Ramma
Vegetarian/Natural foods, plus fish & chicken

Juracy at the door to meet people...

Ramma | Praça do Cruzeiro de São Francisco, 7, (this is the praça off of the Terreiro de Jesus, leading back to the Igreja de São Francisco; Ramma is to the right as one faces the church, before the Banco do Brasil with its big horizontal yellow and blue sign), Pelourinho | Tel. 3321-0495 | Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Ramma was originally conceived as a vegetarian/natural foods restaurant, but nowadays is not intended food just for vegetarians. The food is, however, so varied and flavorful that it's possible to eat a great meal and not miss the fact that one might not have gone for the fish or chicken. The salad bar is a world unto itself (I put the ginger-pepper dressing on food it was never intended to accompany!), the non-dessert sweets are a blessing (a statement of course calling for the cliché "and the desserts are a sin!").

Food is by weight, and a rounded meal costs some 15 reais. Fresh fruit juices are available as well.

Mama Bahia

Mama Bahia | Rua Alfredo Brito (Portas do Carmo), 21 | Pelourinho | Tel. 3322-4397 | Open for lunch and dinner, till midnight or so

Roberto Simon's establishment, with excellent steaks served on the chapa (small serving grill)...grilled fish and moquecas too. And a considerable wine list. Roberto has a Pelourinho-themed blog here: http://bahiapreciosa.blogspot.com/

Café Conosco (Coffee With Us)

At your service!

Café Conosco | Rua da Ordem Terceira do São Francisco, 04 | Pelourinho | Tel. 8111-3538

Owner Nilza Ribeiro

View from the church. Café Conosco is tucked in between two larger structures.

Bar Santa Bárbara

Bar Santa Bárbara | Feira de São Joaquim, Rua do Muro, Box 20 | Tel. 8712-5480 | Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Great breakfasts of aipim and accompaniments, great lunches including bacalhau and other fish in moqueca style, 7 reais and under. This is a true workingman's place, a mother and daughter operation, with a tiny counter and one table. Close, cramped, and... great.

Brasserie Ancienne Belgique

Brasserie Ancienne Belgique |  Rua Álvares Cabral, 10, Comércio | Tel. 3241-6337 | Monday through Wednesday until 6 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays until 10 p.m., and Saturdays until 3 p.m.

It's like one has stepped from a hot sidewalk in urban Brazil through a spacetime warp to emerge in civilized old Europe on a fresh cool day. Belgian Christiaen Peeters (to the right, in the left-hand corner back there) has brought a piece of his homeland to Salvador's downtown area, easily reached from Pelourinho via the Plano Inclinado (take the Plano Inclinado from back behind the northwest corner of Praça da Sé; emerging, walk straight ahead to the first proper street, turn right, and the Brasserie is some hundred meters along on the right).

The Brasserie's Menu

Brasserie Ancienne Belgique

Bahia Marina

Bahia Marina, on the Baía de Todos os Santos, along with performing nautical functions also is home to seven restaurants, the first to have been established being devoted to sushi and Japanese cuisine...

Soho

Soho, bayside...

Soho |  Avenida Contorno, 1010, Bahia Marina, Pier D | Tel. 3322-4554

...but don't be thinking that you'll be welcome around here in your yachting gear unless you dress like Thurston Howell, III. Although to the best of my knowledge there isn't isn't an official dress code in any of the marina restaurants (?), you'll probably be sniffed at should you enter in your bermudas, t-shirt and deck shoes or havianas (I have been a couple of times; it's never happened at Recanto das Tias though!). Standard style for restaurants such as these in Salvador is what I term "school clothes", meaning nothing elegant (that went out in the '50s, unfortunately), but you know, what your mom might have considered appropriate for a special occasion.

Soho's Site

Box do Alemão

What no lederhosen?

Box do Alemão| Avenida Juracy Magalhães, 1624, (Ceasa, Box 70) | Rio Vermelho | Tel. 3351-6660 | Open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon

Box do Alemão would be The German's Stand, as in food stand, but the owner's name is Rodolfo Ferrari and the only thing German about him are the sausages he sells and the mustard to go with them (and the derivation of his first name, perhaps). This doesn't stop him from selling the best sausage sandwiches this side of München though, the sausages handmade by a real-deal German wurstmacher (?) here in Bahia. Everything will have to be washed down by Heinekens though, if not Coca-Colas, given that German beers here are very expensive and Rodolfo is working to maintain eat-at-the counter prices.

All is also available for takeaway, packages of sausages of types only a Teuton would discern, along with German mustards...and breads and even humous and babaganoush and etc. etc. as well.

Buteco do França

Buteco do França | Rua Borges dos Reis (Orla), 24-A | Rio Vermelho | Tel. 3334-2734 | Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon to the last customer, Sundays from noon to midnight

França is the owner's name, an ex-waiter from restaurant Extudo (currently being redone) who struck out on his own. Excellent food and service, both inside and outside in the alleyway out front.

Sorriso da Dadá

Dadá and her famous smile!

