The best restaurants Bahia

For over 15 years, under the direction of Chef Micky, the Recanto do Sossego has been a fine Porto Seguro restaurant, also known as the "Barraca de praia Recanto do Sossego", with an Italian-Brazilian inspiration. You can eat on the beach or on the restaurant's pleasant veranda. Recanto do Sossego offers varied, high-quality international cuisine right on the seafront, on the superb Coroa Vermelha beach. Seafood spaghetti, badejo (fish) with maracujà sauce, sea salad, pizzas... A must-try.

Club do Balanço is the café-restaurant of the eponymous pousada. Established since 1993 on the second beach (Segunda Praia), this establishment has built a solid reputation in a place that does not lack competition. Inspired by capixaba (from the neighboring state of Espirito Santo), the menu also offers the "classics" of Bahian cuisine such as bobó de camarão and moqueça. You can eat inside or directly on the beach. The menu is diversified, local seafood, fish, but also pasta and sandwiches for the small hunger.

Pelourinho is full of great places to eat. The Maria Mata Mouro restaurant is a place to discover, an oasis in a busy city center. This restaurant, located in the heart of the Pelourinho, enjoys an excellent reputation that is well deserved. With its inventive, traditional cuisine and mouth-watering dessert cart, it offers a very pleasant setting (in an old building, tastefully decorated and with a pretty little patio ideal for marriage proposals). An excellent address for gourmets, who will be welcomed by multilingual staff. Live music in the evening.

You can't go to Salvador without tasting its acarajés, one of the most emblematic specialties. The "Cira" offers one of the most traditional and famous acarajés of the city. The Bahian Cira has almost 50 years of experience in the preparation of local delicacies. Today, a team of 35 people help her prepare the 5,000 acarajés sold each month. Given the success, her daughter and granddaughter have opened other kiosks, one in Rio Vermelho, undoubtedly the best known, with its queue at weekends, and the other in Lauro Freitas.

For many Soteropolitanos and tourists used to the "Black Rome", this grill is the best churrascaria in Salvador. As in many churrascarias, you'll enjoy the rodízio, a round of 24 different kinds of meat served as much as you like by twirling waiters in a well-regulated ballet, but also the rich buffet of salads, seafood and hot dishes, which offers around 80 options as well as quality sushi. The waiters pass through the dining room, serving quality meat at every turn if you wish.

In the pleasant Carmo district, in the heart of Salvador's historic center, artist Paulo Vaz has opened his studio as a meeting place for his friends. It's like stepping into an old-fashioned café, with an instant feeling of conviviality. The view of the bay from the terrace is magical. The smell of coffee wafts through the place. The menu offers light dishes: salads, sandwiches, quiches, pasta, soups... and plenty of coffees, teas and homemade juices. Friendly cats sleep on the chairs. A good sign!

Le Pelô Bistrô is a very good restaurant serving Brazilian and North-Eastern specialties, inspired by French gastronomy. It also offers international fusion dishes. Set in the flower-filled backyard of the charming Casa do Amarelindo hotel, the service is as good as it gets. In addition to pasta and salad dishes, and traditional Brazilian fare such as the classic moqueca de camarao or bobo de camarao, the menu is refined and regularly renewed. Gourmet" menu for 2 people.

One of the city's most interesting addresses is housed in an old colonial defense building with a majestic entrance. This is the Senac Hotel School, and service is provided by the students of this school, which is very important in Brazil, as it trains many cooks throughout the country. So you can enjoy succulent regional dishes. The large buffet is certainly the best option for tasting Bahian specialities, as it is made up of around 40 typical dishes and you can eat as much as you like. Live entertainment on certain evenings.

Café Gourmet is one of those little neighborhood restaurants that we love, still untouched by mass tourism. A small, attractively priced restaurant in the heart of Pelourinho, still authentic, which has unfortunately become quite rare! The menu is simple, but the dishes are good. The moqueca, typical of Salvador, is appetizing. Meat dishes (filet mignon, "carne do sol") are also well served and renowned for their value for money. During the day, you can come in for a coffee and relax in this typically Bahian atmosphere.

A portinha" restaurants are now present in all three tourist towns in southern Bahia, Porto Seguro, Arraia d'ajuda and Trancoso. The Abrasel guide named this group and its Arraial d'ajuda restaurant Brazil's "best kilo" in 2018. The restaurant boasts traditional Bahian home cooking. There are over 150 options on offer from Tuesday to Sunday, including excellent desserts. A varied buffet by the kilo and à la carte dishes in the evening. The large wood-fired stove maintains a traditional feel. Live music some evenings.

