Where to Eat in Santo Antônio do Pinhal

There are plenty of options in town, almost none of them cheap, but all beautiful and comfortable — here are our tips on where to eat in Santo Antônio do Pinhal.

Restaurants in Santo Antônio do Pinhal

We’ve included tips on the restaurants, main courses, and desserts from the places we visited, and we hope you enjoy!

Canto da Gula Bistrozin da Montanha

The space is beautiful, cozy, and this was the best food we had in town! The dishes are beautifully presented, and it’s located right at the entrance to town.

The wall has a distinctive display featuring several images of Santo Antônio, honoring the town’s patron saint, with medals and images made from different materials.

Starter: we ordered two, and we’d recommend the salada da Gula (R$48), with hearts of palm, black olives, cherry tomatoes, croutons, and shaved parmesan in an Italian dressing, plus a couvert (R$10 per person), where the bread was extremely tasty and warm, easily the best part.

Main course: we ordered trout in butter and shiitake sauce (R$48), the shiitake beautifully seasoned; the Picadinho da Gula (R$68), a cheese pastel that was generously filled; and Sicilian risotto (R$68), with flavorful meat and rice cooked perfectly. Honestly, everything was equally delicious!

Dessert: we ordered the cheese mousse with warm guava sauce (R$22), which was surprisingly good — the mousse was airy and really creamy, and the warm sauce was cooked just right.

Location: Avenida Antônio Joaquim de Oliveira, 646.

Donna Pinha Restaurante

This is, without question, the most in-demand spot for lunch or dinner in the area. Whenever you show up, there’s a crowd at the door and a line — they’re not taking reservations during the pandemic, so we’d recommend arriving early.

The kitchen is run by Chef Anouk Rosa, well known for bringing the flavor of the Serra da Mantiqueira to her dishes. She’s also behind an artichoke festival in the region, and her restaurant is a great excuse to visit the town.

The atmosphere is really pleasant and spacious, with a glass wall downstairs that adds a nice touch, while a pianist plays ambient music throughout the space.

The plating is really beautiful and colorful, and honestly, we found it genuinely interesting.

Main course: I ordered the Filet Mignon à Donna Pinha (R$79), served with pinhão sauce, sautéed potatoes, and black rice. The other dish was ostrich in raspberry sauce (R$79.80), served with white rice. Both were really tasty.

Dessert: we ordered an apfelstrudel (R$24.80) with a scoop of ice cream, which was delicious.

The restaurant also has a small market with regional products, made in-house, which looked delicious. We bought a blackberry jam and a ginger jam, and loved both.

Location: Avenida Antônio Joaquim de Oliveira, 647.

Restaurante Jardins

Located inside Eco Parque Jardim dos Pinhais, this restaurant is worth it for the view alone, genuinely wonderful over the mountains.

The space is also spacious and pleasant, though you’ll need to make a reservation to get a table, and ideally ask for one on the deck, since that’s the outdoor section with the payoff view.

Main course: we ordered a dish to share, the costela prime, pork ribs cooked with artisanal cachaça and fine herbs, served with Brazil nut rice, rustic potatoes, and confit onion — but we weren’t fans of the meat, since it came out quite tough and dry. The sides, though, were good.

Dessert: petit gateau with a scoop of ice cream, which was really tasty.

Location: Avenida Antônio Joaquim de Oliveira, 2600.

Massa ao Mel Restaurante

At this spot, the owner is extremely warm, and we really appreciated the service.

When we arrived in town, there were tight restrictions on dining hours, and unexpectedly, we’d been given the wrong closing time. We showed up at 7:04 PM, and it turned out no restaurant would seat us, since they all had to close by 8 PM.

We managed to get dinner here — even though lasagna isn’t our favorite dish, it was the fastest thing on the menu, and we managed to finish and leave by 8 PM without causing any trouble for the staff.

Main course: Four-Cheese Lasagna (R$47.90) and Lasanha da Nonna (R$48.90), half four-cheese and half bolognese, and we liked the food, since it was genuinely flavorful and well seasoned.

Dessert: Petit Gateau (R$25.90) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which was also good.

Location: Avenida Antônio Joaquim de Oliveira, 460.

Nonna Pia Trattoria

The restaurant is quite simple, and at first glance you wouldn’t expect much — service is slow, our pizza took almost an hour to come out, the menu has few options, and the staff seemed pretty disorganized — but the pizza is delicious, especially the crust, which makes the whole visit worth it.

The pizzas come in a medium size, cut into 6 slices — if you’re hungry, you could easily order one per person, but we were already full and split one between us.

Main course: three-cheese pizza (R$30), thin crust, and toppings just the way we like them.

Dessert: pear poached in wine with guava ice cream, which was delicious.

Location: Praça Benedito Marcondes Rapiso, 53.

Desserts in Santo Antônio do Pinhal

Most restaurants offer dessert on their own menus, but here are our tips on where to eat in Santo Antônio do Pinhal for an afternoon treat to round out your day exploring the area.

Gelateria Eisland

A really simple spot with delicious ice cream, with a porch to sit and eat with a view over the mountains.

The gelato is artisanal, made with high-quality Jersey milk and fresh cream, Italian fruit bases and concentrates, and natural fruit preserves, with no added trans or hydrogenated fats.

Jersey milk carries more than 20% more protein and 15% more calcium compared to other cattle breeds.

I tried both flavors that won awards at the Sabor de São Paulo food festival — the 2015 winner, doce de leite with macadamia, and the 2014 winner, orange gelato with dark chocolate chips — and I loved both, especially the doce de leite.

Andrey had chocolate and vanilla, both equally tasty. What’s great about going here is that the surrounding nature is beautiful, and the ice cream itself has a really creamy texture — we loved visiting.

Location: Estrada Municipal Pedro Joaquim Lopes, 2400.

Gianduiella Chocolates

A tip for buying chocolate in the area, in a really beautiful shop with tasty chocolate. It’s easy to find, since it’s right on the main street.

I bought my favorite, the langue de chat, to try, but they also have milkshakes, fondue, and hot chocolate, along with chocolate bars, bonbons, and filled nibs.

Location: Avenida Ministro Nelson Hungria, 475.

Breweries in Santo Antônio do Pinhal

There are more than three breweries in the area, but here are the ones we visited ourselves, rounding out our tips on where to eat in Santo Antônio do Pinhal.

Araukarien Cervejaria Artesanal

We went here to buy bottled beer, but discovered a beautiful spot, with a spacious restaurant and a gorgeous view over the mountains.

We’d already had lunch that day, but we’d recommend it for anyone wanting to spend the afternoon there enjoying a good beer.

Andrey loved their beer!! So much so that we bought one of every kind except the wheat beer.

Location: Rodovia Oswaldo Barbosa Guisard, 7600.

Carijó Empório e Cerveja Artesanal

We also came here hoping to buy bottled beer, but unfortunately, it’s only available to drink on site. With the pandemic, business hasn’t been very brisk here.

Still, it’s a good tip for an open-air spot with a restaurant, great for spending the day drinking beer.

Location: Estrada Municipal Francisca dos Santos Silva, 4432.

Puri no Deck

This spot is a restaurant-nightclub, with live music, really beautiful, but given the pandemic, we still weren’t comfortable in a setting like that.

Known for its good beer, though we didn’t go in to try it. It’s on the main street, making it a good spot for drinks if your hotel is nearby, so you won’t have to drive afterward.

Location: Avenida Ministro Nelson Hungria, 260.

Read more about our trip in What to Do in Santo Antônio do Pinhal.