this place is called floripa now and it is amazing.

We went for my brother in laws 30th last Friday, and I can not believe how rude the staff are at Favela Chic! Gordon Ramsey would have a field day! In fact any human being would be shocked at their behaviour! We ate a set meal for 15 of us. First a chair was missing so we went to ask for another one and the girl behind the bar just shrugged her shoulders, saying "what do you want"! Then after the first course we had piled up our plates, the waitress would not take them saying you are ment to keep them, but they where already piled up and dirty. She just looked at us and walked off! Again. Amazing behaviour! At the end of the meal we where pushed from our table to make room for dancing customers by the manager, and then they tried to charge us a massive service charge, which we took off, much to their disgust. Horrible horrible people! Also my friend and I both had seriously dodgy tummies after eating there! Shame because dance floor and music was good! We will never go back and will spread the word on how rude the staff are!

Usually never write reviews, but this time I have to...

Went there for dinner and clubbing this weekend, which was Carnival weekend. Although I have never been to Brazil, the Notting Hill Carnival felt 10 times more Brazilian than this one.

The staff are the rudest I have encountered in my life, the food very mediocre, the caipirinhas are the most overpriced and disgusting and the place is way too crowded with a deathtrap as a stage...

They have the same prices as the clubs in the west end but don't offer anything in exchange.

To be fair, a friend who used to go there said it really WAS an incredible place before, but that management has probably changed since, as it has nothing to do with what it was.

Needless to say that it was the biggest clubbing disappointment I've had since a very long time.

Awful place. Incredibly pretentious with very rude staff. The staff that work the floor actually push customers about to get past. The place is so packed that you can't even move/dance/go to the bar/go to the toilet. I am sure it's not even legal.
The layout is absurd, the cloakroom is downstairs next door to the toilets (so absolutely packed regardless of which queue you join). At some point I counted over 70 people in the queue to get to the cloakroom going down the narrowest staircase ever.
The drinks are very expensive and you always need to check your change.
Don't waste your time here, there are much better places around the area, less pretentious and where you can actually breathe.
Music is fun but the place is so packed that you can't dance so don't see the point.

Called to make a reservation at this restaurant and they said they do not offer any discounts to View card holders. The information provided here is wrong.

I'm really not sure what the bad reviews are talking about, since my friends and I had such a great experience at Favela Chic!! I accidentally made a reservation for Saturday at 7:30 (there are only 2 dinner seatings) instead of Friday, which I realized the day of. When I called, they were exceedingly helpful and switched my reservation. Then, a few extra people tagged along. When we got there with 7 people instead of 5, they let all of us in and fit us into a table anyway (we did not have to pay the cover).

Our waitress was fantastic, gave great recommendations, and was a lot of fun. The food was honestly some of the best food I've had in London!! Great, fresh, well-prepared. I had the lamb and I will definitely go back and have it again. Everyone loved their dishes. All in all, we had a great dinner- 3 pitchers and food for everyone, which only cost 30 pounds per person in the end. Afterwards, we ended up staying there all night. The music was great- a mix of really interesting songs and classics that everyone could belt out. Crowd was young and cool, and I loved the decorating inside the building.

I will definitely be going back and bringing all of my friends who visit me there, too.

Have been to the one in Paris several times and as I just moved to London I wanted to see if the one over here is as crazy and fun as I hopped. Went there with a group of friends and we all had an amazing night. The only problem was the long queue but when we arrived to the door we were welcomed by a dancing, beautiful Swedish girl, which I have to admit was very pleasant. The music was great and the staff made you want to dance even more. We all thought it was even better then the one in Paris. Will definitely go back next weekend. Especially to see to door girl dance on the bar which I recommend highly!

