Allen R.
Yelp
We had eaten lunch on Copacabana beach and all I wanted was a grab-and-go bakery that had all the Brazilian pastries and sweets I had been craving the entire trip. At the least, Portuguese egg tarts and brigadeiros aka the only Brazilian desserts I know. Is that too much to ask for my lil' ole' sweet toof? Well, it's harder than you think to find such a bakery, especially if you don't want to go to an actual sit-down restaurant or any of the beach kiosks in Copacabana. And no, ice cream and acai were not satisfying to lil' sweet toof. Sweet toof was angry and demanding and wanted pastries.
TGCC, Thank Goodness for Confeitaria Colombo! We decided to visit Fort Copacabana since it was so close and walkable to where we ate lunch. You have to enter Fort Copacabana to get to Confeitaria Colombo, which requires a payment of like 6 reals for adults (CASH ONLY). That was less than $3 usd each, so who are we to argue?
The Fort itself is pretty interesting with lots to see and good-looking military men, but after looking around at the big cannons (pun inten...ah forget it) and the barracks blah blah, we saw that Confeitaria Colombo was extremely popular. It seemed like a mix of locals and tourists, but probably more tourists. I don't know how the food tastes, but it was an hour wait and the tables outside had a killer view of the ocean and Rio, but we were not willing to eat another lunch just for the view. I know it was an hour wait because I tried to do it the right way and asked if we could get a table, but the hostess told me the wait time and I just straight up got to the point, DO YOU HAVE BRIGADEIROS AND HOW DO I GET ONE EASILY? To my surprise, she said yes and told me to go to the dessert case inside and order at the counter. HALLELUJAH!!
And what a dessert case it was!! It had everything I needed and more. Portuguese egg tarts, brigadeiros, luscious multi-layer cakes, long things, short things, round things, square things, balls of smooth and rough sweet things, and tarts with swirls and crumbles and powder OH MY, I straight up went Willy Wonka insane--like imagine that part when they go through that tunnel of terror. THAT WAS ME. You're supposed to decide what you want, walk over and tell the cashier and pay and they give you a receipt to give to someone behind the counter to get your desserts. Although there were labels, I had no idea what was what so I kept trying to communicate to the cashier (and failing) that I need to point to what I wanted. The girl didn't understand but luckily a server walking by figured out what I was trying to do and we successfully point-communicated. I will say, if you have questions about desserts, it's kinda hard to flag anyone down to describe things (especially in English) as all the servers are running around, so your best bet is to just get a bunch of things that look good and try them all. NO ASKIE, JUST EATIE.
Again, I don't know how the food here tastes, it looked kinda pricey and didn't look too special, but based on the desserts alone and the fact that it satisfies a sweet tooth/bakery/grab-and-go niche in the area that I couldn't find anywhere else, I would say I'm a fan! If you have a sweet tooth and happen to be visiting Fort Copacabana, which is highly likely, I say you stop by, get your desserts and find one of the many benches nearby to eat them with some great views. And remember to bring cash/reals for entry to the Fort!