Where to Eat in Itacaré

We decided to split off our restaurant recommendations for Itacaré into their own post, since the town has so many options, from beachside spots to the downtown commercial strip. So we’ll organize this by location, depending on which part of your trip you’re on, to make it easier to pick where to eat.

On the Main Downtown Street

To start, there are several great options here, and I’ll list the ones we tried — there’s a wide commercial street lined with the area’s main restaurants and shops, and from there we picked places recommended by our hotel or ones we’d read about online.

Restaurante Terra Boa

Without a doubt, we found everything delicious: the space, the food, and the service.

First, for our main course, we ordered shrimp bobó with rice, farofa, and salad, and we loved both the dish and its presentation.

Then, for dessert, we chose grilled banana with coalho cheese, honey, and sugar — simple, but really good.

Price: R$151 for food plus drinks.

Restaurante Manga Rosa

One of the most charming restaurants downtown, with beautiful decor, including bird origami hanging from the ceiling. It has street-side tables, an indoor dining room, and an outdoor one near a garden.

Just as we expected, the food was delicious, with really distinctive flavors — take a look at how beautifully the dishes are presented.

Main course: shrimp in spice sauce, with açaí rice and plantain, which was delicious; honey-ginger shrimp with açaí rice and salad; and third, octopus with vegetable rice and Thai salad.

Price: R$240 for three people, with juice and beer.

Meg’s Hamburgueria

A really tasty burger spot, with a great little touch: most days, the owner’s pug, Meg, sits by the door helping draw in customers, and the owner herself is very friendly too.

We ordered two burgers, one cupim with gorgonzola and another cheese and bacon, and both were unquestionably tasty — and huge, requiring a fork and knife.

Price: R$59 for both.

Oxe’s Burguer, a tip for where to eat in Itacaré

We had dinner at this burger spot, and it was fine — the patty tasted like frozen supermarket meat, and the bun was oversized for the sandwich, but it got the job done. Orders come with a side of fries, so we got a medium portion.

For our burgers, in short, we ordered an x-egg and an x-bacon.

Price: R$68 for three people.

Sorvetes Bom Grau

This ice cream shop is also on the main commercial street, and it’s genuinely a nice spot to stop for a scoop. Since there weren’t too many unusual or exotic flavors, we ordered cupuaçu and chocolate, and it was good. Ice cream is priced by weight.

Vila Rosa Chocolates

Vila Rosa was once the headquarters of a cacao farm, located 20 km from Itacaré, on the banks of the Rio de Contas.

It has a shop downtown, right on the main square, a genuinely great spot to pick up dessert and try authentic Brazilian chocolate — the chocolate here carries a bolder cacao flavor, and it’s really good.

Along the Trilha das Quatro Praias

The two spots with the best facilities are Praia de Itacarezinho and Praia do Havaizinho. We chose Havaizinho for lunch based on timing, but we still had time for ice cream in Itacarezinho.

Praia de Itacarezinho

Before heading to the next beach, we sat down for ice cream at a shop run by the same owner as Ponto Chic, and we picked a cacao ice cream and an umbu popsicle, both distinctive flavors, and both tasty.

Praia do Havaizinho

We’d recommend having lunch at this beach, since it offers the best kiosk setup, plus a really great cacao-based drink, which is delicious and well worth ordering.

The cacao drink, in short, is made with cacao, coconut water, and vodka — beautifully presented and great for photos! We also ordered a cheese and oregano tapioca, a portion of pititinga (small fried fish), and fried cassava with cheese, and everything was well prepared.

Price: R$120 for three people.

At Praia de Jeribucaçu

Barraca do Buxudo, a tip for where to eat in Itacaré

We had lunch on the beach at Barraca do Buxudo, and the setup is really simple, but the food is simply spectacular — you get whatever fish came in from that day’s catch, and we picked a red snapper, grilled, with the spine removed.

Sides: rice, plantain farofa, and salad, and if you run low, they’ll happily refill your sides, all just as tasty.

Price: R$130. We’d suggest ordering the coconut here too, since both the water and the “meat” inside are delicious.

São José Beach Club, a tip for where to eat in Itacaré

A beautiful spot, great for spending the whole day, and the food is also delicious. It opens at 10 AM and closes at 5 PM. Our order was the pistol shrimp moqueca, with sides including rice, pirão, and farofa.

Dessert: a chocolate ice cream sundae, which was okay.

Price: R$150 per person, R$50 of which covers the space and R$100 goes toward food and drink credit — though prices shift depending on the day and time of year, and whether you go with a table or a lounge area.

A tip for where to eat in Itacaré on your way back from the rural beaches

Café Cacau is a restaurant right on the roadside, and beyond being beautiful, it’s a great spot for a late lunch once you’re heading out from the beach — the restaurant is genuinely lovely, tucked among the trees, despite a few mosquitoes.

Café com Cacau, a tip for where to eat in Itacaré

Right on the roadside, but beautiful and charming, with really tasty food and great service.

We wanted a proper meal, so for our main course, we ordered fish on a hot stone with onion, bell pepper, tomato, cassava, and plantain, with sides of garlic rice, beans, plantain farofa, and salad to start.

Dessert: chocolate cake with cacao nibs, a genuinely distinctive flavor, and we liked the taste of the nibs.

Price: R$280 for three people.

Learn more about our trip in Ilhéus.