An Evening with Jose Carioca - Carioca's Aboard the Disney Magic

We dined at the third main dining restaurant on the last night of our cruise. Carioca’s is named after Jose Carioca, the parrot and friend of Donald Duck from The Three Caballeros. Jose Carioca is from Rio De Janeiro and the whole restaurant has a Rio and Brazil feel to it. Paper lanterns hang from the ceiling and a nighttime cityscape is the back drop for a great photo opportunity when you walk in.

As always, the meal started off with bread and on this particular evening Warm Banana Bread with Mango-Mint Mojo was brought to the table. The mint and mango combination was an interesting one, one that was definitely tropical, however not exactly pleasing for those that are not fans of mango. (Miriya does not like mango.) The bread itself, however, was warm and full of delicious banana flavor.

Christian had had a long day of playing in the ocean at Castaway Cay and then playing in the nursery until just before dinner, so by the time dinner came he just wanted to continue his playing so we only sampled two instead of three appetizers on this evening.

The food at Carioca’s keeps with the theme of the restaurant – Brazilian and South American. Large portions, especially of meat, and Latin inspired flavors.

The Empanadas Panzudas de Carne were full of tender beef served with a zesty red chimichurri sauce on the side. The empanada was crisp on the outside and the sauce was a great accompaniment – since there were chucks of garlic and herbs in the sauce it was great for putting on top of a bite of dough and meat instead of dipping your bite into it.

The Deep Fried Lobster Croquetas offered a crisp fried outside and a moist lobster center. It was served with a banana-lentil salad, which had two kinds of lentils and red onions and was dressed with a light dressing. It was quite refreshing and paired well with the rich croqueta. A zesty horseradish sauce for dipping as well as a lime wedge were also present on the plate.

It was then time for the entrees…

The Garlic Rubbed Roasted Beef Ribeye was served more like prime rib than your traditional ribeye steak. The slice was quite large, it was tender and full of rich beefy flavor with a garlicky bite on the outside. It was served with roasted carrots and celery as well as a cheesy twice baked potato. A red wine sauce was served as well that paired well with the meat.

The Jose Carioca’s. First and foremost it was amazing! It was also huge! Adobo Chili Crusted Lamb, Pork Tenderloin and Brazilian Sausage all skewered and grill, and served on the skewers! There is also jumbo shrimp! All of the meats, and shrimp, were juicy, tender and full of flavor. As if the meat wasn’t enough it was served with Mexican Tomato Rice and two dipping sauces, a chimichurri sauce and lime-garlic orange mojo, both of which had good flavor and paired well with the meats.

Lastly, we got the kid’s Grilled Pork Tenderloin. Three slices of flavorful pork tenderloin served atop green beans with rice pilaf and sliced green apples. These are all things that Christian likes, so he loved it, but if your kids aren’t big fruit and veggies fans you may want to opt for something else – this was a Mickey Check Meal, after all.

And then it was on to dessert…

The Sweet Temptation consisted of Torta De Chocolate, Strawberry Cheesecake and De la Cosa Cream Cheese Flan. The Torta was a delicious chocolate cake that was full of rich chocolate flavor. The Strawberry Cheesecake was creamy and deliciously strawberry-y. The De la Cosa Cream Cheese Flan was also creamy and full of flavor.

We also sampled the Coconut Tres Leches which was like a traditional tres leches, cake soaked in three milks, but the cake itself was a coconut cake. If you like coconut, this dessert is for you. It was also served with a coconut cream. Yum.

We ended the evening with a special dessert, it was Howard’s birthday, so a chocolate cake big enough for us to share was brought to the table – they also sang. The cake was more of thin layers of chocolate cake, with layers of chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. In other words, it was delicious.

Overall, we enjoyed our evening at Carioca’s.

If you would like to see photos from this meal, or any other of our adventures, feel free to email us at miriya.whitaker@gmail.com. And if you would like help planning and booking your next trip on land or sea, Disney or otherwise, contact Miriya at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel to get started! It’s completely free for you!