Ranked by TableJourney editorial score.
A round, flat sweet-potato bread cooked on a hot basalt stone rather than in an oven, split while still hot and filled with garlic butter until it soaks through. Funchal's default side dish and its default snack.
The name comes from the caco, the flat stone disc the bread is baked on, not from any shape of loaf. Sweet potato was a cheap and abundant crop on Madeira's terraces, and mashing it into the dough made a soft bread that stayed edible for days without an oven, which most rural households did not have. The garlic butter is a later addition and now inseparable from it. In Funchal the bread arrives before you order, is used to mop the drippings under an espetada, and is sold split and filled as a street snack.
2 editor picks for Bolo do caco in Funchal, ranked by editorial score. All Funchal signature dishes · Bolo do caco across every city.
Casal da Penha is a family-run Funchal restaurant just off the hotel strip, with a classic dining room, a Madeiran terrace and a grilled fish carte.
OrderEspetada on the laurel skewer, or the grilled codfish that fills most tables here.
TipThe terrace is the reason to come. Ask for it when you book rather than on arrival.
Casa das Espetadas cooks Madeira's laurel-skewer espetada over wood in Funchal, with beef, chicken, tuna and pork versions off the same fire.
OrderBeef espetada on the bay-laurel skewer, hung at the table.
TipClosed Wednesday and Thursday, and the terrace runs folklore and fado on some evenings.
Bolo do caco makes more sense with someone from Funchal explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.
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