Where to Eat in Rio de Janeiro

Before our trip, we researched all kinds of places to eat in Rio de Janeiro — and it’s worth knowing upfront that the city is full of fantastic restaurants, with something for every budget, from high-end to affordable, and good options throughout.

Here’s our list from two separate trips.

Where to eat in Rio de Janeiro: Breakfast

Confeitaria Colombo

• Founded in 1894
• Part of the city’s cultural and artistic heritage
• À la carte
• Colonial style
• Average R$40 per person

From the menu, we picked a combo with fruit salad, a baguette or croissant, ham, prato cheese, crackers, butter, honey, a hot drink, orange juice, house jam, and a Teresópolis toast, one of the house specialties — absolutely worth it.

The Petrópolis toast was my favorite, since the bread reminds me of a soft brioche-style loaf, and the combo genuinely serves two people well. There’s also a well-known walnut tart, but we were too full to try it.

Plage Café

• Order off the à la carte menu
• Serves breakfast plus other dishes and drinks
• Brazilian food
• Average R$50 per person

Simply unbeatable — Parque Lage is beautiful and romantic, with a whole love story behind it, the coffee is delicious, and the setting is perfect for a couple’s weekend in Rio.

Similar to Confeitaria Colombo, they serve fruit salad, scrambled eggs with three sides of your choice, orange juice, plain yogurt, cream cheese, butter, granola, cake, white cheese, and ham.

Gastronomia Itinerante Indoor

If you’re downtown near Vila Olímpica, in a warehouse with a mermaid painted on it, you’ll find a restaurant packed with people, mostly runners and cyclists from the area.

They serve coffee and lunch, and we enjoyed it — we had a grilled ham and cheese (R$8), a pão de queijo (R$4) that surprised us by coming in a waffle shape and tasted great, a coffee with milk (R$6.90), and for dessert, the house specialty, banoffee pie (R$10), which was genuinely delicious!

Café Marinas

Close to the airport, located at Marina da Glória, home to several restaurants — we stopped for breakfast, and it’s a comfortable pick for lunch or dinner too. A great option right before or after flying through Santos Dumont Airport in Rio.

We ordered a tapioca, an omelet, and a grilled cheese, all tasty, and the view of the marina alone makes it worth a stop.

Where to eat in Rio de Janeiro: Lunch and Dinner

Restaurante Miam Miam

• Specialty: Brazilian, contemporary, and South American
• Michelin Guide: Bib Gourmand
• Average price: R$100 per person

A small house on the outside, with a pleasant, romantic interior — highly recommended, especially the dessert.

Main course: we ordered filet mignon bonbons with gnocchi and duck rice — a bit salty, but tasty nonetheless.

Dessert: as mentioned, delicious, with perfectly sized apple pieces.

Páreo

Restaurante Páreo (Instagram) is located inside Rio’s Jockey Club and is a great pick if you want to eat well. The drinks are beautiful and delicious, and the menu includes meat, pizza, Japanese food, pasta, and more, along with vegan options.

We ordered two meat dishes for four people, plus sides, and loved everything.

Angu do Gomes

If you want a great pick downtown, Angu do Gomes (Instagram) will surprise you! For anyone wondering what “angu” is: it’s a thick porridge made by cooking cornmeal, cassava flour, or rice flour with water and sometimes salt — the house specialty here.

In 1760, the Viceroy of the Empire, the Marquis of Lavradio, moved the slave market from Praça XV to what’s now Gamboa, Santo Cristo, and Saúde — the area that would later become Rio’s port district. It was enslaved Africans from this history who brought angu to Brazil.

By 1955, this now-established restaurant was still just a street cart, already popular in the neighborhood. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and loved absolutely everything we tried.

Starters: we ordered the fried coalho cheese skewers (R$40.40) — an absolute must, served with delicious molasses — and fried sardines in cornmeal, 4 pieces (R$28).

Main course: we tried 3 different angu varieties — the Gomes Tradicional (R$26.90), ground beef with olives (R$26.90), and seafood (R$33.90) — a unique, flavorful dish!

Dessert: several options available, but I went with the chocolate tart, served chilled and quite tasty!

There are plenty of other restaurants nearby worth adding to your list too — we loved this spot!

Boteco Belmonte

• À la carte bar
• Brazilian cuisine
• Very easy to find, with locations across Rio
• Average R$100 per person, including alcoholic drinks

A laid-back bar with great food for lunch or dinner, and draft beer, which Andrey was craving, so we picked it for dinner. The food was decent, though drinks pushed up the total.

The house specialties are their empadas and fritters, served tableside rodízio-style — we’d recommend the shrimp-and-catupiry one for seafood fans.

Worth noting: in Rio de Janeiro, restaurants add a 12% service charge, which is technically optional (São Paulo has a similar charge, but at 10%).

Main course: filet mignon with fries, quinoa risotto, and picadinho (Brazilian beef stew) — all decent, though the portions were big enough that we skipped dessert.

Restaurante Mirante da Prainha

• À la carte
• Located at Praia da Prainha, with a beautiful view
• Brazilian food and seafood
• A great spot, best enjoyed in the late afternoon
• Average R$100 per person

We loved everything we ordered — we ended up going with meat, though seafood is the house specialty. Our dish photo didn’t turn out great, so we can’t share it, but even without a great food photo, the view alone from this beachfront restaurant will win you over.

