What to eat in Brazil - Restaurante por quilo

The most common restaurant in the cities of Brazil is the "Per kilo restaurant" (Restaurante por quilo). This model of restaurant has started in the 90s, and it's just expanding everywhere in the country ever since.

What is the concept?

The restaurant prepares the food and present it in a self-service buffet. You get a plate, fill it with all you want to it, and that the end, there is a balance where you weight your meal. So, the restaurant doesn't have to present a huge menu with difference prices, but just a price for the kilo.

Example of how the food is exposed

Pick your food

You can have vegetarian per kilo restaurant, asian per kilo restaurant, but the most common has a salad corner, hot food corner (where there must be rice, beans, fries, chicken and cow meat), and some of them will also count with a barbecue corner (churrasco).

One of the biggest risks you have on a "per kilo restaurant" is not planning your dish, and putting loads of things inside, mixing asian with italian food, and at the end, you have a plate weighting almost a kilo, with more than you need, and with food that does not necessarily goes well together. So before starting serving yourself, take a look at the global offer and plan.

As I don't eat meat, my plates are always a bit funny

At the end, you pay for what you've eaten. The servers will only go to your table to offer you drinks. Take the opportunity to try some of the juices, but remember to say "sem açúcar" if you don't want any sugar added, and don't expect it to be cheap.

If you ever go to Campinas or São Paulo, Raízes Zen is a vegetarian restaurant I definitely recommend.