While Rio provides a ‘love at first sight’ experience for most first time visitors, São Paulo can take a little longer to impress. But while it doesn’t have Rio’s beaches and good weather, SP makes up for that with big city style and multicultural eating choices.
Areas to wander and explore
If you’re looking for some areas to wander around, I would suggest Liberdade, Pinheiro
Here are some places I’d recommend:
- Bar da Dona Onça (map) located at the base of the supercool COPAN building, this is one of my favourites in the whole city. Great staff, excellent food and drinks. It can get busy, but it’s worth waiting for. Try the mini-coxinhas, the tangerine and passionfruit caipirinhas and anything else that takes your fancy on the menu.
- Fel (map) – really amazing vintage cocktails in a super-cool bar, also at the base of the COPAN building (around the corner from Bar da Dona Onça).
- Sorveteria do Centro (map) – Amazing ice-creams, served out of a funny little hole-in-the-wall – they usually have some crazy flavour of the day – last time my ice-cream came with a piece of bacon sticking out of it! Also check out Hot Pork on the corner for funky looking hot dogs!
- Futuro Refeitório (map) – Oh man! This place is incredible! Amazing coffee that they roast on-site, one of the best breakfast/brunch spots I’ve visited in all South America. Don’t miss this one!
- Boca de Ouro (map) – Another really nice spot for cocktails and some light bites.
- Aska (map) | Momo (map) | Ikkousha (map) => São Paulo’s ramen (most places actually spell it “Lamen”) restaurants attract cult followings and you may find lines of up to 30 minutes or more if you show up at the really busy times. On my last visit we went to Ikkousha and it was really fantastic, but I’ve visited all of these and they were all really, really great.
- Shin Zushi (map) – Sublime sushi. Link
- Casa de Francisca (map) – gorgeous place serving seriously yummy Brazilian comfort food. Highly recommend this one!
- If you go to Beco de Batman (map), (the street art epicentre of SP, which is super-cool by the way), combine it with a visit to the lovely cheese shop, A Queijaria (map) and cute northeastern Brazilian restaurant, Canto Madalena (map).
- Mocotó (map): Nestled among far fancier places on the Latin America’s Top 50 List is this a fantastic restaurant specialising in dishes from Northeastern Brazil. It’s a bit of a trek to reach, but once you try all the delicious items on the menu (if you eat pork then don’t miss the torresmo) it’ll be worth it. This place gets really busy so aim for a late afternoon lunch to avoid a long wait for a table.
- Mercado Municipal (map): This is one of the first places the foodie traveller is sent, but I have to say I have mixed feelings about this place. It’s fun, but can be very hectic and overcrowded with quite pushy people working on some of the stalls. And I know some people find the experience a bit touristy. But I’d say it’s still worth a visit. Go hungry and see if you can manage a monster Mortadella sandwich and a Pastel de Bacalhau! Just take care of the ‘free fruit samples’ scam. A stall holder offers you loads of ‘free’ fruit samples – it all seems great until it’s time to leave. Then you’ll be expected to purchase something – you’ll look for the cheapest item available, they’ll weigh it and guess what? You’ve just bought the most expensive apple of your life!
Fine dining / Luxury
- If your wallet is bulging and you’re wanting to go high-end, check out some of these wonderful places: DOM, A Casa do Porco, Maní, Miró Gastronomia – fine dining elegance and a price tag to match.