One of the biggest names in Rio’s cocktail scene, Jessica Sanchez commands this high-concept bar situated in Vogue Square at Barra da Tijuca. Many of her signature drinks feature handcrafted Brazilian ingredients like catuaba, aged cachaça, and native honey. Vizinho also offers plenty of excellent food options — guacamole, oysters, a pastrami sandwich — to balance out the booze. [$$]

Of all the city’s neighborhoods, Tijuca is the one that best reflects the bohemian aura of Rio de Janiero. It’s no wonder, then, that this is where you’ll find some of the best bars in the city. Da Gema is one of the finest, with an unbeatable list of fried bites, like polenta topped with oxtail ragu, shrimp rissoles, and the famous coxinha. Of course, you can wash everything down with glasses of cold beer and caipirinhas. [$]

Beloved for its burgers — which come with toppings like homemade cheddar, caramelized purple onion, and paprika mayo — Bar do Momo is in the thick of the of Tijuca, a densely populated neighborhood that's equal parts live music, tipsy soccer fans, and school-uniformed teenagers chattering in its wide plazas. It’s the kind of place where you'll see shoulder-clapping friends ordering round after round until the managers make it extremely clear they are closing down — at 10:30 p.m. on weekdays, relatively early for a bar in Rio. [$]

Chef Pedro Siqueira is famous for his fresh pasta, prepared in his cheerful restaurant in the Leblon neighborhood. His latest addition to the Massa kitchen is a pizza oven, which now cooks up the same famous pizzas he and partner Marcos Cerutti already serve at Ella, a Neapolitan pizzeria in Rio’s Botanical Garden. He since added Ella to the restaurant’s name, and now Massa + Ella serves sandwiches, Siqueira’s signature pastas (like his seafood fettuccini), and slow-rise, naturally leavened pizza with inventive toppings like Brazil nuts, chile jam, and sesame sprout to please all tastes. [$$]

The first izakaya in the city, Pabu serves classic Japanese drinking foods at a rowdy U-shaped counter. Belly up for traditional izakaya dishes like pork gyoza dumplings, grilled beef tongue, fried oysters, ramen, and bao. Once a month, a charcoal grill puts out top-notch yakitori. [$$]

In the heat of Rio, sometimes all one wants for a meal is a big glass of cold juice. At this classic chain, juice options vary from native fruits like cajá, graviola, and carambola to more common ones, like avocado, pineapple, and pitaya. It’s a tasty way to stay hydrated. [$]

Crowned Latin America’s Best Female Chef in 2015, chef Roberta Sudbrack is hard at work at her latest restaurant in the jungle neighborhood of Jardim Botânico. Sud differs from her previous restaurants: it takes no reservations, offers no wine list, and has only 12 tables. Sudbrack also gave up on her usual tasting-menu formula, instead embracing the kind of uncomplicated dishes she’d serve in her own home, but with fine dining-quality technique, service, and ingredients. [$$]

Mil Frutas means “a thousand fruits,” and while the selection of tropical sorbets offered at this this popular ice cream shop is closer to 100, the bounty is no less impressive. Cool down with a few refreshing scoops flavored with rare and native fruits, like mangaba, araçá, and umbu. [$]

In this long-established restaurant in the Ipanema neighborhood, wild fish, sustainable seafood, and organic vegetables show up in elegant, modern preparations by chef Lira Muller. You’ll also find Brazilian classics like picadinho (a Brazilian beef stew) and feijoada (a black bean stew). For the last 20 years, restaurateur Cristiana Beltrão has worked tirelessly to ensure the restaurant never feels dated, keeping an eye on trends around the world. Open all day, this is an excellent option for a daytime bite. Pro tip: The front area has the perfect atmosphere for a post-beach snack. [$$]

