Rio Scenarium is an impressive Samba Club in the buzzy Lapa district. It is a lovely antique shop/ house converted into a Club and spans over 3 floors. Each floor has its own music genre and function with live Samba Bands performing most days of the week. It has cosy areas to sit and enjoy the music, drink and food. There are dance floors and the Samba Groups that we saw performing were excellent and passionate musicians/singers. It can become crowded but still a gem in the Rio nightlife calendar. It gets a lovely mixture of people from young to very old gentlemen and ladies forever dancing to the rythms of Samba, Bosa Nova and others. A Must!
Lapa is the place to be on Friday nights and Scenarium is the best place in Lapa to go. The line can be a pain, but its worth the wait. Plenty of space, multiple floors that look down onto the main stage and a separate room on the 2nd floor that has amazing AC... Open really late and the crowd is very friendly. Just like all the other bars in Rio, DON'T LOSE YOUR TICKET!!!
If you want to find a nice fancy place to go out for a Samba night, then Rio Scenarium is a place for you.It's a big place with 3 different floors. Ground floor with live Samba band, the rest is for drinks or eats. There is an other dance floor too. Went there just to listen to Samba and have drinks. Really nice feeling in this club, the interior decoration is funny with old artifact like Swiss clock (cuckoo), really colorful, good vibes. But you really need to like Samba
People from all over the world and all ages ! It's a good place to know people and listen do classic Brazilian songs. Good drinks ! From Ipanema the taxi ride is about R$ 50.
It may well be a tourist attraction, but this club also attracts a lot of locals. The music is great, the atmosphere is great and the menu offers a good selection of bar food. We were there for about five hours and it felt like we were leaving a party early. Next time we're in rio, this will be top of the list of places to go!
Definitely a must-see for any traveller to Rio.This place is a museum and a night-club at the same time. It boasts a central vast stage surrounded by tables and stairs over 3 floors.The bands that are booked are of quality and the place is really worth a visit. There's a small shop where you can buy some jewels and t-shirts that are really cool vintage looking stuff.The food was very average, I ordered some beef jerky with manioc fries (soggy) that were literally swimming in oil and that i didn't touch, so I would recommend to have dinner before going in. The caipis were great though and we had an excellent night out overall so definitely recomended.
Expensive to get in.Overcrowded.Few people dancing - there is little room to dance - most people taking photos of the 3 people that are dancing.Table service available but they ask for tips to your face and you pay 10% service when you leave.This place is so over managed it takes the fun out of the evening. You queue to hand passport in, you queue to pay, you queue to leave.Wouldn't bother, there must be more authentic experiences elsewhere in rio.
We got the impression that this music venue was very much for the locals rather than foreign tourists. It was very busy, spread over three floors, with fascinatingly eclectic decor. The music was nothing special and it was hard to get a table to sit close to the entertainment. Our hotel concierge got us a VIP entry pass to avoid the queues, but there was still a strange system when one had to be photographed for entry, We didn't feel the need to stay for very long, and entry was quite expensive, but we did find it to be an interesting insight into Brazilian nightlife, particularly because of the wide variety of colourful characters of all ages that frequent the venue.
We went to Rio Santorium on our last night in Rio. We were asked for our passports at the door but we only had a copy of one passport and luckily a phone picture of the second. That was fine. The entrance was $R 30 pp but we were handed over our order cards and supposed to pay for everything at the end. We decided to have something to eat as the food on other tables looked lovely. I ordered salad and my boyfriend a sandwich and we shared a brownie for desert. The brownie had very weird type of a nut in the ice cream, which was impossible to chew and basically spoilt the whole desert as we had to spit it out with every bite. The main courses were ok but nothing outstanding. Service was ok also. We were prepared to be charged 10% service as everywhere else in SA when paying at the door. When we were trying to leave,our waiter approached the table quickly and after he saw there was nothing left on the table, he asked us straight if we were going to leave him a tip (!). My boyfriend answered to him that we were going to leave the service charge at the till and he replied the the service charge is for the house and the tip is for him. Never heard about anything like that before! We left him a tip anyway and went downstairs to pay. We were charged for the service as we thought we would and asked to girl to explain what exactly was it for. She could not speak English but was trying to tell us that this is what it is anyway but as were not giving up, she called over the manager. We asked him the same question and he said it was for everyone working there. I used to work in restaurants for years and believe that the tip should be a courtesy of a customer after receiving proper care from the waiter. Which ever way they then share it with the rest of the staff is the restaurant policy. A customer should not have to tip everyone separately. Our tip was forced on us twice in one night. Eventually the manager said it was optional... The restaurant was named one of the 10 best bars in the world by The Guardian. In fact it has a nice vibe, fabulous decor and good live music. Seemed like THE place to good for posh locals and tourists. However I do not agree with the policy of this place and do not like paying almost $R 100 for charges on $R 200 dinner bill. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
We enjoyed a great evening there. Good music (samba) with great people dancing and enjoying the night. What we enjoyed mostly was the great mix of people: young/old as well as Brazilian and foreigners.