Where to eat up and drink it in at the end of a hard day’s spectating .

Rio: home of the caipirinha. Arguably the easiest cocktail ever, considering it’s got only four ingredients – Cachaça, lime juice, brown sugar and crushed ice. As for the sand-fringed city’s chief contribution to world gastronomy? Well, there isn’t one really. That’s not to say you can’t eat like a king in the land of Cariocas, where a colonial past, a long history of immigration and 60 years as the South American party capital have created a food scene as vibrant and international as the Rio carnival itself. Whether it’s Japanese, Peruvian, French or Spanish, Rio’s got it all with showman chefs who have honed their craft in Paris and New York, before setting up on home soil and bringing with them the knowledge and ingredients to satisfy the most discerning crowd. MR PORTER has been lucky enough to visit Rio on a couple of occasions and has drawn up a list of its fail-safe favourites.

Irajá Gastro

A schlep to the up-and-coming Botafogo district is a step back in time to a Rio that predates the beachfront boom of the 1960s, when the residential tower blocks rose up on Copacabana and Ipanema. Housed in a renovated 1930s colonial townhouse, Irajá Gastro reinvents classic Brazilian dishes such as galinhada, a rich chicken stew with a poached egg and corn purée. Italian fare, such as risotto and gnudi, is also available, plus a juicy house burger and hot brigadeiro chocolate cake. You can dine in a modern, naturally lit extension or the more traditional dark-wood dining room. This place is one of the reasons this area is fast becoming a gastro-hub – don’t miss out.

What to order: pork ribs with a special version of the classic bean-and-bacon tropeiro.

Aprazível

This hillside restaurant in bohemian Santa Teresa is accessed via a lift, which takes you down a cliff onto an open-air terrace with views stretching all the way to Guanabara Bay. Request a table in the treehouse, amid the bamboo fronds and plaited palms, and order a caipirinha do maracuja (passionfruit, above). While Sunday lunch here is a ritual for wealthy Rio folk, the restaurant is best appreciated at night as the stars and city lights try and out-twinkle each other. The kitchen is run by Ms Ana Castilho, and her sons, Messrs João and Pedro Hermeto, have taken the business in a new direction with own-brand coffee and beer. Most of the ingredients are sourced from organic and sustainable farms around the country.

What to order: palmito fresco assado (freshly baked palm heart), followed by sacred lamb (slowly braised shoulder) with crunchy sweet potato.

CT Boucherie

A Brazilian take on a French bistro? That’ll never work. Well, with a pair of Bourgogne-born brothers at the helm, it has. Messrs Claude and Thomas Troisgros scoured the country to find the best breeders of Angus, Hereford and Wagyu beef for their meat mecca, which has 15 different cuts sizzling on the grill every night, plus extra roasted options such as rib of beef. This 50-cover restaurant in the heart of Leblon is cosy, with brick tiles, leather banquettes and tea-towel napkins. Only problem is, you’ll need to run the length of Copacabana beach the next morning to work off the calories.

What to order: what not to order is a better question. The bife de Ancho (black Angus) with mashed potato is dreamy, and even better when paired with a punchy Argentinian Malbec.

Sushi Leblon

If you want to see Rio’s most gorgeous actually gorging, then book a table at Sushi Leblon. And yes, you do need to book – a week in advance is recommended. This sleek and intimate restaurant in upmarket Leblon serves waistline-friendly sushi and ceviche made from salmon, mahi mahi and sea urchin. It is dimly lit, but bright enough that you can make out the Victoria’s Secret model in the corner. Centre-stage is a triangular counter where chefs slice and dice, and there’s a small terrace on the street where you might spot a fashion photographer treating his crew to maki rolls after a long day’s shooting. The kitchen’s open until 1.30am, so you can chance it by showing up after 11pm and charming the glamorous clipboard dictator into putting you top of the waiting list. But this is Rio – people go out late and meals last for ever.

What to order: a sushi/sashimi platter and a side of prawn tempura.

Lasai

Mr Rafael Costa e Silva trained in the Michelin-starred kitchens of Vong in New York and Mugaritz in Spain before heading home to Rio to set up Lasai. The menu is very much inspired by the meat, fish and poultry dishes of the Basque Country, but relies on hand-picked farms around the country to provide raw, free-range cow’s milk cheeses and organic veg. So devoted is he to the cause, he has planted a kitchen garden that produces corn and herbs and keeps hens. The menu changes daily, depending on what’s been delivered, what’s in season and the chef’s whim, which is seldom anything but on the money. Located in the northern end of Humaitá, in an airily refurbished colonial property, it has an excellent rooftop bar in which to while away the time before dinner, so arrive early and arrive hungry.

What to order: the Don’t Mess With Me dining experience, a 13-course tasting menu, which changes every day.

Plage Café

The park at the base of the Corcovado mountain (home to Christ the Redeemer) is a place for nascent couples to steal kisses among the subtropical shrubs, free from the prying eyes of protective parents (the norm is to live at home until you marry in Rio). But all that romancing means you quickly work up an appetite. Within the park is a café-cum-restaurant in the atrium of an 1920s colonial-style mansion turned school of visual arts. The setting and the people watching are a feast for the eyes, and the food is, well, fine.

What to order: a breakfast of scrambled eggs, coffee and orange juice while you plan the day ahead.