17 Best Restaurants in Greater São Paulo, São Paulo

Nino Cucina, located in one of the busiest areas of Jardins in São Paulo, is a charming Italian restaurant with a cozy and sophisticated decor. The menu, inspired by traditional Italian cuisine, features dishes like gnocchi alla bolognese and burrata with prosciutto, with all pasta made in-house to ensure top quality. Don’t miss the panna cotta al caramello salato, a creamy and delicate dessert served with a layer of salted caramel that perfectly balances sweet and savory flavors.

OhKinha stands out with the "Special Combo," featuring a varied selection of salmon, white fish, and tuna sushi and sashimi, perfect for sampling different flavors in one meal. To accompany your meal, try the Sakerinha, a caipirinha made with sake instead of cachaça.

With world-class chef-proprietor Helena Rizzo at the helm, Maní has made its way to the top of the restaurant charts in São Paulo. A sophisticated take on Brazilian country cuisine meshed with modern cooking techniques, dishes like chicken and rice with okra might not sound like much, but one bite will be enough to explain why local and visiting foodies beat a path to Maní's door.

An animated, gay-friendly crowd chatters at this restaurant with Italian, Brazilian, French, and mixed cuisine, as contemporary pop music plays in the background. Although Ritz serves some of the best hamburgers in the city, another popular dish is bife à milanesa (breaded beef cutlet) with creamed spinach and French fries or salad.

Part of a chain of Lebanese semifast-food outlets, Almanara is perfect for a quick lunch of hummus, tabbouleh, grilled chicken, and rice. A full-blown restaurant also on the premises offers up Lebanese specialties rodízio style, meaning you're served continuously until you can ingest no more.

Because São Paulo isn't on the ocean, most restaurants here don't base their reputations on seafood, but Amadeus is an exception. Appetizers such as fresh oysters and salmon and endive with mustard, and entrées like shrimp in cognac sauce make it a challenge to find better fruits of the sea elsewhere in town. 

For almost 20 years Arábia has served traditional Lebanese cuisine at this beautiful high-ceilinged restaurant. Simple dishes such as hummus and stuffed grape leaves are executed with aplomb, and the lamb melts in your mouth.

With the look of an old-style saloon, Bar do Juarez has won awards for its draft beers and buffet of petiscos (small tapas-like dishes), but picanha (rump cap of beef) is this gastropub's calling card. Served raw on a minigrill, the platter is perfect for small groups and gives individuals direct control over how their meat is done.

Cantaloup's converted warehouse has two dining areas: oversize photos decorate the walls of the slightly formal room, while a fountain and plants make the second area feel more casual and nice to have a meal. Try the low-temperature roasted pork ribs, pumpkin puree, asparagus and lemongrass sauce or the shrimp with curry, jasmine coconut rice, and mango chutney. Another great choice is the octopus with wild potatoes, caramelized onions, and Provençal sauce.

Regularly named among the best restaurants in South America and the world, celebrity chef Alex Atala's D.O.M. is synonymous with exclusivity in São Paulo's gastronomic circles—its popularity is limited only by a self-imposed cap on the number of customers served. The focus is on Brazilian fare with added flair, such as filhote (Amazonian catfish) with tapioca in tucupi (manioc root) sauce and sweet potato in a Béarnaise made from maté, a South American tea.

The beautiful people hang out in the bar of this highly regarded churrascaria. The thinly sliced picanha (rump steak) is excellent; it goes well with a house salad (hearts of palm and shredded, fried potatoes), onion rings, and creamed spinach.

A pioneer in bringing French cuisine to São Paulo, Freddy opened originally in 1935. Despite moving from its original location, Freddy has managed to retain the feel of an upscale Parisian bistro, thanks to a number of small touches as well as some larger ones, like the grand chandeliers hanging from its ceiling, and traditional French dishes such as escalopes Foie Gras au Porto.

This Italo-French restaurant with a partially enclosed garden isn't just a place for businesspeople and impresarios to see and be seen. It also has some of the best food in town and is one of the most classic restaurants around. Popular dishes include the pan-seared foie gras over apricot and dried fig chutney, and grilled shrimp with curry sauce, saffron risotto, and pine nuts.

Low-key, dependable, and well-loved, Nagayama consistently serves excellent sushi and sashimi. The chefs like to experiment: the California uramaki Philadelphia has rice, cream cheese, grilled salmon, roe, cucumber, and spring onions rolled together.

Though it's neither fancy nor beautiful, Pizzaria Camelo has kept Paulistanos enthralled for ages with its many thin-crust pies. The chopp (draft beer) is great, too.

The family that owns and runs this restaurant serves meat from its ranch in Mato Grosso do Sul State. Charcoal-grilled fare— steak, chicken, salmon, and more—is served at the buffet, and options abound at the salad bar. Wednesday and Saturday are feijoada nights, and on Friday the emphasis is on seafood. It was so successful in Brazil that it opened restaurants in Madrid, Chile, and Argentina.

Typically Brazilian from its decor to its daily specials, rustic-elegant Tordesilhas prides itself on spotlighting recipes from across the republic. Feijoada takes center stage on Wednesday and Saturday, while a Brazilian tasting menu is served Tuesday through Saturday.