A local Rio food tour guide recommended Bar Urca to us after we discovered his tour group was full. The best way to venture down to Urca is after a visit to Sugarloaf Mountain. After we descdended Sugarloaf by cable car, we hopped into a taxi for the 5 minute ride to Bar Urca. It was a short cab ride, but in the heat, it would make for an arduous walk.
Food
The bar is known for its deep fried bar snacks, such as codfish fritters, but we opted to order from the regular menu while at the bar. The portions are huge, so plan on sharing! We ordered deep fried battered shrimp, octopus ceviche and caldinho de frutos do mar (a rich, thick seafood broth). We turned a lot of heads walking with our large plates of food towards our perch along the seawall. We washed everything down with some serious lime caipirinhas. There was at least 1/3 cup of brandy in that bevie! The price didn’t come cheap though for standing-room only “bar food” (our naïveté for ordering from the menu instead of getting fried snacks).
The Other Stuff
As with many other service-based places in Rio de Janeiro, the servers at Bar Urca did not speak a word of English. Bar snacks were easier to order as you could simply point through the glass. We found a poster of what we wanted to order and pointed to the photos of shrimp, soup and ceviche.
The restaurant is located on the second floor, but most people just go to to the walk-up bar on the lower level for bar snacks to eat along the seawall with scenic views of Guanabara Bay (there is no sitting area on the lower level of Bar Urca). The vibe was so relaxing and laid back. We ended up with too much food and started offering our extra fried shrimp to other people along the wall.
Bar Urca
Lunch for 2 (with cocktails): 142 Real ($45USD)
Location: Rua Cândido Gaffrée, 205, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Planning Tip: The traffic in front of Bar Urca was very congested and it was difficult to find a taxi back to Rio. We ended up getting on a random public bus ($3R/95¢USD) back to the base of Sugarloaf Mountain to catch on one of the many taxis there back to Rio
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