Short answer: The five Brazilian dishes not to miss are feijoada, moqueca, acarajé in Salvador, churrasco and pão de queijo, with a caipirinha or a fresh açaí bowl on the side. Eat feijoada on a Saturday in Rio, Bahian food in Salvador, grilled meat in the south, and snack your way through the street stalls and juice bars in between.
Brazil is a continent-sized country, and its food changes as much as its landscapes. Bahia and the Northeast cook with coconut milk, palm oil and African traditions brought by enslaved people; the Amazon eats river fish, cassava and fruits found nowhere else; Minas Gerais is cheese and slow-cooked country food; and the gaúcho south lives on grilled beef and mate. Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese and Lebanese immigrants added their own layers, which is why São Paulo has some of the most varied food in the Americas. This guide covers the 15 dishes and drinks we would order first, where each one is best, and how to eat well on any budget. For the bigger picture, start with our Brazil travel guide.
Snacks and street food
1. Pão de queijo (cheese bread)
Small, chewy balls of bread made with cassava (tapioca) starch and cheese, crisp outside and stretchy inside. They come from Minas Gerais but are sold everywhere, from bakeries and airport cafés to hotel breakfast buffets, and are best warm from the oven with a small, strong coffee (cafezinho). They are naturally gluten-free, though shared ovens mean they are not guaranteed for people with celiac disease.
2. Coxinha
A teardrop-shaped croquette of shredded chicken, often with creamy cheese (catupiry), wrapped in dough, breaded and fried. It is the king of the salgados, the savory snacks sold in every lanchonete (snack bar) and bakery, and a cheap lunch on the go. Look for a counter with a fast turnover so they come out of the fryer hot.
3. Pastel
A large, thin pastry pocket, fried until it blisters, filled with ground beef, cheese, heart of palm or shrimp. It is the classic snack of the weekly street markets (feiras), eaten standing up with a glass of fresh sugarcane juice (caldo de cana). In São Paulo’s Municipal Market, the pastel de bacalhau (salt cod) is an institution.
4. Acarajé
Black-eyed pea fritters fried in palm oil (dendê), split open and filled with vatapá (a paste of bread, shrimp, peanuts and coconut milk), dried shrimp and a tomato salad. They are sold in Salvador by the baianas de acarajé, women in white lace dresses whose craft is registered by IPHAN, Brazil’s national heritage institute, as part of the country’s cultural heritage. Say “quente” if you want hot pepper sauce and “frio” if you do not; you can also ask for it without shrimp.
Mains
5. Feijoada
Black beans slow-cooked with salted and smoked pork cuts and sausage, served with white rice, sautéed collard greens (couve), farofa (toasted cassava flour) and orange slices. It is a long, heavy lunch, traditionally eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Rio de Janeiro, and many restaurants serve it only on those days. Plan nothing energetic for the afternoon.
6. Moqueca
A fish or seafood stew cooked in a clay pot. In Bahia, moqueca baiana is rich with coconut milk, palm oil, peppers and coriander; in the state of Espírito Santo, the moqueca capixaba is lighter, made with olive oil and annatto and no palm oil. It arrives bubbling at the table with rice, farofa and pirão (a fish-broth porridge) and is usually shared by two. Ask for moqueca de banana-da-terra (plantain) for a vegetarian version.
7. Churrasco
Brazilian barbecue, a tradition of the gaúcho cattle country of Rio Grande do Sul. In a churrascaria rodízio, waiters circle the room with skewers of grilled meat and carve slices at your table until you turn your card from green to red; picanha, the cap of the rump with its strip of fat, is the cut to try. The buffet of salads and sides is often big enough for vegetarians. Foz do Iguaçu and Gramado are churrasco towns.
8. Prato feito and the daily rice and beans
The everyday Brazilian lunch is rice, beans, a salad, farofa and a piece of grilled meat, chicken or fish, served as a prato feito (set plate, often shortened to PF) in simple restaurants. The other classic is comida a quilo, a buffet where you fill your plate and pay by weight. Both are the cheapest good meals in the country and the easiest way for vegetarians to eat, since you choose what goes on the plate.