Rum is the star at this hip three-floor bar and restaurant located in the Ipanema neighborhood. At the large counter, lead bartender Tai Barbin creates signature versions of rum-based cocktails like mojitos and daiquiris, as well as creations with alternate spirits to please all tastes. In the kitchen, New York-born chef Bruno Katz cooks up steak tartare with fries, shrimp risotto, and octopus pastel with citrus aioli. During the weekends, the rooftop hosts lively parties.  [$$]

Thomas Troigros has a tough challenge: he not only needs to uphold the reputation of his renowned French family, but also continue the work that his father, Claude Troisgros (a beloved celebrity chef in Brazil), began more than three decades ago at Olympe, making it one of Rio’s premier gastronomic gems. He manages to succeed in both, while forging his own path, cooking his signature dishes with finesse — plates like tortellini with five varieties of tubers, sea snails with watercress, and stingray with citrus and quinoa. [$$$]

Most beachside bars in Rio are a wet-bathing-suit and sandy-feet affair, but in Bar Astor's plush booths and cool lighting, you'll find diners in spy movie attire and breezy beachwear alike. In a prime location at the tail end of Ipanema, Astor has developed citywide acclaim for its cocktails, oysters, and mussels. Its weekend specials are more decadent: oxtail with polenta and pork-and-black-bean stew. To complete the Carmen Sandiego vibe, hop next door to the dim lights of the Barreto-Londra bar in the stylish Fasano hotel. [$$]

This fancy open-air kiosk has reinvented beach food. Instead of the usual sand snacks like cheese curds and pasteis, here you’ll find tuna carpaccio, steak tartare, and other cold and raw dishes that pair well with the city’s high temps. Marea serves excellent breakfast and lunch on the waterfront, but the best time to sit with a cocktail — maybe a stellar G&T — is at dusk, with the view of the sunset over Arpoador. [$$]

After gaining acclaim as one of the best chefs in São Paulo, Alberto Landgraf moved to Rio and took his time figuring out his next move. The answer, finally, is Oteque, where Landgraf takes his dedication to quality ingredients to an even higher level. (He installed an aquarium in the kitchen to have easy access to the freshest seafood possible.) Landgraf is a very meticulous cook, and his tasting menus reflect that, with creative dishes, precise techniques, layers of flavors, and purposeful textures. The restaurant also has great service and one of the best drinking programs in the country, focused on natural wines. [$$$]

This health-focused vegetarian bistro is the passion project of chef Nathalie Passos, who studied at Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Here she highlights organic ingredients from small, local farmers in the region in dishes like sweet potato gnocchi with almond milk bechamel and a plant-based version of the traditional Brazilian feijoada, made with beans, squash, smoked tofu, and a flaxseed, kale, and carrot farofa. The restaurant has also a new cozy branch in Ipanema. [$$]

Their acclaimed, naturally fermented bread has long been available wholesale, but Rafael Brito Pereira and Lud Espíndola finally opened a place where the public could come for freshly baked sourdough loaves, ciabatta, and baguettes. In an industrial space in Botafogo, the couple runs this modern bakery and cafe, with a menu of sandwiches, tartines (try the one with goat cheese and roasted tomatoes), coffee, and more. Come for breakfast, but don’t leave without a loaf to take home. [$$]

The essential postcard from Rio’s dining scene, Aprazível is built into a sloping garden in the bohemian neighborhood of Santa Teresa. The fare is contemporary Brazilian, with dishes like grilled heart of palm, as well as dressed-up comfort food, like pão de queijo stuffed with sausage and tapioca couscous with squid and dried shrimp. Aprazível also offers its own house brew, which you can sip while you linger over starfruit, passionfruit, or ginger caipirinhas from one of the open-air decks, with the city lights below. [$$$]

Tucked away just a few blocks from the Copacabana beach, Adega Pérola is essentially a boteco, a no-frills bar where you shout your order for petiscos (Brazilian tapas) like smoked haddock and cod croquettes, over the din of the bustling bar. Most drinkers are there for the fish, but the goat cheese and artichokes are just as good. [$$]

