Health's

This place is very confusing, because it has 2 floors with different approaches.

On the first floor, you pay a fixed price and eat all the salad you want. The waiter will come to your table and take your order for the main dish (they only speak portuguese).

On the second floor, it's a buffet and you pay by the kilo. It's not expensive, but they have meat, cheese, and vegan option all mixed up. If you don't speak portuguese and don't know what you're eating, you're gonna be confused.

I'm a Brazilian, and I was a bit confused! Had to do lots of asking before I figured it out.

However, the only strong point is their location. They're in a central area, and it's not easy to find vegetarian restaurants around.

I can't say I recommend it, but I was hungry and it kinda saved my life!

We ate here several times, always on the first (vegetarian) floor.
They were always busy, but the service is excellent, never had to wait long.
Their menu changes everyday, and you can get a soup, salad buffet, hot plate, drink and basic dessert for 20 realis (approx $US10).

I ate here in Summer 2013 (Winter in Brazil) and I had a good experience. The food was good and the staff relatively nice. When I sat in the Vegetarian floor section and asked the waitress about Vegan options she told me that there were better options upstairs on the other floor and she was right.

I had rice and beans and some fries. I was gonna have the Minestrone soup but I got full.

Be mindful that you pay for your entree by weight and drinks and dessert have their own price.

I had a good experience and all of the vegetarian/vegan items are on one side of the buffet and the other side (upstairs) had meat.

I won't come running to is place but it is a nice option in the middle of town near the National Library, the Belas Artes Museum and the State Theater.

Finally, because this is a lunch spot I wouldn't suggest this for people who are not comfortable speaking in Portuguese or even Spanish as the servers are too busy to answer questions in Portuguese let alone another language.

Even though I am getting quite fed up and tired of these monotonous buffet vegetarian restaurants all over Brazil, I keep trying new ones because honestly, vegetarian food in this country is at a premium. There are no gourmet or fine dining type of restaurants, the kind one finds in the USA or most of Europe, there are hardly any Indian restaurants, and with language a real barrier, one is never sure what one is eating if one is not really careful.

Any way, on the first day in Rio, we ended up at Health's for lunch since we were in the neighbourhood. No one spoke or understood English, the place was packed, it is in the middle of a busy office area, and the place was husge. Upon entry, one is given is a slip that lists various options (salad, soup, desserts, juices, plated meals etc.) The first floor is a vegetarian floor, and the second floor is primarily dead animals. We figured this out from the slip given to us.

The buffet choice consisted mainly of salad components, with almost no cooked item. Soup, juice, plated items etc are to be ordered after one is seated. The waitress will indicate on the slip whatever one has taken, including the salad. The buffet is a fixed price and not by weight.

The buffet was boring and uninviting, the tomato soup was good (it comes with a large basket of toasted bread), the juice was refreshing. Our waitress made every effort to help us once she realized we did not understand Portuguese.

Avoid this place because 1. it has dead animals as well (even though they are on a different floor) and 2. teh choices are boring and dull.