9. Baião de dois and carne de sol
The comfort food of the Northeast, especially Ceará: rice and beans cooked together with coalho cheese, bacon and coriander. It is often served with carne de sol, beef that is salted and briefly dried, then grilled or fried, and with roasted coalho cheese on a stick. Try it in Fortaleza and Jericoacoara.
10. Tacacá and Amazon fish
In the Amazon, tacacá is served hot in a gourd bowl: a yellow broth of fermented cassava juice (tucupi) with tapioca gum, dried shrimp and jambu, a leaf that makes your lips tingle. In Manaus, stalls sell it in the late afternoon, and restaurants grill river fish such as tambaqui ribs and pirarucu, a giant fish often served with farofa and banana. It is unusual and memorable; start with a small bowl.
Sweets, cheese and drinks
11. Brigadeiro
Soft chocolate truffles made from condensed milk, cocoa and butter, rolled in chocolate sprinkles. They are the sweet of every Brazilian birthday party, and specialist shops in Rio and São Paulo sell gourmet versions in many flavors. Beijinho, the coconut version, is the usual partner on the plate.
12. Açaí
The dark purple berry of an Amazon palm, frozen and blended into a thick, icy pulp, then served in a bowl with banana, granola and sometimes condensed milk. On Rio’s beaches and in juice bars it is an after-surf snack; in the Amazon it is traditionally eaten unsweetened with fish and farofa. The juice bars are also the place for fresh juices of cupuaçu, cashew fruit (caju), passion fruit and acerola.
13. Minas cheese and Romeu e Julieta
Minas Gerais is cheese country: the traditional ways of making artisan Minas cheese from raw milk and a natural starter called pingo, on small family farms, have been on UNESCO’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity since 2024. Look for fresh or aged queijo minas at markets and delis, and try it with guava paste (goiabada), a pairing Brazilians call Romeu e Julieta.
14. Caipirinha and cachaça
The national cocktail: cachaça, the spirit distilled from fresh sugarcane juice, muddled with lime and sugar over crushed ice. A Brazilian decree of 2001 treats the name cachaça as a geographical indication reserved for producers established in Brazil. Bars also make caipirinhas with other fruits, and a caipiroska uses vodka instead. It is stronger than it tastes, so pace yourself in the heat.
15. Cafezinho and guaraná
A small, sweet black coffee, the cafezinho, is offered in offices, shops and homes as a welcome, and bakeries serve it all day. For a soft drink, guaraná soda is made from an Amazon fruit, and in Rio the beach vendors sell iced mate tea with Globo crackers. On the beach, a cold coconut water drunk from the shell is the simplest refreshment of all.
Where to eat: Rio and beyond
- Rio de Janeiro: feijoada on Saturdays, rodízio steakhouses, corner juice bars for açaí, and botecos (neighborhood bars) for petiscos (bar snacks) with an ice-cold chopp draft beer. On the beach, vendors walk the sand with snacks, mate and coconut water.
- São Paulo: the Municipal Market, a 1930s hall with stained-glass windows, is piled with tropical fruit, cheese and cured meats; its giant mortadella sandwich and pastel de bacalhau are institutions, so go on a weekday morning to avoid the crowds. Liberdade has Japanese food and a Sunday street fair, and the city’s Italian, Lebanese and northeastern communities give it pizza, esfihas and kibbeh, and Bahian food.
- Salvador: acarajé from the baianas’ stalls, most famously in Rio Vermelho’s Largo de Santana and Largo da Mariquita in the late afternoon, and moqueca, bobó de camarão and cocada sweets in the colonial houses of the Pelourinho.
- Manaus: tacacá stalls and cafés outside the Teatro Amazonas in the evening, and restaurants for tambaqui, pirarucu and Amazon fruits.
- Fortaleza and the Northeast coast: the Mercado Central for cashew nuts and local products, the Beira-Mar evening fair, and beach restaurants serving grilled fish, shrimp and crab; in Recife, look for bolo de rolo, a thin rolled cake with guava filling.
