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About Chachii

Born in São Paulo. Built in Sydney.

Chachii is a relaxed, family-friendly restaurant in Alexandria, Sydney, bringing together Brazilian flavour, Australian produce and the kind of food Sydney loves to eat.

Our menu moves easily between Brazilian classics and familiar favourites, with steaks, BBQ, wood-fired pizza, burgers, slow-cooked meats, pastries, sweets, beers and cocktails all sharing the table.

Brazil is at the heart of Chachii, but Chachii is made for everyone.

You can come because you are missing a taste of home, because you want to discover Brazilian food for the first time, or simply because you are looking for a great place in Alexandria for steak, pizza, BBQ or a relaxed meal with family and friends.

Brazilian soul.
Sydney attitude.

How Chachii began

Chachii was created by Brazilian chef Thiago Mendes, who grew up in São Paulo and later built his cooking career in Sydney. After years working in professional kitchens, he wanted to create something of his own, combining the food culture he grew up with in Brazil with the experience, ingredients and relaxed dining culture he had discovered in Australia.

The name itself came from somewhere much more personal. Thiago’s wife and her friends had started calling him Chachii, and over time the nickname stuck. One day, while everyone was together around a Brazilian BBQ, the conversation turned to the restaurant he was planning to open and someone asked what he was going to call it.

The answer was already there. Chachii. It was personal, fun and different, and it captured the kind of restaurant Thiago wanted to create: unmistakably Brazilian at heart, but open, relaxed and welcoming to everyone.

Brazilian flavour, Sydney style

Chachii is our take on what happens when Brazilian food, Australian ingredients and Sydney dining culture come together. We work with local suppliers wherever we can, using fresh Australian vegetables and quality local meats alongside ingredients and flavours that connect the menu back to Brazil.

You’ll find Brazilian favourites such as picanha, cassava, farofa, biquinho chilli and Brazilian chorizo alongside steaks, burgers, wood-fired pizza, BBQ and slow-cooked dishes. A lot happens in our own kitchen too, with breads, pastries, traditional Brazilian sweets and other house-made favourites forming part of what we do.

Fire, smoke and slow cooking have always been important to the way we cook. Steaks are treated simply so the quality of the meat can speak for itself, pizzas come from the wood-fired oven, and Brazilian ingredients appear throughout the menu rather than sitting in a separate corner of it.

That balance is important to us. Chachii should feel familiar enough that you can walk in for a steak, burger or pizza, while still giving you the chance to discover flavours, ingredients and dishes you may not have tried before.

Explore our menu

From Petersham and Wolli Creek to Alexandria

Alexandria is the latest chapter in a story that has already travelled through different parts of Sydney. Before opening here, Chachii had homes in Petersham and Wolli Creek, where the restaurant built a loyal community and became part of the lives of many Brazilian families, local customers and regulars.

Like many independent restaurants, Chachii went through difficult years during COVID, and those earlier locations eventually came to an end. But the idea behind the restaurant never disappeared.

Today, Chachii is back in Alexandria with a fresh concept, a new look and a broader approach to the menu. The restaurant is more relaxed, more family-friendly and even more connected to Sydney, while keeping the Brazilian flavours and personality that have always been central to Chachii.

Brazilian families can come for flavours they know and miss, Sydney locals can come for steak, burgers, pizza or BBQ, and someone who has never tried Brazilian food before can walk through the door and discover something completely new. That mix is exactly what Chachii is about.

Food, football and community

Chachii has always been about more than what is on the plate. Walk into the restaurant and you’ll find Brazilian art, music, football memorabilia and the kind of energy that comes from bringing different people together around food.

Our Alexandria home has an especially strong connection with football, making the combination feel very natural: Brazilian football, Brazilian food and BBQ. Over the years, Chachii has welcomed local Sydney football clubs, visiting teams, members of the Socceroos and Matildas, as well as some famous names from the football world. We’ve even had Ronaldinho through our doors.

But you definitely don’t need to be a football fan to feel at home here. Chachii is for families, locals, Brazilians, Aussies, visitors, food lovers, steak lovers, BBQ lovers and anyone looking for somewhere relaxed to eat, drink and spend time with good people.

The chef behind Chachii

Behind the restaurant is Chef Thiago Mendes, whose story began around food in São Paulo before taking him through more than two decades of life and cooking in Australia. His Sydney hospitality career began at the bottom of the kitchen and eventually took him through recognised restaurants, senior chef positions and executive chef roles before he decided to build a restaurant of his own.

That experience, combined with the flavours he grew up with in Brazil, continues to shape Chachii today. The restaurant is personal to Thiago, but it is also the result of years spent learning how good kitchens work, how people like to eat and how food can bring very different communities around the same table.

Meet Chef Thiago Mendes

Come for the food. Stay for the vibe.

For us, Brazilian food has never been only about what is on the plate. It is the music in the room, the drinks on the table, the people you came with, the conversation, the football, the laughter and the feeling of being together.

That is Chachii. A little bit of Brazil in Sydney, shaped by São Paulo, built through years of cooking in Australia and now at home in Alexandria.

Come for Brazilian food, or come for steak, BBQ, burgers and wood-fired pizza. Come with your family, bring a group of friends or walk in because you’re curious to try something different.

Come hungry.

Brazilian at heart. Sydney by nature. Made to be shared.