Since we're travelling on a pretty tight budget we thought we'd post a blog to show fellow travellers a good way we've found to eat on the cheap in Rio de Janeiro.
There is a brilliant type of restaurant here called 'A Quilo' which are buffets where you are charged by the weight of food on your plate. The prices and standard of food on offer vary hugely, as you might expect, but we have found some cheaper ones we have been very happy with.
One of these is a place called Express Grill just off of the Copacabana beach which charges R$3.99 per 100g between 11:00 - 12:15 and as a result we've found ourselves in there stocking up on some brunch relatively often.
The food you can expect to see on offer are salads (be careful as these will often be washed with tap water), grilled meats such as chicken & white fish, flavoured & plain rices, mashed potato, chips and boiled veg. Many also have authentic Brazilian fare such as Feijoda (a black bean stew), Bobo de camarao (a shrimp based stew) and Salgado (various types of finger food), plus many more dishes to try! Lots of these restaurants also offer sushi or grilled meat to order (known locally as Churrasco), but these can cost extra so we have avoided them so far. You also have to pay extra for dessert but again these are done on a pay by weight basis and often include cakes, ice creams and gateaux. Another nice touch that we've found at many of the places we've been is that they offer a free Brazilian tea, coffee or hot chocolate at the end of your meal.
Other favourites of ours include Aipo Aipim, Estacao Sabor and Temperarte all of which are located around Copacabana beach.
The important thing to remember here is that this is not gourmet gastronomy and if you're looking to save a few pennies for other things later in your trip you can't be too fussy. With that in mind we've found that paying around £3 -£4 each for our main meal of the day is pretty good going considering the amount we get to put in our bellies for that price. Now you can't really argue with that, can you?
Tips:
All of these places offer a takeaway option for the same price as dining in.
For very hungry customers there will normally be an all you can eat option.
For money savers, some will have certain times to eat that are cheaper.
Avoid extras like cooked to order meats and sushi to keep costs down.
Before going for dessert, be aware most places include fresh fruit as part of the main buffet.
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