, this was a really nice alternative for ppl who are not a big meat eater. They also have delicious looking meat dishes that other tables were ordering. Hit the right spot for me with the salad and the falafel platter that came with breads, hummus, cheese/meat pies and meatballs. So delicious!

This was the most grotesque experience I have while traveling abroad. While in Rio with two of my friends we decided to check out Amir. From the menu it looked like a great choice. Upon finding the restaurant we saw an open table for four there were no other patrons waiting so we figured it would be a quick seating. WRONG! Upon meeting the hostess and told her it was a party of three and pointed to the onavailable. While she was gathering the menus a couple with a dog walked up and spoke to hostess about the able. The hostess then proceeded to separate the tables pulling them apart leaving only two chairs at each table. My party and I were left very confused. The hostess then proceeds to tell us that a table that was only had room two sit two people was able to accommodate three. No! They then proceeded to put us on a waiting list. By that time i was insulted and decided to dine elsewhere. So this is to anyone with brown skin looking to dine at Amir please skip this location because our business isn't appreciated.

The food is regular at best, the menu is expensive and they let me waiting for an hour and a half for the delivery as If It was a normal service practice. Unfortunately that's the city service standard and can be sumarized in one word: Terrible. Decided to order somewhere else where clients are treated with more respect. Wouldn't give any star if i could. A comida não tem nada demais, o valor é elevado e me deixaram esperando a entrega do que pedi por cerca de uma hora e meia como se isso fosse normal. Infelizmente está dentro do padrão de serviço que a cidade oferece a todos e a experiência pode ser definida em uma palavra: Terrível. Decidi comer em outro lugar que trate seus clientes com mais respeito. Não daria nenhuma estrela se pudesse...

They served cold shawarma and I had to ask them to reheat it but the reheating made it very dry to eat. Most likely it was leftovers from earlier in the day. Probably best to go during peak hours to get best experience.

Fantastic meal, loved the Falafels, seasoned potatoes and we the grilled mix. The rice was incredible. Food was seasoned well and the service was incredible.

I must admit that I am probably giving them 5-stars due to nostalgia. I had a lot of good food in Rio but everyone I was with liked Amir. We had a table outside with a nice view of the park for people watching. Even though the waiter spoke no English and my Portuguese is terrible, he was very attentive and we lacked for nothing. The food was really good. The hummus, the rice, the lamb...everything was delicious and so different from what we had eaten up to that point. If I ever make it back to Rio I would definitely look it up again.

I will keep this one short. It is a great , small family restaurant. All types of crowds, outdoor seating. Great food. Great service. Great price for copacabana.

This place lives up to the reviews. Don't expect 5 star dining but the food is delish and inexpensive. This would be a regular of mine if I lived here. The hummus is some of the best I've tasted outside of the Middle East.

Despite the other reviews I wasn't that impressed, my shwama was dry with no condiments but the portion was very large. I have had this many times even in the Middle East and this Es quite disappointing. There was some other dishes I had but none of it jumped out at me to be amazing so I was really puzzled by the high reviews it has received on here. This place is ok overall but I can't recommend it in The end.

Very good Middle Eastern food at a price that, at the end of the day (in Rio), isn't that bad. Service is brisk but efficient and the atmosphere is genuine. One thing that could be improved is the fact that, like many restaurants here, they have limited options for one person. Their individual portions are huge--easily big enough to feed two if you order an appetizer--and are priced accordingly. The sandwiches and wraps at the end of the menu will do the trick, though. I'm a fan of the Shawarma.

Specially for vegetarians - excellent falafels... Go for the falafel sandwich as well as the falafel plate by Amir !! Must go place !!

I ordered the vegan wrap. It was okay... It got a little moist towards the bottom. The only issue that I had was the server brought me the wrong food. But gave it to the next table after dropping it off for 45-60 seconds. It's not hard to number the tables. Why guess who has what. Table #1, table #2...

A very nice vegetarian selection. I wish the dolmas had more filling. The taste was good but was mostly grape leaves. Ps they call the red wine "black" but is just red wine.

Good service plenty of food. Had the lunch special...lamb and chicken with lentil rice! When I visit Rio again, I'll be sure to come back!

Great food and great service! The portions are a bit large, so consider splitting the orders. We were unable to finish about half of the food.

Definitely not an authentic arabic restaurant. Reading the reviews, we went here with a high expectation, but we were let down by the quality of the meat and rice. To the point that we couldn't even eat half of our plates.

Didn't expect to stumble upon a really good lebanese restaurant in Rio/Copacabana. I'm glad I stopped and tried it. Had the Hummus with Shawarma and Mini buraks. The shawarma meat was just a little dry but still flavorful. Would recommend if you want to try lebanese.

Good Lebanese food in Rio. Ordering was easy and I was even able to communicate my desire for an additional sandwich to go with my limited Portuguese speaking abilities. The waiter was attentive and patient. They also have an English version of the menu which helped a lot.

The best arab food in rio! This place is great! The place is very well decorated and the food is delicious!

Great food, great service, great prices. Had the falafel sandwich which was fantastic.

Nice taste and good service. I had dinner by myself and ordered a few half orders: falafel, humus with grounded meat and toasted almonds and kibbys. And a nice glass of maracuja juice with splenda. It was a lot of food for one person, but almost finished it all. Price is reasonable. Highly reccomended.

This is my special occasion restaurant. The food is amazing and the atmosphere and service is top notch. They even have belly dancers perform on Saturday nights upstairs.. get a reservation if you hope to see the belly dancers

Stopped for dinner with a friend during a recent trip. The atmosphere was great, inside and patio seating. Parking was best on Atlantica because it's located on a dead end street. I really enjoyed the humus with flat bread for an appetizer. I split a meat dish and it was fantastic. I am leaving out the name, because I don't understand Portuguese. Sorry. Great attentive staff.

This was our favorite meal in Rio! The outdoor seating on a quiet side street is the perfect setting for a quiet and delicious meal of the creamiest hummus, most flavorful dolmas, and sides that are each more delicious than the next. Not greasy, super fresh, and very fair prices.

Good Arabian food. If you in weekdays choose the buffet Arabian its a better cost and very well served. They don't offer at table that's one of negative side.

Great lebanese in rio. the plate for 2 was well priced and delicious. would have been improved with a little more protein (a little schwarma or something). also some of the bread was a little dry. humus was tasty and fresh.

The lunch was really enjoyable, the food really suprised me. My only complaint is that the inside of the restaurant during the day was kind of dark and I didn't love the deco.

Ate here tonight and two years ago. Good Lebanese food, fast service. Do not hesitate to eat here.

We had the combo platter for 2. Perfect amount of food, super tasty, good service and reasonable price. Best tabbouleh! A nice change of pace.