What to Eat in Paraty: A Caicara and Cachaca Food Guide (2026)

Paraty food is coastal and layered. Its everyday cooking is Caicara, the cuisine of the traditional fishing communities of the Costa Verde, which blends indigenous, Portuguese and African traditions around what the sea and the forest give: fish, shrimp, cassava, banana and coconut. And its drink is cachaca, the sugarcane spirit that this town produced so famously that, for a couple of centuries, "parati" simply meant cachaca across Brazil. Eat well in Paraty and you are really eating from the sea and drinking from the sugar mill. This guide covers the dishes worth seeking out and where the food culture lives, and it pairs naturally with a slow walk on one of our Paraty self-guided tours.

The dishes to seek out

Moqueca. The signature dish: a fragrant stew of fish or shrimp slow-cooked with tomato, onion, garlic and coriander, and, in the coastal Rio and Espirito Santo styles you find here, coconut milk and dende (palm) oil that turn the broth rich and golden. It arrives bubbling in a clay pot over rice, built around the day catch. If you order one thing in Paraty, order this.

Camarao casadinho. A local Caicara symbol whose name means "little married shrimp": succulent prawns stuffed with a filling made from smaller shrimp, so the dish is shrimp inside shrimp. Rich, sweet and unmistakably of this coast.

Fish with banana and pirao. A classic Costa Verde plate: local fish such as snook, grouper or mullet served with banana and pirao, a savory sauce thickened with the fish broth and cassava (manioc) flour. It is the everyday backbone of Caicara cooking, humble and deeply satisfying.

From the sea. Beyond those, the menus run on grilled whole fish, octopus (often as a vinaigrette salad), squid and shrimp in every form. Rice, beans and cassava anchor the plate.

Cachaca. Not a dish but the town defining flavor. Paraty was one of colonial Brazil great cachaca producers, and its spirit was so prized that the town name became slang for the drink. Taste it neat at an alambique (distillery), in a caipirinha built with local labels, or infused with fruit and spice. For the full story, the companion on the cachaca heritage that named the town is the deeper read.

Where the food culture lives

The historic center, for atmosphere. The lanes of the car-free colonial grid are lined with restaurants in restored houses, from Caicara kitchens celebrating local seafood and clever use of banana and palm heart to cachaca bars pouring the region labels. Prices climb near the main square, so step a block or two off it for better value.

The bay islands and inlets, for the real thing. Some of the most memorable seafood in Paraty is eaten at simple, family-run spots on the beaches and inlets of the bay, reached by the same schooner and small-boat trips that draw visitors onto the water. Fish caught that morning, cooked simply, eaten with your feet near the sand. If a boat day is in your plans, ask the captain where the good table is.

The alambiques, for cachaca. Several distilleries near town welcome visitors to see the sugarcane pressed and distilled and to taste the spirit at the source, everyday grades through aged and infused bottlings. It is the deepest expression of the tradition that gave Paraty its name. Walk the town side of that story on the Cachaca, Sea, and the Tide-Washed Streets tour, which follows the tide from the schooner pier through the cachaca heritage that floated out on it.

Eat as you walk

The best way to work through this list is on foot, one part of town at a time. Pair a morning of the four churches with a Caicara seafood lunch, a midday boat trip with a fish plate on the sand, and an evening in the historic center with a cachaca and a moqueca. Route your day with the one day in Paraty itinerary, plan the practical side with the Paraty travel guide, and browse all Paraty tours. Every tour is free to start, with roughly the first 30% of stops unlocked before an optional purchase.