Have been to Favela in Paris several times so as I just moved to London I wanted to see if the one over here is as crazy and fun as the one I Paris. Well me and my friends had an amazing time! The only problem was the huge queue, but as we arrived to the door we were welcomed by a dancing, beautiful Swedish girl. To be honest we all liked it more then the one in Paris. Will definitely go back. (especially to see the door girl dancing on the bar)

Went for meal on a Wednesday evening while it's a interesting environment with some nice food, the incompetent, abysmal service really ruined the evening.
As you enter the bar you go to a small back area which is there restaurant which is decorated with bits of old wood and various chic tat all of which was pleasant enough. The wobbly table was quickly fixed with a few beer mats under the leg.
It all went wrong when we started ordering. Firstly we asked for a bottle of rioja, we had a bottle of Merlot dropped at the table. Once i pointed this out we waited 10 minutes to given a bottle of Tempranillo, she walked off to return with a sour faced woman, i guess her boss, who informed us that Tempranillo and Rioja are in fact the same wine. Not wanting to get onto what could only be an idiotic conversation we moved on to dinner.
In this they managed to get our order wrong which meant one of our party not getting any food till 10 minutes after everyone else had finished. The food was OK, but the chicken and fish was overcooked. The Lamb and Beef was nice. Won't be eating there again, especially after the waitress blamed the late food on the chef being French - which rather upset my French girlfriend. Idiotic staff.

Attended a birthday party tonight 02/10/2010 at Favela and I was surprised to see that it has changed for the worse with years.

A menu was arranged and for £25 we thought the food was overpriced. The surprise, nevertheless, was the fact that they tried to squeeze 35 people in a space that should seat a maximum of 15-20. Generally the attitude of the place (see waiters, bartenders, etc) has become snobbish and patronising to clients.

The place was overcrowded and they had arranged another party of people for the same congested area shortly after serving cakes and dessert. As the bar was already crowded they should have not allowed anyone in anyway.

Our friends made up for the shortcomings of the venue with good mood, fun and great brazilian looks, but I would think twice in the future before doing anything like this in Favela.

Waiters have better things to do than look down on their clients like make certain that the dishware and cutlery brought to tables is at least clean.

Came for dinner here last Saturday night.
I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and found the food delicious.
I’d highly recommend it for a top night out !

What a brilliant night! I think it's a great club, the dj was impressive, I think his name was Ross Clarke, he played a wicked set. The crowd was a real good time mixture of fun and silliness. The food was super tasty, I ordered the Veggie Tapas and a pal of mine ordered the Farofa and cassava chips and we danced until 2 sinking vodka cocktails and tequilas. I'm going again next weekend!

I wanted to do something a little different for my birthday which happened to fall on the same day as the England vs Slovenia match so I booked 8 of us in for dinner.
One of my friends is Brazilian and was very impressed with how traditional and wholesome the food was. The Moqueca ( a seafood stew ) was delicious, everyone was happy with what they had ordered. That factor combined with sunny staff and a cool eclectic crowd I would urge any of you who haven’t had the privilege, to get a table in this quickly booked up establishment asap. Get on the phone and get yourselves in there for top of the range eating.

I went to Favela Chic to watch the game Brazil X Chile and it was very annoying. The manager behaved like a teenager. He insisted in put music while the game was on so we could not hear the comments. We have to shout for 10 minutes to stop the sound. The manager looked drunk and told us to move to Guanabara. Also very insulting way, he said we were not truly brazilians. The attitude was so unprofessional, it felt like we were in his back garden! I don't recommend, don't go there!
Overpriced drinks and food. By the way, the managers are not brazilians so I wonder how do they know how truly brazilians are... quem nasce Mane, cresce Mane, morre Mane, Mane!

Truly all the worst aspects of Shoreditch rolled into one horrible package. I've experienced the total scam cited by many here of advertising free entry before 9pm, only to lock people out until 9. If you want free entry, get here at 7. You will be greeted by awful incoherent DJing, ordinary food (easily outdone by the doner kebabs over the road) and overpriced drinks. Staff are narcissistic self-congratulory poseurs, parodies of the fabled Shoreditch t**t. The most horrendous part is the name and theme - favela chic? Seriously? Daaaahling, aren't slums so boho, so now! The sight of a bunch of bankers and art school students queuing outside a bar themed after places of crippling poverty is a new low. Disgusting.

Great place!Good drinks and awesome music!The only bad: STAFFFFFF. Very rude staff at the door. So arrogant!The bar people are ok, but don't make it up for their colleagues at the door! Might go back but will definitely try to avoid any contact with these people!

i was actually at favela chic this weekend: on Friday there was a fire alarm that wouldn't stop; but they still managed to get everyone back in, with free shots included, and all drinks were half priced!
its a fun atmosphere if you are not into the fake high class London scene. the people are real there, excluding the bouncers, but once you get inside it is quite a place to remember. the decoration is very interesting, full of antique pieces and crazy paintings add to the creative atmosphere.

i have to admit that the food is a bit overpriced, but the pumpkin toretolloni is mouth-watering..perhaps not very Brazilian, but it is very worth it.