Sorriso da Dadá (Dadá's Smile) has within a relatively short period of time become part and parcel of the lore of Bahia.  Dadá is Aldacir dos Santos, who arrived in Salvador from the town of Conde in the interior of Bahia at fourteen years of age to work as domestic servant.  She opened her first restaurant -- Tempero da Dadá -- behind a house in the working-class neighborhood of Alto das Pombas (Dove Heights) and from there became famous for the magic she put into traditional Bahian dishes.

The restaurant moved to a small space in Pelourinho and eventually came to assume the name it bears today, becoming de rigueur for anyone wishing to experience the cuisine of Bahia at its most subtly delicious.

Time has passed, however, and a couple other restaurants in Dadá's name have opened (Caranguejo da Dadá: on the beach at Patamares, and Varal da Dadá: in her old neighborhood of Alto das Pombas -- both of which I'll be covering shortly).  Meanwhile the restaurant in Pelourinho has taken on an upscale look (white tablecloths and wine glasses), and Dadá is seldom on the premises.  The food is okay nowadays, but without Dadá around the magic isn't there anymore.

Prices are in general 60 reais or so for dishes which serve two people.

Sorriso da Dadá is located at Rua Frei Vicente, 5, and is open daily from noon 'til midnight.  The telephone number is (71) 3321-9642.

Alaíde do Feijão

Alaíde do Feijão

Alaíde do Feijão (Alaíde of the Beans) is a small restaurant located in Pelourinho and named for the owner,  Alaíde (Ah-lah-EE-gee) da Conceição, who began cooking at her mother's side over forty years ago (at a table set up in Praça Cayru, in front of where the Mercado Modelo is now located).  Even under such simple circumstances Alaídes' mother (Maria das Neves) achieved a certain esteem, deservedly passed on to her dutiful daughter.  Alaídes' restaurant is particularly well-known and appreciated among local congnoscenti of Afro-Bahian heritage.

The food is traditional Bahian, and it is also eminently affordable, with dishes running between 5 and 10 reais (caldo de feijão -- bean soup -- is priced at 2 reais).  Feijoada, rabada, and mocotó are served seven days a week, and Bahian dishes such as vatapá and caruru are served on Fridays.  The address is Rua 12 de Outubro, 2 (down the small street to the left of the Igreja de São Francisco, and around the corner), and hours are daily from 11:30 a.m., with closing time at 7 p.m. (or so) on Sunday, 8 p.m. (or so) on Monday, and 11 p.m. (or so) Tuesdays through Saturdays.  The telephone number is 3321-3634.

Cantina da Lua

By my reckoning, this place was at one time

THE GREATEST BAR IN THE WORLD!

Now granted, there are many, many bars on this planet of ours, including many that I haven't been to, but a grooving place with hot music (live), and hot samba on wooden floors between beat up tables, in a hot (metaphorically as well as literally) place like Salvador da Bahia... well, that place can't be too far down the list.

The samba was one floor up...

Cantina da Lua (Cantina of the Moon) has for the past thirty-five years been run by Clarindo Silva, and it was for years (together with Porto do Moreira) a hangout for Bahia's bambas.  Then, beginning in 1994, Pelourinho was rebuilt (in stages, and in typical Bahian style the final stage has -- sixteen years later -- yet to be finished).  In this process Cantina da Lua was also reformed (adapting the Portuguese way of putting it to English, and I haven't utilized this adaptation lightly; "reformed" is right on the money).  But why reform the greatest bar in the world?

Hangout for the Bahian Ratpack: Sambistas Edil Pacheco, Riachão, Walmir Lima, Batatinha, and Ederaldo Gentil

Because money makes the world go 'round.  In Cantina da Lua it made the samba go away, to be replaced by comida a kilo. And if you don't have the cash in your pocket there's an ATM right there, and they take every credit card under the sun, and who am I to feel that Clarindo should have kept the place the way it was and earned less?  Still, I live with my memories of the place the way it was.

Listen to Batatinha, second from the right above and at the time the photo was taken no kid himself anymore (he passed away in '97), sing the praises of Jajá of Gamboa, an older woman who's lost none of her considerable charm...

And to give Clarindo his very substantial due, when Pelourinho was at its lowest ebb ever, having fallen to a state of degradation below even that lived by Jorge Amado's roaring cast of bohemians and gamblers, prostitutes and misfits, it was Clarindo who initiated the area's rehabilitation in part by the creation of the Tuesday night bêncão (blessing), a weekly Pelourinho-wide party.  And it was Clarindo who worked tirelessly to see that the heart of this great South American city wasn't completely destroyed, this place which has seen it all...riches, poverty, feast, famine, war, peace, slavery, liberty...a place which ironically came very close to being felled by one of the most insidious destroyers of all...neglect.

Address: Praça Quinze de Novembro (this is the official name, which nobody ever uses, the original and commonly used name being Terreiro de Jesus),

Telephone: 3322-4041

Ramma

Ramma is a natural foods restaurant in Barra, occupying an open and very tastefully done space, with food so delicious that you don't have to be natural foods "type" at all to thoroughly enjoy the place.  "Rama" is "shoot" in English (in the sense of "plant shoots"), the extra "m" having been added by owner Marina Neves upon the advice of a numerologist.

