When I arrived at @bardozeze, unadvisedly on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I was shocked by the enormous line of people waiting outside. But what initially looked discouraging turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it gave me an extra hour-and-a-half to properly digest the pão de queijos I had for breakfast and truly appreciate the fantastic lunch that I was about to have.

Bar do Zezé is probably the most famous of all botecos in Belo Horizonte. And that says a lot in a city with such a strong and beautiful casual food scene. And you could already tell that this fame was well deserved by the look of the people in line, who were clearly regulars and were all happy to be there, standing on the sidewalk under the sun just for the opportunity to have lunch there.

Zezé playfully interacted with the clientele, who were talking mostly soccer while drinking a few beers. In no time, my table was ready.

I had done my proper due diligence, as I always do, and barely had to look at the menu before ordering a few of their classics. The jiló stuffed with bacon was a very clever combination that I found extremely well balanced. It was then followed up by a “bolinho de carne”, which here is made of 90% beef and 10% pork.

For the main dish, I had “trupico mineiro”, another specialty that is basically a bean stew with different types of meat, including pig’s foot. It was rich and collagenous, and I found it interestingly different from feijoada as the broth itself was a bit more thin, aside from obviously the type of beans being different.

I finished my meal feeling grateful and already dreaming of coming back on another occasion to keep adventuring myself on the many other dishes that I missed out on.

(Versão em Português nos comentários)