I wish I had read the reviews before going. This is quite possibly the worst bar I have ever visited, anywhere in the world, ever! Rude staff. Incredibly hostile and vindictive doormen, smirking he left three women outside in the pouring rain at 7pm! (even though we had booked a table and the place was empty.) Just because he could. (see other reviews) Who is employing this guy? I too have had dealings with the psychotic bar-manager and his thuggish side-kick. Long story but they both started screaming at me over a drinks complaint. 'effing and 'jeffing. Leaning right over the bar and in my face. As a woman I was absolutely terrified and I though they were going to hit me! Unreal and very very upsetting. Nasty bullies- perhaps their dad owns the bar.

Service just goes out of the window, even though the bar is six deep, every time a song come on that the self-indulgent bar staff like they jump onto the bar with their big dirty shoes and start waving their hands in the air-ya ike they just don't cair-ya- which they don't. Food is cold and awful and over-priced, and everything just seems 'dirty'. Rubbish music, and overall one of the worst nights that I have had out ever! Don't waste your time and for goodness sake someone tell the owner that the staff, if left to their own devices are going to run Favela Chic into the ground by offending frightening and upsetting a whole group of people who will just take their money elsewhere. I'm voting with my feet. Never ever ever again! Who wants a night out like that after a busy week at work?

Avoid this place like you would avoid the plague.

It is not a restaurant, it is not a bar and definitely it doesn't have any Brazilian feel to it.

We went for dinner, drinks and dancing. We had the three but none of it in a good way.

The food is less than average. Staff is rude. We were practically thrown out of our table just after ordering the meal. Some people hadn't even finished eating and were invited to leave the table as they had "to accommodate the next sitting". We all felt cheated!

We were 15 people eating and we were allocated a table that couldn't fit 10 people. Awful, awful experience that was made even worse by being overcharged and not being able to question the bill. We wanted to check the bill in details but weren't given the chance because the rude staff starting asking us to get up our chairs and leave the table. At this point we felt cheated and humiliated.

Other friends arrived in the bar to join us for a dance after dinner: the music was disgraceful. At this point the place was so crowded that one couldn't dance, walk, talk or enjoy a drink because of the shoving all around and because there was an awful noise thanks to the experimental DJ. The DJ was in a planet of his own and the noise he produced wouldn't pass as a music anywhere in the world. We were informed that the DJ was on trial and that by 11pm we would have dancing music by an experienced DJ. Our group spent nearly £600 (food and drinks are really expensive there) from 7 to 10pm and all of us, without exception were hating every minute of it. By 11pm, the few people of our group that decided to stay in the place and wait for the DJ change, saw that this was just another lie. It didn't happen. We left the place with a bitter taste in our mouth. They truly ruined our night out.

I can imagine there really must be people who like this favela - certainly - as has been stated before - if you are young and female, you might get in within an hour. Being an older guy, clearly i did not; c'est la vie, Favela aren't the first to follow such strategy..On the evening I visited, once inside i found the place rammed; again, fine if you like packed, sweaty cavernous dance spaces. Musically it had a vaguely latino vibe. Again, not so surprising given the name..

So what didnt I like? Well, I had the unfortunate experience of being thrown out of the venue minutes after (a) paying £10 to get in and (b) buying a round of drinks and proposing to my girlfriend - she said yes btw :-) because, for some reason, the paranoid and intellectually impaired man who'd just served me decided that I had somehow smuggled the drinks into the club, hence he felt obliged to immediately confiscate them back; I kid you not..

When my fiancé queried this sudden confiscation we were both thrown out (just after she had been bought another cocktail btw). Both my partner and I have never been thrown out of anywhere before and whilst it remains the owners prerogative to admit who he wants to his club, these events did seem a tad OTT..