Food is buffet-style per kilo, with fish and chicken served in addition to the salads and vegetarian fare.  Location is several blocks up from the beach at Rua Lord Cochrane, 76 (Rua Lord Cochrane is a cross-street running between Rua Princesa Isabel and Avenida Marquês de Caravelas).  Hours are Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. 'til  3 p.m., and from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.  An average meal runs 15 reais or so.  Telephone is 3264-0044.

Boi Preto

Boi Preto (Black Bull) is a churrascaria, and a churrascaria is pretty much the polar opposite of a natural foods restaurant ("churrasco" being Brazilian barbecue, minus the sauce).  At most churrascarias -- including this one -- the meat is served "rodizio" style, meaning that waiters continually circulate with various cuts of beef, offering you all you want.

Boi Preto happens to be a chain out of São Paulo, but it doesn't have the ambience of a chain restaurant.  The service is fabulous and, in addition to the rodizio, Boi Preto offers a sumptuous buffet with salads and smoked salmon and lobster and shrimp and an extensive array of cheeses, and lots and lots more.  And you eat all you want and all is included in the price of the rodizio (a little over 40 reais).  It's a very good deal.

Boi Preto is located across from the Aeroclube Plaza on the Orla (Avenida Otávio Mangabeira, no number) in Armação.  Hours are Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. 'til midnight; Saturday and holidays from 11:30 a.m. 'til midnight; and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.  The telephone number is 3362-8844.

Recanto da Lua Cheia

Recanto da Lua Cheia (Hidden Away Place of the Full Moon) is located in an area called Pedra Furada (Rock With a Hole in It) -- I know, sometimes the poetry in a phrase or expression gets lost in the translation -- on the peninsula of Itapagipe not too far from the Igreja do Bonfim.  It's an informal, outside place (though a part of it has overhead covering), set among coconut palms and with a striking view of the bay.  It's also another place very popular with the locals.

Seafood is the specialty here, including crab (siri-bóia and caranguejo), lambreta, muqueca de camarão and more, all to be washed down with cold beer.  The address is Rua Rio Negro, 2, Montserrat, and the place is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Telephone is 3316-3986.

Picui

Picuis

Picui is a restaurant (several of them, actually, named for a small bird) serving the cuisine of the Northeast of Brazil (Bahia is a member state), the interior of which is a hot, dessicated land of grinding poverty.  And in the manner of Brazil's renowned national dish feijoada, which rose from its humble origins as the food of slaves making do with what wasn't wanted in the Casa Grande (Big House), the food of the Northeast has via the creativity of its denizens risen beyond mere expediency to become something truly delicious and fully satisfying.

One of the mainstays of this cuisine and a Picui specialty is carne do sol (literally "meat of the sun", salt-preserved meat which is no longer sun-cured, as in the days of yore), born of a lack of refrigeration and maintained both because it has become a part of the regional lore and because it is so highly appreciated.  Surubim no espeto (surubim on a spit) is another popular Picui favorite (surubim is a meaty freshwater fish without small bones, somewhat like catfish; it's served breaded).  Aipim frito or cozido (fried or boiled yucca), feijão tropeiro (beans with cassava flour), and manteiga da garrafa (bottled, or clarified, butter) are common accompaniments.  One order will serve two people to busting!  Prices are extremely reasonable.

Rua Melvin Jones, 91 – Jardim Armação.

Telephone: 3461-9000

Koisa Nossa

Koisa Nossa is a lively Thursday and Friday night tradition in Salvador, lambreta (steamed clams) being the specialty (accompanied by cold beer), served at tables set out on the street.  Location is the central Salvador neighborhood of Mouraria, on Travessa Engenheiro Alione, 3 (behind the Quartel General; everybody in the neighborhood knows where it is).

Açai: The Little Berry That Got Big!

The Power of the Amazon!  The Forbidden Fruit!  Açai (ah-sah-EE) has grown to become very popular in Brazil -- it's served all over the place in Salvador -- and efforts are underway to promote the spread of this popularity to Europe and the United States.

Açai is a small, very dark-blue berry for which great claims are made, the fruit of a palm tree found in the region of the Amazon (though the tree can be found as far afield as Venezula and the Brazilian state of Maranhão).  The berry can be served in a variety of ways, but is most often put into a blender with ice, guaraná, and other fruits, where it is beaten to a sherbet-like consistency and then served in a bowl.  One of the claims for the berry is that it is "energizing".  I personally doubt that açai in and of itself is any more "energizing" than any other fruit happens to be, and my unscientific assumption is that the origin of this claim lies with the guaraná that goes into the blender along with the rest of the stuff.  Guaraná energizes in (much) the same way that coffee does.

But this isn't meant to be disparaging; açai is delicious and refreshing.  It goes down well on hot days and the pick-me-up is one those "ahhh" moments.  I'm glad they have it here and I think it's deserving of wider fame, irrespective of any hyperbole.

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