- The south: Gramado is a food destination of its own, with fondue in winter, artisanal chocolate and the café colonial, a huge afternoon spread of breads, cakes, cheeses and cold meats inherited from German and Italian immigrants. Florianópolis is known for oysters.
Food etiquette and tipping
Lunch is the main meal for most Brazilians, served from about noon to 2 p.m., and many restaurants offer a prato feito or a buffet only at lunch. Dinner is later and lighter, often from 8 p.m., and the evening is the time for pizza, snacks and drinks in bars. Brazilians eat with a knife and fork even for things like pizza and sandwiches, and use a napkin to hold street snacks.
Restaurants usually add a 10% service charge (serviço) to the bill, which counts as the tip; it is optional, but most people pay it, and you need not add more. In bars and kiosks, rounding up is enough. Our tip calculator helps you work it out, and our phrase cards have the Portuguese for “the bill, please” (a conta, por favor) and “no pepper, please” (sem pimenta, por favor).
Most food is not spicy; hot pepper sauce (molho de pimenta) is on the table so you can add your own. Most visitors drink bottled or filtered water rather than tap water.
Eating on a budget
Pay-by-weight buffets, set lunches, bakeries and street snacks keep food costs low anywhere in Brazil. Numbeo’s October 2026 figures for Rio, used in our Brazil trip cost guide, put a meal at an inexpensive restaurant at about R$50 and a three-course dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant, without drinks, at about R$200; beachfront restaurants and the smartest places in Rio and São Paulo cost more. Many hotels and pousadas include breakfast, often with fruit, cheese, cakes and pão de queijo. For a guided start, a market visit or a food and drink walk is a good way to learn the snacks and fruits; browse food tours in Rio, São Paulo and Salvador in our tour finder.
Food also shapes when to go. In June the Festas Juninas, harvest festivals with bonfires, forró music and corn dishes such as pamonha and canjica, take over the Northeast; our best time to visit Brazil guide covers the seasons and festivals month by month.
Plan your trip: our free trip planner can build a day-by-day plan around Rio, Salvador and Iguaçu with time for long lunches and market visits. Then see our Brazil itinerary for 7, 10 and 14 days, and our top 10 places to visit in Brazil to decide where to go.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Brazil?
Feijoada, the black bean and pork stew served with rice, greens, farofa and orange, is the dish most Brazilians would name. Everyday rice and beans come a close second, and every region has its own favorite, from moqueca in Bahia to churrasco in the south.
Is Brazil food spicy?
Mostly not. Brazilian cooking is seasoned with garlic, onion, herbs and lime rather than chili, and hot pepper sauce is served on the side. Bahian food is the exception: acarajé and some moquecas can come with fiery malagueta pepper, so say “sem pimenta” if you prefer it mild.
What do people eat for breakfast in Brazil?
A small coffee with milk (café com leite), a French-style bread roll with butter (pão na chapa when toasted on the griddle), cheese and ham, fresh fruit and juice, and pão de queijo. Hotel breakfasts are often big buffets with tropical fruit and cakes, and in the Northeast you may find tapioca crepes and couscous made from corn.
Is Brazil good for vegetarians?
Yes, especially in the cities. Pay-by-weight buffets let you choose your own plate, rice, beans and salads are everywhere, and there are vegetarian versions of moqueca, pastel and pão de queijo. Beans are sometimes cooked with pork, so ask “tem carne?” (does it have meat?). São Paulo and Rio have many vegetarian and vegan restaurants.
What should I drink in Brazil?
A caipirinha, a very cold chopp draft beer, fresh fruit juices from a juice bar, coconut water on the beach, guaraná soda and a cafezinho after lunch. In the south you will see locals sharing chimarrão, the hot, bitter mate drunk from a gourd.
When is feijoada served?
Traditionally at lunch on Wednesdays and Saturdays, especially in Rio, where many restaurants serve it only on those days. On Saturdays it is a social event, often eaten slowly over several hours with caipirinhas and live samba in some places.