What Is Brazilian Style Pizza? The Answer Is on the Menu

Ask what is Brazilian style pizza and you usually get adjectives back — thin, crispy, generous, authentic. None are wrong; none tell you anything you can act on. A more useful answer is structural: there are things a Brazilian pizzeria does that an American or Italian one generally does not, and each one is visible on Pie-fection Pizza’s full menu as a specific pie at a specific price.

What Is Brazilian Style Pizza Doing With a Dessert Course?

This is the biggest difference. In Brazil, sweet pizza is not a novelty bolted onto the end of a menu — it is the second half of the meal, ordered as a matter of course after the savory round.

Pie-fection carries nine. Brigadeiro is the condensed-milk-and-chocolate classic (Sm $20 / Lg $34). Romeo and Juliet pairs guava with cheese (Sm $20 / Lg $34). A Churros pizza brings dulce de leche and cinnamon (Sm $22 / Lg $36), and Banoffee tops the range (Sm $25 / Lg $39).

The proof it is structural rather than decorative is how Pizza Party catering is timed: savory pizzas run the first two hours, sweet pizzas take over until the event closes. That sequence is the Brazilian meal, written into a schedule.

What Is Brazilian Style Pizza Built On? Three Ingredients

Catupiry is a Brazilian creamy cheese spread — mild, almost pourable, nothing like American cream cheese. In Brazil it works as a base ingredient rather than a specialty topping, and the menu reflects that scale. Five pizzas are named for it: Chicken Catupiry (Sm $23 / Lg $38), then Corn, Shrimp, Canadian Ham and Heart of Palms at Sm $24 / Lg $39. It is also inside Two, Four and Five Cheese, in two calzones (Med $32), in the namesake Pie-fection pie (Sm $25), and a $12 add-on to the sliced picanha.

Calabresa is the second: a cured, lightly smoked Brazilian sausage, coarser and less sweet than Italian sausage, anchoring its own pizza with Kalamata olives (Sm $21 / Lg $35). Carne seca — salt-cured jerked beef — is the third, on the Paraíba pizza with caramelized banana and a touch of Catupiry (Sm $25) and in the Escondidinho de Carne Seca appetizer ($18).

Then there is how much goes on top. “Abundant” is the word everyone reaches for; the count is more convincing. The Portuguese pizza carries eight components for $24 as a small. Jardineira carries seven, all vegetable (Sm $21). Set those against a Pepperoni at Sm $15 and the pricing logic is clear — you are paying for how many things are on the pie, not for size, because this is built as a full plate rather than a shared snack. The appetizer list follows suit: coxinha, the teardrop chicken croquette ($12), and a picanha skewer ($11).

Where to Test the Answer for Yourself

Three Central Florida restaurants, each with its own hours.

Orlando (Metrowest) — 3120 S Kirkman Rd, Orlando, FL 32811, (407) 523-2200. Closed Mondays; Tue–Thu 5:00 PM–11:00 PM, Fri–Sat 4:00 PM–12:00 AM, Sun 5:00 PM–11:00 PM. The only location running All You Can Eat: Tuesday through Thursday, 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM, 23 flavors across savory and sweet, dine-in, from $25 per adult with a two-person minimum or $28.99 solo. Use online ordering for Metrowest or book an Orlando reservation on OpenTable.

Kissimmee — 720 Centerview Blvd, Kissimmee, FL 34741, (407) 603-0123. Mon–Thu 4:00 PM–11:00 PM, Fri–Sat 4:00 PM–12:00 AM, Sun 5:00 PM–11:00 PM. Use online ordering for Kissimmee or a Kissimmee reservation on OpenTable.

Windermere — 13211 Reams Rd Suite 108, Windermere, FL 34786, (407) 720-4001. The only one open for lunch: Mon–Thu 5:00 PM–11:00 PM, Fri–Sat 12:00 PM–12:00 AM, Sun 12:00 PM–11:00 PM. Go through online ordering for Windermere or the Windermere reservation on OpenTable. Questions go to info@piefectionpizza.com.

So What Is Brazilian Style Pizza, in One Line?

A pizza built as a full meal, finished with a sweet course, leaning on three ingredients most American kitchens never stock. Everything else is variation.

Testing it costs less if you time it right. The current specials include SWEETFREE, which adds a free small sweet pizza to any two large pizzas Monday through Thursday — the dessert course comes free on the exact nights you would want to try it. On weekends FREESODA adds a two-liter to the same order, and pie10 takes 10% off online orders over $50; mozzarella and pepperoni are excluded from both pizza deals. Pie-fection has been refining this menu in Central Florida since 2011, when José Emanuel — known as Maninho — opened the first restaurant with his family in Orlando.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Brazilian style pizza the same as Italian pizza?

They share a crust and little else in structure. Brazilian pizzerias treat sweet pizza as a second course rather than a novelty, build savory pies with far more toppings, and use ingredients Italian kitchens do not — Catupiry cheese spread, calabresa sausage and carne seca. Pie-fection carries nine sweet pizzas alongside its savory menu.

What is Catupiry, and why is it on so many pizzas?

Catupiry is a Brazilian creamy cheese spread — mild and almost pourable, nothing like American cream cheese. In Brazil it functions as a base ingredient, so it appears widely: five pizzas named for it at Pie-fection, plus Two, Four and Five Cheese, two calzones at $32, the namesake Pie-fection pie at $25, and a $12 add-on to the sliced picanha.

Where can I try Brazilian style pizza in Central Florida?

At all three Pie-fection restaurants. Orlando Metrowest, 3120 S Kirkman Rd, closed Mondays — call (407) 523-2200. Kissimmee, 720 Centerview Blvd, opens 4:00 PM Monday to Saturday — (407) 603-0123. Windermere, 13211 Reams Rd Suite 108, is the only one serving lunch, from 12:00 PM Friday through Sunday — (407) 720-4001.

What is the cheapest way to try both savory and sweet?

Two options. All You Can Eat at Metrowest only, Tuesday through Thursday 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM, covers 23 savory and sweet flavors from $25 per adult with a two-person minimum, or $28.99 solo. Or buy two large pizzas Monday through Thursday with code SWEETFREE and the small sweet pizza is free.