Although the extraordinarily aggressive attitude of both the bar man and owner - perhaps they'd enjoyed a round or two of coca cola earlier in the evening - was probably the worst i have ever encountered in London; nonetheless, and in contrast to other punters comments on here, I found the bouncers who threw us out to be both (a) suitably apologetic (having watched me get engaged moments earlier and (b) very professional in carrying out their managers request..

Anyway, I wish this favela and its clientele well; I guess the manager and his (predominantly touristy) clientele [who clearly wouldn't know either a good London restaurant or club if it hit them on the head], are made for each other; long may their money fuel his aggression.

Absolutely AWFUL bar!!! major rip off with £10 to get in, very long queues and v. inefficient door staff.

Bad music, dj playing a completely nonsensical, incoherent mix of old 80s and 90s music showing clear ignorance. ... but the worst feature was the bar's own manager, a young, mad haired, extremely rude person, who confiscated a whisky, one beer and a mojito from me and my boyfriend ON THE NIGHT HE PROPOSED TO ME AND THE MINUTE WE PAID FOR THEM, because we wanted to step out for a minute and he was convinced we'd had alcohol with us for some reason.

Probably unable to communicate in English. DO NOTE WASTE MONEY ON THIS VENUE!

I had a wicked night here! it was a Monday night in town not many places were pumping this place was packed although i felt the oldest and lest dressed up (22 at the time) i still partied all night!

Not a places for fine wines and cocktails but for running up huge tabs on beer and drinking tacky shots!!woooo Dirty sweaty just how i like my clubs!

As some others have said before - do not eat here ! I made a reservation for 15 people for my birthday, and when in the end our party was only 14, they wanted us to pay for the 15th person's meal, as "the food was already cooked"..!
Has anyone on this forum ever known a restaurant to do this ? Personally I found it pretty rude..
Bruno

Favela Chic is great if:- you're a girl (you'll be able to get in)- you're a hot girl (you'll be able to jump the queue and get in for free)

Favela Chic is the worst place in the world if either of the above criteria are not met.

Essentially, it's a decent late night bar / club, but it's door policy is so discrimatory that I'm considering going to the European Court of Human Rights to get their licence revoked.

Wish me luck on that one.But the times that I have managed to get in (about once in 4 years) it's been full of hot girls.

A group of about 10 friends met here for drinks & a meal, the meal was average & we had to order & have it eaten within the 1hr limit we were allocated, then vacate the table for the next heard of cattle to eat.

The service was average but above all...I couldn't believe the establishment could pass any kind of hygiene standards!

The toilets were unbelievably disgusting & cramped...but still they thought it a wise idea to have a 'aftershave seller' positioned in the mens toilet!

This is not only my impression, none of my friends will be returning there...ever!

I do not recommend this bar!

After being told that entry before 9:00 was free, my friend and I got there at 8:40, only to be told that, if we didn't have a dinner reservation, we couldn't get in until after 9:00 - when they would charge £10 per person.

There was no queue, and it wasn't busy inside (two of our friends were already in there, and had been for an hour or so).

We decided to go elsewhere, as did about 30 people that had been forced to queue after us.

Favela Chic had unhelpful and rude bouncers. Don't waste your money, I say!

Extremely rude door staff. We went as a group and had been assured a few days previously that entry wouldn't be an issue if we got there before 9pm.

We arrived at 8.35pm and there was no queue. We were instructed to start a queue and were kept waiting for over an hour - I believe this is purely because they wanted to charge everyone in the group the £10 entry fee which applies after 9pm.

The door staff were rude, unfriendly and an extremely bad advert for a bar which I had high hopes for.

At 9.30pm our group gave up and took out business elsewhere. This place is an absolute disgrace and I would thorough discourage anyone from going anywhere near it.

So many cooler, friendly, much more fun alternatives nearby!

Rude door. Rammed. Small expensive drinks. Full of middle aged sleazy idiots.

Toilets straight out of trainspotting. DJ with his own head up his arse, (french opera into R&B into indiscriminate cheese).

Members of staff frequently stopping serving and getting on the bar to dance to another rubbish tune leaving customers waiting.

Coyote ugly??! Oh god. 10 pounds to get in for those in the group who arrived after 9pm?! Unbelieveable.

Oh yeah and staff in dungarees and bowler hat cos he's trying so hard to be cool... I'll never go back.

Hello everyone!My friends and me had a great time at Favela Chic!The whole experience was really fun...we came as a fun group of 6 and had a blast.