All honour to all! Sabor da Vila was one of the first restaurants to open in Praia do Forte. Chef Alex Souza offers local cuisine with the famous moqueca. The taste is certainly on the plate, but the aesthetics of the dishes are also a pure pleasure. Coconuts and pineapples serve as plates, and seafood is given pride of place in dishes that are both simple and beautifully crafted, all hallmarks of this piano master. The tables of regulars and the delighted looks on the faces of those who are just discovering the restaurant are unmistakable!

Another address not to be missed in Lençois. The "conzinha aberta" offers a good and varied cuisine with inventive recipes of Italian and Thai dishes. The chef is a culinary author-creator who never stops innovating, as with his "spaghetti of shrimps and cocoa". The dishes are prepared in front of the customers. But the term slow does not apply to the pace of the restaurant, which works according to the localvore philosophy, valuing local ingredients. A policy of sustainability is guaranteed in the operation of the establishment.

Naia the Bahianese fell in love with this place and wanted to merge her passions here, the Bahianese cuisine and the village of Barra Grande. She was right to do so. At the beginning, the establishment was a simple and rustic bar and restaurant, but over the years, La Tapera has become the most refined restaurant in Barra Grande. The dishes are prepared with all of Naia's "Bahian cooking science" and her love for local seafood ingredients. It has that little extra soul. Quite good value for money.

A great classic of French gastronomy in Salvador. "Monsieur Bernard" Goethals set foot in Bahia in 1963 and since then, this very good restaurant has delighted gourmets. Today, another French chef, Laurent Rezette, is at the piano and offers the classics of French cuisine to Soteropolitans. Lamb with port is one of the chef's specialties, and he also prepares dishes mixing French cuisine with local ingredients. The quality remains impeccable and the restaurant is a reference in Salvador.

This former ^17th-century house is certainly a romantic restaurant. Casa da Gamboa specializes in seafood. We'd particularly recommend the tasty moqueca de camarão(they must have something the others don't...), but the menu offers many other interesting dishes. One of the specialties for which diners come from all over the region is undoubtedly the lobster. One of the unmistakable flavors of the house is undoubtedly the quality of the service, the attentiveness and the smile of the team.

The Cuco Bistrô restaurant has been a real success for 10 years and is always full. Just a stone's throw from the São Francisco church, Cuco Bistrô serves fine regional cuisine. The menu features grilled quail with rice, farofa of bananas and aipim purée, or a delicious fillet of beef with red wine sauce. Try the delicious coffee caipirinha. The restaurant's Nordeste-themed decor blends with a cheerful atmosphere. The welcome is warm. An excellent address in Salvador.

Some asked for bread and games. Here, everything is in the name: wine and pizza! In a simple yet cosy white setting, behind open-air fences, guests can enjoy Italian dishes and pizzas worthy of the best restaurants in São Paulo. The latter, prepared with care and using fresh and tasty products, are available in some twenty recipes. Other dishes are on the menu, served with wine by the bottle, which the owner - who speaks French - will help you select.

This "churrascaria" offers the classic formula of restaurants of this kind: the buffet of starters (plentiful and all you can eat) is followed by a rodízio (merry-go-round) of grilled meats served on their spits by twirling waiters. All you can eat... We recommend not overdoing the starters and reserving the meats, the most noble pieces being served last... Recommended for carnivores with a big appetite. You can enjoy the breeze on the terrace to appreciate the quietness of Salvador de Bahia.

Well, actually, not one, but several restaurants offer their services at the foot of the lighthouse in the eponymous Barra district. It's not necessarily sophisticated cuisine, but you can eat and drink in a pleasant seaside setting, cooler on hot Bahian summer days. Bahian specialties, croque-monsieur, salads, beef or chicken strogonoff or more simply fruit juice, cold beer or caipirinha, you can drop in for lunch or dinner. The place is an interesting alternative to the pelourinho.

A restaurant by the kilo to get to know. The many dishes on offer are of good quality... and there's something for everyone. The "fingers food" is rather classic (cod croquettes, small hamburgers, curry sausages, cheese croquettes), but always tasty. The choice of salads and main courses is admittedly limited, as are the desserts, but they don't disappoint - quite the contrary. Dishes and drinks can be ordered. A good address.