Food Recommendations?

Try Santa Teresa or the world famous Bar Bico, the best bar/café in the Manhattan carioca.

I'm not from Rio de Janeiro and I never went there -unhappily. I live almost 3 hours from there and I'm considering to go to Rio next year, but here in Brazil we have some good restaurants for a good low price, I honestly love the Brazilian food and I recommend taste all you can eat, not jsut one special thing. If you can, walk and search for humble places to eat -but it needs to seem clean enough. You should give more importance to neighborhoods that are not widely known, they have the best prices.

I'll tell you just one thing: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, Rio de Janeiro is a dangerous place even for us. I don't know where you will be staying there, but if you could come with people who knows the city, it's better.

Pay attention wherever you go and you will enjoy some of the best cities of the world!

Have a good trip!

Try their fruit juices and the açaí from Bibi Sucos or Big Polis (there are lots of them in the city). Very good for hot days and after the beach.

Hi!! Hope you love the food! Is really good!! Some very good snaks (you find everywhere): Very good!! 

Pão de queijo  

Pastel (I love the cheese one) 

Coxinha 

Biscoito Globo 

We have a lot of self service restaurants! You have a lot of kinds of food and pay just what you eat 

Some very good ones: 

Papa Fina at Ipanema  

Delírio Tropical - Teófilo Otoni at Ipanema  

Fronteira

 In downtown try a restaurant called Tarantino Restaurante! Excellent! 

 Bars: try the food "Empada de Siri" and the "Chopp Brahma Black" at Boteco Belmonte!  

We love the Belgium bar Delirium Café in Ipanema! Eat the baby beef w fries!

After traveling around Brazil for several weeks, Rio de Janeiro was a bit of a let-down in the culinary department (I'd tried several local specialties elsewhere, at much lower prices). But the nice thing about Rio is you have the chance to try stuff from different parts of the country. I'd definitely encourage you to seek out hole-in-the-wall-type places - those were where I found my favorite, most memorable meals.

MaryRe is so right about the fruit juice. My favorite combo was pineapple and mint. Sounded strange, but was amazing. Try a Caipirinha and a Guaraná soda as well.

Brazil does salgadinhos (little fried things/bar snacks) really well. Everyone mentions pão de quiejo and coxinhas, but I wasn't sold on either - I'm not a big fan of the pale, creamy cheese used - ymmv. What I loved were empadas, pastéis, and bolinhos, filled with shrimp, fish, or chicken.

Other things I enjoyed trying included tacacá (a mouth-numbing shrimp soup) in Manaus, acarajé (shrimp fritter sandwiches) in Salvador Bahia, and feijoada completa (black bean and pork stew) in Olinda. You can find all of these around Rio, and you at least have to try feijoada before leaving Brazil!