The food was good (not the greatest I ve ever had but quite good) but most importantly than just the food for me it was the overall experience that was great.

..we enjoyed the drinks and music and been dancing till the end...we had so much fun and met some cool people..

..the staff were very cool as well...the place is so busy but again this is part of the experience...i ve never been to place like this!

Really fun and will surely go again!Elizabeth

Ok here's the truth.I'm a shoreditch resident and Favela CHic used to be one of my favorite places to go, on a Friday or Saturday.

The thing is that the place has dramatically changed during the last 8 months. Especially the door poilcy sucks arse now!

They used to have a very cool and nice door lady and security guy, who looked a bit like Timbaland. Since he's left it just sucks!

They now keep you waiting in front of the club until 9pm, just to let you pay the 10 quid entrance fee. This is just mean.

Favela Chic used to be (as most places around the are) a club, where you could go in for a fiver or sometimes 7...but not 10!

So, it's become to expensive for Shoreditch I reckon.The food has always been crap, thats's not what I'm complaining here about, I mainly went there for the Caipirinhas and the good music.

The bar staff used to be more friendly too.Having said that, my result is that those negative changes have just affected the whole Favela Chic experience and me and my mates are not going there anymore.Cheers, J

DO NOT EAT HERE! This place serves genuinely the worst food I have eaten in London.

Most of our parties dishes were unrecogniseable from the menu description, our meat platter for 2 or more people was at best deep fried cr*p from the bottom of the freezer and would have perhaps fed two small children..
..assuming they weren't very hungry in the first place.

If anyone suggests eating here say No, No, No!However, I don't want to post a totally negative review as there were some good points - service at the bar was quick, the cocktails were good and they played some cracking tunes!

ZERO stars. This place is bull****. Absolutely NEVER AGAIN. We arrived there well before 8.20pm and still were made to wait in line in the freezing cold all 25 of us! When I made it inside (I jumped the queue) the place was seriously not even half full.

They obviously make you wait just so that you end up having to pay after 9pm, for 25 of us that would have meant waiting for over an hour only to have to pay £250 all up just to get in! I've been there before and I'm telling you there is no way that is worth it.

When they saw that our big group was about to leave they offered us 2 for 1 entry. Had a much better time at East Village next door where we were treated as the fabulous people we are! Favela Chic is pretentious - pretentious name, pretentious staff, it's a total joke! There is simply no room in East London for a place like this.

Despite all negative reviews we decided to risk it with my friends. We didnt regret. Yeah, the security guys were a bit intimidating in their way, but the rest of the staff were very friendly. Food was excellent. Music was great. We had to wait a bit longer for our orders, but it was a friday night, very busy, so i really dont blame the staff for making me wait extra 5 min. Overall, i did enjoy Favela indeed. Will be returning there soon.

Awful, Awful experience...Our friends made a dinner reservation and we were joining them for the party afterwards. As advertised on the website we arrived before 9 pm in order to go in for free.

We were at the door at 8.20 and the place was empty, except for people dining. Regardless we were made to stand in line. Our friends spoke to the people at the door and they said we could come in. So, we left the line and went to the door, where the EXTREMELY RUDE manager told us to wait 2 minutes, then the bouncer pushed us back to the line.

10 minutes later the manager came back out and told us to leave the line a second time and stand by the door, so we did; the bouncer asked us to go back to the line for a second time. At this point, 40 minutes had passed from the time we had arrived (waiting in the cold and rain) and it was now 9 pm. So at 9 pm they opened the door and proceeded to charge people 10 pounds to get in!!!!

I felt robbed, I guess that's the Favela experience they were going for....you can't expect to be treated better in a place that names itself after one of the most dangerous places in the world. I will never go back nor recommend it to friends.

This was the hottest NYE party I ever been too.
Friendly crowd, funny staff, good food and really strong cocktails.
We got there quite early and the place wasn't very busy, we had a good meal, but though we might have picked the wrong place to spend New Years Eve since it was so quiet, but by ten the place was stuffed with people dancing everywhere. We had jugs and jugs of the lime cocktail and I must have lost a pound in sweat. I will be coming back.

