Mel gets a Brasilian...

Having been invited to try out the new Brazilian in the Corn Exchange, I couldn’t refuse having had many a good meal at their Leeds restaurant. I also saw this as an opportunity to get my shopping out of the way. This didn’t happen.

Upon entering the newly refurbished Corn Exchange, I was dazzled by the sheer number of restaurants. It’s a true food hall for Arndale shoppers and offers all sorts of international cuisines. I was going to Cabana which is a Brasilian BBQ with colourful décor and interesting furniture such as a bench made up of hundreds of different types of jeans.



Made up of a bar upstairs and a restaurant downstairs, you can either enter through the front or back giving Cabana a busy feel and combined with a background of funky upbeat Brasilian music, it has a busy vivacious atmosphere.

The friendly manager spoke a local English (my Portuguese is dreadful) and we ordered a couple of caipirinhas; regular and a spicy vibrant Malagueta version. This was a beauty - in fact, all cocktails we had were superb; especially the Brasilito (a Brasilian version of the Mojito) which was super strong.



We ordered a Parmesan & Wild Honey appetiser while we scanned the menu, and to be honest, I can’t make my mind up if I liked it. Sweet honey, salt, strong cheese. I like Roquefort with honey, but wasn’t sure about Parmesan. It did go well with the caipirinha though.



Onto starters, something I often prefer to mains, and we shared a trio of delights; Spicy Malagueta Prawns, Pulled Pork Sliders and Spicy Malagueta Chicken Wings.

The running theme with Cabana’s menu is the Malagueta chilli (a native chilli of Brazil) - think Piri Piri and you’ve got a similar sweet chilli pepper with attitude.



The wings came as a good portion and had plenty of meat of them. Dangerously approaching the wrong end of charred, they were bitter however the coating of chilli won the war and they passed muster. I think a neutral dipping sauce would compliment them and would add another element of flavour.

We really enjoyed the prawns. They were beautifully cooked and had a mighty lick of garlic. The Malagueta worked a treat with the lime drizzled nuggets and wish I had more.



The sliders tasted very nice indeed - strong thyme and vinegar flavours with a deep rich paprika after-taste. However, they were incredibly small for the price tag and were presented rather sloppy, sliding around a massive plate. I couldn’t find any cheese flavour either.



Onto mains and I ordered the Spicy Malagueta Chicken Burger. It really looked the part and you could see every component to this inviting dish; brioche bun, chicken fillet, avocado, tomato, lettuce and Malagueta mayonnaise.

Unfortunately within one bite, the bun fell apart resorting me to eat my ‘burger’ with a knife and fork. It was a blessing in disguise though, as I saw someone else pursuing this handful and ended up looking deranged with avocado in his beard.



The flavours were great, familiar due to my wings starter (an error on my part), but was frustrating to not be able to eat like a burger. My guest had the chicken skewer and it looks very similar (but with brioche dust on mine).

The coleslaw was outrageously good. Just enough seasoning, texture from the delightful cabbage and crunchy kernels of corn. This, along with the chicken was a magnificent mouthful.

No room for dessert, I sat back with my drink and reflected on a satisfying meal with plenty of flavour but just fell short of perfect due to the above.

Definitely worth another visit - I particularly enjoy their super salad in Leeds, but would imagine that they’d need to keep on their toes with so much competition nearby.

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Posted: Wednesday 23rd November 2016
ID: 11350 - 1463