Pé sujos (“dirty feet”) are, by definition, casual, anonymous, interchangeable bars: the same fluorescent lights, the same shots of hard liquor, the same uninspiring soupy potato-and-beef options on display behind their glass. Pavão Azul (“Blue Peacock”) maintains the classic aesthetic but offers some fine snacks to go with it. Diehards say the cod fritters are among the best ones in Rio, but the pasteis are also worth trying. Business has been so steady that another location opened up just across the street, known as Pavãozinho, or, Little Peacock. [$]

CoLAB is a collaborative restaurant and bar space dedicated to serving locally made products like kombuchas, teas, and beers. There’s food, too — everything from hot dogs to curries to falafel. On weekends, the modernist-looking space serves one of the best American brunches in town, with huevos rancheros, thick pancakes, and pastries worth waking up for. [$$]

South Ferro is the Botafogo-based sibling of Ferro e Farinha, a modern pizzeria from New York-native chef Sei Shiroma. Here, you’ll find the naturally leavened, slow-rise pizzas that made him famous, as well as dumplings and other dishes inspired by his Chinese heritage and a selection of French pastries. [$$]

You can now find dishes from some of the best botecos in the city — Botero, Cachambeer, Front Bar, and Momo — all served at the same address in the hip Botafogo neighborhood. With permission from the owners of these famous botecos, Liga lovingly reproduces the specialties of each, including ham hock croquettes, baked heart of palm topped with shrimp and cream cheese, and Brazil’s iconic coxinhas (chicken croquettes). [$$]

Café Secreto is, as the name would suggest, a well-kept secret among area coffee lovers. Located in the quiet village of Largo do Machado in Catete, the shop specializes in locally grown and locally roasted beans (though not exclusively). And while espresso is the focus, Secreto also offers alternative extraction methods, including AeroPress and Kalita, as well as weather-appropriate cold brews and espresso tonics. [$]

A very welcome newcomer to the feira (open-air market) circuit, Junta Local is where up-and-coming Rio chefs show off their culinary chops. The lineup for Junta varies based on the capacity of the locations that host them, but you'll make your way through the feira nibbling on things like hand-crafted cheese plates and falafel, then head home with your arms filled with jars of Italian antipasti and crisp Brazilian wines. [$$]

Located in the historic Copacabana Palace hotel, this homage to the acclaimed Cipriani bar in Venice delivers one of the best Italian experiences in town. Since the arrival of Neapolitan chef Nello Cassese, the menu has skewed modern and fresh, with dishes like a version of the classic Caprese salad with scallops, a daily risotto (one recent version featured eel, pear, and foie gras), and plenty of handmade pastas. [$$$]

From the outside, this 50-year-old Flamengo institution looks like a speakeasy, but inside, it serves some of the city’s best cuts of beef, which are grilled over an open flame — the heart of churrasco culture, which for many Brazilians is restricted to prime cuts of meat and coarse salt. Nowadays, Majórica is run by the daughter of one of the original Spanish owners and a Galician-born janitor who worked his way up the chain. The other can’t-miss option is the picanha — plump disks of sirloin cap — served fresh off the grill. [$$$]

This chicken-focused bar is one of Rio’s most illustrious bohemian institutions, where people flock throughout the night over plates of crisp-roasted galeto (three-month-old chicken) and cups and cups of beer. The Copacabana icon now has a second branch in Botafogo with a much larger area to welcome all the night owls hungry for seasoned chicken hearts, garlic bread, and the essential eggs farofa.

You’d never guess some of Rio’s best coffee is served on the second floor of its otherwise uninspiring downtown bus terminal. For the folks behind Curto, the payment is optional — in the front of the shop are large chalkboards that detail costs and suggest a baseline contribution. But the coffee, which is sourced directly from Brazilian farmers, is easily worth more than the asking price. Curto is equal parts hipsters and men in suits — its most faithful caffeine clients are from the Rio state courthouse nearby — and maintains an impressive sense of leisureliness even during its packed lunch hours. [$]