Brazil’s Restaurant Boom Shows A Different Side Of The Country

Key Points

1. Six Brazilian restaurants are now in Latin America’s top 50, with sixteen in the top 100.
2. São Paulo has become the region’s main fine-dining hub, driven by private initiative and competition.
3. The ranking turns Brazilian restaurants into magnets for high-spending tourism and global attention.

If you only know Brazil for football, beaches and noisy politics, the new Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list tells a different story. Six of the top 50 and ten more in the 51–100 range are Brazilian, with a clear epicentre: São Paulo.

Tuju, in São Paulo, leads the Brazilian group at 8th place. Close behind are Nelita in 12th, Lasai in Rio de Janeiro in 13th, Evvai in 20th, A Casa do Porco in 25th and Oteque in Rio in 38th.

Each one shows another face of the country: from A Casa do Porco’s pork-focused menu in the old city centre to Lasai’s calm vegetable-driven tasting menu above Botafogo.

Further down the ranking, Brazil’s presence spreads out. Salvador appears with Origem and Manga, Curitiba with Manu, and São Paulo adds Kotori, Metzi, Oseille, Cepa, Maní, D.O.M. and Notiê.

In total, sixteen Brazilian restaurants make the regional top 100, a result that puts the country alongside established food powers in Latin America.

Behind this is a voting system run by the same group that organises the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Three hundred chefs, critics and food writers from across Latin America vote for ten restaurants each, based on places they have visited in the last 18 months.

At least four of their votes must go to restaurants outside their own country, which makes it harder for any one scene to dominate by nationalism or noise.

For expats, investors and curious travellers, the message is simple. There is a side of Brazil that advances not through speeches, but through dining rooms that train staff, pay suppliers and attract international guests.

When a neighbourhood in São Paulo or Salvador lands on this list, it is because someone took a risk, built a team and let paying customers, not political slogans, decide whether the story on the plate is worth crossing an ocean for.

Brazilian Restaurants Ranked 51–100

Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America