Best Burgers in Belo Horizonte: Bar Capital

The best burgers in Belo Horizonte are in Savassi and Lourdes, the dense dining districts just south of the centre, in bohemian Santa Tereza to the east and around the Pampulha lake. BH is a bar city first, so many of its best burgers come out of botecos and craft beer bars rather than dedicated burger restaurants.

Belo Horizonte calls itself Brazil’s bar capital, and the Comida di Buteco contest, launched here in 2000, turned bar snacks into a citywide competition. Minas Gerais adds its own pantry: fresh queijo minas, aged artisanal cheeses such as canastra, pão de queijo and the pork-heavy dishes of comida mineira. At the Mercado Central, fígado com jiló, liver with a bitter local vegetable, eaten with a cold beer at the counter, is the classic Saturday order.

Burgers in Belo Horizonte: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: Savassi, Lourdes, Funcionários, Santa Tereza and Pampulha.
• Local specialty: Minas Gerais cheeses, from fresh queijo minas to aged canastra.
• Bar culture: Comida di Buteco, the bar-snack contest founded in Belo Horizonte.
• What to look for: a burger topped with a Minas cheese the kitchen can name, and served in a boteco that takes its food as seriously as its beer.
• Currency: Brazilian real (BRL).

Every guide we publish on Belo Horizonte is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. To compare BH with other cities, see our burger restaurant guides.