We didn't eat at that many restaurants during our roadtrip along the coast but due to my excellent research skills and a bit of luck, we did have a few very delicious meals.
On the first day, we had lunch in Arraial do Cabo at a very well reviewed restaurant called Bacalhau do Tuga. Bacalhau means cod, and in Brazil it is usually salted and dried, and then rehydrated to make dishes of Portuguese origin. While our main wasn't actually cod, we did have a starter of the very famous Brazilian snack food, bolinho de bacalhau. I tried one once and it was a little fishy for my liking, what with the salting and drying aspect but these were absolutely delicious! Crispy on the outside, juicy and herby inside with some chilli oil to dip them in, I could have eaten two baskets full! For main we took a risk and got some fish in mango sauce. It didn't say what fish it was and I didn't ask but it was meaty, white and mild in flavour. You might remember our recent fishtastrophe of a meal in Fortaleza, when the mango sauce was like custard! Why did we order it again?! Well, I am so glad we did because it was delicious. The sauce was just the right level of sweetness while still definitely being savoury, and it came with a side of coconut farofa that blew my mind. I have never seen this on a menu before and it was hands down the best farofa experience of my life. I mean, it was still like eating sand but like the sand of a tropical island somewhere, with coconut trees all around and the baking sun toasting everything until it's crunchy and brown...fantastic. I'd also like to mention the restaurant itself, which was very quaint and the service was brilliant. 
You know I can't resist Mexican food, so getting a cheeky plate of nachos at Mr Brad in Buzios was a no-brainer! We were drawn in by the live music and promise of passion fruit caipirinhas, which we enjoyed under the canopy with a great view of the street - we love a bit of people watching! After a quick flick through the menu we settled on the nachos, which were made of yellow, red and green chips and a very generous amount of toppings. Simple and delicious! The rest of their food looked really good too.
Midway through our day of beach-hopping in Buzios we found ourselves on Geriba beach with grumbly tummies. There seemed to be mostly snacks on offer at the beach huts and we were after something more substantial, so we were very happy to come across an actual restaurant about halfway along the beach. The food was good and reasonably priced and we sat looking out at the sea, which is always a lovely way to enjoy a meal. I had a huge steak and Dave got squid, which amazingly didn't come with any carbs! The restaurant is called Fishbone and it turns out it is a very famous beach club - possibly the best and most famous in Brazil! I can't speak to the nightlife as we didn't venture back in the evening but there have been international DJs there on occasion and it is apparently a brilliant place for a night out. It is open to the elements with a relaxed vibe and relatively good service. The music that was playing while we ate was interesting and the whole place would have been at home on a riverbank in Berlin, during the summer of course!
Pimenta Siria was on our list of places to eat for two reasons. Firstly, the top rated restaurants in Buzios seem to be European, which doesn't really appeal to us at the moment. But Pimenta Siria is a Middle Eastern restaurant which (and this is the second reason we went) offers an all-you-can-eat meze kind of thing for a very reasonable price. This may only be available on Sundays, but that wasn't clear so I could be wrong. Anyway, the waiter brought us one of each item on the starter menu and then we were free to order extra portions of anything we wanted more of. So we had hummus, baba ganoush, some feta spreads, stuffed vine leaves, falafel, kofta, sish kebabs, olives, rice, cabbage salad...probably loads of other things I am forgetting but basically it was all delicious and a very welcome change from the usual Brazilian meat-and-three-carbs! And we washed it all down with a very icy beer. Yum!
One restaurant that we
wanted to eat at but didn't, was Restaurante do David. It has very good
reviews and for some reason the name really appealed to us. We didn't eat there
because we simply didn't have time but we managed to sneak in a cheeky
caipirinha (passion fruit of course) and were impressed by the service. Having
said that, the place was empty so who knows what it would be like if it was
busy? Oh and I know we've used the photo below before, but I love it!