Bar do Mineiro

A traditional restaurant in Santa Teresa, located at Rua Paschoal Carlos Magno, 99, serving primarily Brazilian food, à la carte.

Run by Diógenes Paixão, a Minas Gerais native and art collector who lends part of his own collection to decorate the restaurant.

The space has 3 dining rooms — the first at street level, two more above with a distinct feel, and the last two open onto an outdoor rooftop terrace.

Main course: we ordered a feijoada for two, which was really flavorful — the torresmo wasn’t quite our favorite style, but everything else was delicious, and the portion easily served three.

Dessert: pudim (Brazilian flan), which was really good, and we’d recommend it.

Bar do Adão — a Rio de Janeiro food tip

We had dinner at Bar do Adão, right across from our hotel, since we didn’t want to travel far — it’s a bar-restaurant with sidewalk seating, well known in the Grajaú neighborhood for its pastéis (fried pastries), with over fifty varieties.

Located at Rua Duvivier, 101, in Copacabana, it’s a Brazilian food spot with several other locations across Rio, and an à la carte menu.

Since it was nighttime, we opted for something lighter — the dish we ordered was tasty, both the meat and the sides.

Main course: picanha a gaúcha, picanha steak with calabresa sausage, served with rice, farofa, and fries, which we swapped for salad — it was tasty.

Aconchego Carioca

Located at Rua Barão de Iguatemi, 245, in Praça da Bandeira — an à la carte Brazilian restaurant.

An award-winning spot led by chef Katia Barbosa, the inventor of the bolinho de feijoada (feijoada fritter), who once tried opening a São Paulo location that eventually closed, though the original in Rio remains going strong, along with other locations.

We had lunch here with Andrey’s family, so we got to try two different dishes — everything came in generous portions.

The space is spacious and cozy, with good service, and hammocks hanging from the ceiling that give it a relaxed, laid-back feel.

Starter: a “mistura nordestina” — shredded dried beef or seared carne de sol with onions (we ordered the latter), fried cassava, torresmo, and coalho cheese — good, but a bit salty.

Main course: escondidinho (a shepherd’s-pie-style dish) with either dried beef or carne de sol — we ended up ordering both, shredded dried beef or sautéed carne de sol with onion and garlic, topped with cassava purée and coconut milk.

Sides: rice, dendê farofa, and black-eyed peas — tasty, though I found the meat quite salty.

Dessert: chocolate “almofadinha” — soft tapioca dough filled with chocolate and brigadeiro, served with vanilla ice cream — the best thing on the menu.

Ricardo Freitas Arte Bistro Café

Located inside the former Bhering chocolate factory, this spot stands out for its modern vibe and quick service — the food is genuinely tasty, and on Saturdays the live band is excellent.

They offer several starters like artisanal Minas-style sausage (R$65) and ceviche (R$30), though we skipped straight to the main course.

For our main course, we ordered two different dishes: the classic Saturday feijoada (R$50, with a vegan option also available for R$45) and the picadinho carioca, a dish I never regret ordering (R$60) — both cooked perfectly, and we loved them.

Dessert: we ordered a cupuaçu and strawberry tart, which was a pleasant surprise — the tartness of the strawberry balanced the cupuaçu, making the whole dessert refreshing and different.

Balbino’s Delícia de Costela

If you love a good rib — beef or pork ribs, pork belly, or fall-apart cupim (hump steak) that melts in your mouth — this is your spot.

A super laid-back bar for a draft beer with friends, working through meaty appetizers, with generously sized plates.

We started with pork belly, then a full plate for two that easily served three, with sides of farofa, vinaigrette, rice, and fried cassava — all delicious.

Camarada Camarão

If you’re at Barra Shopping, inside the New York City Center, Camarada Camarão is a solid seafood option. Since we were there at night, we ordered a salad (R$39) with shrimp, though other protein options like beef and chicken are available for an extra charge, along with more elaborate dishes.

There are other locations of this restaurant elsewhere in Rio, including Botafogo and Shopping Nova América.

McDonald’s

• Fast food
• À la carte
• Average R$30 per person

Since we were running behind on our itinerary, we went for a quick, affordable option to keep our sightseeing on track.

Where to eat in Rio de Janeiro: Dessert

Vitali Gelato

• Italian gelato
• Choose 2 to 3 flavors
• Prices: R$14 small, R$16 large

Right after finishing our snacks, we tracked down a food truck selling delicious ice cream near the Museu do Amanhã — a great pick whether it’s sunny or rainy, like it was for us.

4D Gelateria Italiana

Located inside the New York City Center, a great way to cool off from the heat, with four cup sizes and options that include cake, coffee, and more.

We got a small (R$15) and a large (R$27), and loved every flavor we tried.

Green Garden Café

Located at Rua Jardim Botânico, 1008, in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood.

We stopped for coffee before heading to the airport, right after grabbing a sweet treat following our walk through the Botanical Garden.

Setting: extremely pleasant, with glass walls and a cozy feel.

Coffee and dessert: we ordered a coffee and a brigadeiro tart, which was tasty, though the presentation looked better than it actually tasted.

If you made it this far, you clearly love food as much as we do — check out more of our tips on what to see in the city in What to Do in Rio de Janeiro.