I have just been for my 30th birthday and that was far the worse venue to organise a birthday diner. To start with, they obliged us to order our menu 3 days in advance, and putting the price up to 30% from one day to the other. They first made us queue outside the venue for 20 minutes, despite saying we had a diner reservation. They made us squeeze in a small table. We waited 1 hour before the starter and waited another 30 minutes before the main. They also took the order wrongly and forgot 2 main courses for my friends. to finish, they gave my birthday cake to another table.....and came up with the wrong cake.The waiter was incredibly rude, all the way through the diner, not answering questions, being arrogant and rude. we refused to pay the £60 service charge they wanted us to pay and that was the start of a schizo waiter being extremely aggresive. will NEVER go back here EVER again. And on top of everything, the food is not bad and far too overprices, not even speaking about the drinks...a mijotos in a water short glass costs £7.00.....A NIGHTMARE

If i could give favela chic a minus i would. or at least a fat ZERO!!! the worst place I have ever been. we booked a table for my birthday for 14 people and they gave us space for 8. the security manager was the most horrible, rude, unprofessional, person we have ever met. she started 3 arguments with my guest independently throughout the night due to people having to squeeze by her to sit down on the long benches....of course she couldn't move. she was the boss after all. she shouted and physically aggressed me for trying to speak on the phone in the "wrong place" ... no sign or pls could you move etc.... .The food was terrible. very poor. I am brasilian and this is not a brasilian bar. It is a french bar run by french people trying to sucker the brits into thinking it is a trendy brasilian bar,... they do play brasilian funk music.... clearly just a ploy to liberate you of your hard earned cash. please, whatever you do avoid this place. there are many better places in Shoreditch/london and the world you should try first. Flavia & Gregory

Favela Chic is great if you're off your head on drugs and you're only drinking water in my opinion. Otherwise the music won't make sense, the people and staff will piss you off, and your money will be spent on the first 2 drinks.

I had my 30th here last Sat night. Booking was for 26 people. There were lots of rules for the booking - all attendees had to eat and there was a minimum £12 spend on food alone. Also told table bookings were for 2 hours only. It ended up feeling incredibly rushed with not enough time for 3 courses. I also don't think they gave much thought to how they would fit 26 people around a table so they could eat comfortably - we were sitting on top of each other. On the up side, my steak was very good. By the time the 2 hours were up, the place was packed and it was difficult for 26 people to then find space on the dancefloor.

We bought several jugs of cocktails with dinner which I have to say were pretty ordinary, esp £25-30 a jug. And the music was all over the place - perhaps the DJ trying to fit in with the 'electic' vibe??

Overall I wouldn't go back for a special occasion. The 2 hour time limit on tables is unrealistic, particularly for large bookings.

When I told my so-hip-it -hurts friend I'd booked a table at Brazilian/Parisian/Shoreditchian whatever it is trendoid hang out 'Favela Chic,' he raised an eyebrow: 'sure you're hip enough for that?'Well the answer is no and I'm not sure anyone is. Wayfarers, Katherine Hammnet and loon pants are pretty much regulation here. You're not allowed in if you're even approaching biz-cash. The after work crowd need not apply, unless they work at Favela Chic in which case they will be more than usually attractive, rude and most probably French. Keeping out riffraff is an earnest business here. Hen and stag parties are fully out of the question; it was clearly stipulated to me that my party must comprise a gender mix.The resturant/bar/club hybrid is ideal for avoiding trecking around London but do not come in expecting a resturant experience. This is first and foremost a dance club. Long wooden tables are shoved round the edges and you will be shooed off your table the second the final bite of your authentically Brazilian, ridiculously oversalted food approachs your mouth. The service is DEFINITELY of the Shoreditch twat variety, but if you've got any sense you'll be pissed on overpriced caprihanas by 8.30pm anyway and won't care. Lets face it, you're not there to eat. Its just convenient to do so as there's no chance of getting in post 9pm. You have to be territorial about space but things improve once they shove the tables out the way post second sitting and the sweat drenched carnival begins.The original mix of salsa, drop beat electro mixes and motown classis is enough to keep you there til close at 2.The deco is half junk shop, half mardi. A bit schizo, like the music. Its the kind of place that can make you feel several rungs more young London than you actually are. Maybe even imagine that you're in Rio (but certainly not a favela as the ludicrous name implies).