As the Brazil trip progressed, my sickness just felt like it became worse, running from place to place, being on planes, the constant walking. But finally we were at the last destination, São Paulo.
We were on an evening flight and thus had a late check in to the Fasano, a super swanky hotel that comes with a hefty price tag, in the equally chic Jardins neighbourhood. When we got to the room, we were brilliantly surprised - I had called earlier that day to try to make a birthday restaurant reservation for Lingon (yes, it was his big 3-oh), and I suppose they noted that down and gave us a cake and candles all around the room! :-) I suppose I would not have expected anything less for a restaurant of that calibre, but since we did not expect, we were surprised and super happy! We were hungry and quickly devoured that cake, which had chocolate and some kind of nuts, and was SUPER tasty! BTW, the Fasano also gives one free 15 minute foot massage to their guests per stay! Extra perks!!
Someone we knew recommended Mori sushi restaurant, and since we did not know better, off we went. Mori sushi had decently good reviews on TripAdvisor, and was in fact ranked around #80 at the time we visited it. The recommender, let's call him Dan, said it was all-you-can-eat, which we don't normally like since the quality is usually poorer and in general we don't try to eat all we can, but since it was Lingon's birthday and it came from what we thought was a trusted source and it was a block or so from the hotel, off to Mori we went. Mori does not take reservations, and when we arrived around 8 ish we were told we had a 45 min wait. We knew that ahead of time, so fine. Luckily we had that delish Fasano chocolate cake or we may have eaten each others' ears off. When we finally got seated and got our food, we found it to be very mediocre. I won't waste my time going into detail. Here are photos. Don't go to Mori. Unless you are one who likes lots of food, like our friend Dan is.
The next day Lingon had to go to work, so I decided to go to a Patisserie Douce France near where he was to be dropped off, tolerably rated on TripAdvisor at #600. He had recommended that before. I got a quiche (which was not warmed up) to go, service was very slow, and it really just tasted very so so. Again, don't go.
I walked to the cathedral, but got some bad news along the way, and did not enjoy the market experience, partly because of the bad news clouding over my head, and partly because objectively the cathedral was not all too wonderful.
For a super late lunch (in preparation for our super late dinner), I went to Santo Grao, a well-reviewed TripAdvisor cafe that supposedly had good coffee but of course I did not get the coffee. I was craving beef and got the picadinho peri-peri, which is traditional Brazilian diced beef. The beef was over cooked and very dry. As to the coffee, I cannot comment.
Then, we went to dinner with some of Lingon's friends, at a Fasano-owned restaurant called Trattoria, which served either mainly or all pasta (I forgot a picture of the menu!!). Everything was REALLY good and I think each pasta was decently priced at maybe R$70 or R$90. I got the carbonara, Lingon got the seafood pasta, and his friend got some pork thing. All. So. Good. This is a BUY! What really irritated me was that I liked my pasta so much that I saved half of it to go, but the server insisted he had no box. On hindsight I should have asked for my food in foil, but at the time I was thrown so off guard and flustered that I did not think. So off into the trash my food went. :'( Next time I'll bring my own damned box. And I'm not kidding.
The next day, I had lunch at Pão de Queijo, supposedly a chain. I chose it because of the healthy crowd in the tiny area they occupied. I have no idea what I got, except they seemed like all deep fried food, felt really disgustingly unhealthy, and were super delicious. Expect a heart attack.
I took another long walk, to the market this time, since Lingon told me I should get out for some (polluted) air. The market was big, but I was not impressed, nor hungry. I found a busy cafe that I decided to photograph in case anyone wants some idea of what was inside.
Lingon ended work early, so we took a trip to the best ice cream place, Bacio di Latte, in São Paulo, recommended by both a friend and numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on TripAdvisor (sort of, there were multiple chains and I feel like 5 of them took up the top 10 spots on TripAdvisor). I mean, just looking on the outside, it oozed chic. The ice cream flavours were plentiful. There were rather good looking people inside. Oh, and the ice cream was great too. Lol. Lingon got a coffee which came with a free tiny scoop of ice cream which I also got to devour. Nom nom.
Our last meal of the day, and the trip, we went to Maremonti, recommended by the Lonely Planet for their Napoli pizzas certified by the Pizzaiuoli Napoletani (based in Naples). Honestly, they could have made up any certification name, and we probably would have still gone there anyway (suckers!) since Lingon is a pizza monster. We got the margarita and anchovy pizzas, and both were divine. We even had a bit left for take out, and it came in a very sturdy amazing box. Highly recommend if you want pizza in São Paulo!
Overall, I found São Paulo to be a more of an eating place, mainly with good Italian food than Brazilian. A bit disappointing for me since I would have preferred to eat good authentic Brazilian food in Brazil, but I was rather impressed by the Italian restaurants. The Jardins neighbourhood was nice, probably a good place to live, but as a tourist I found little to do.
We were on an evening flight and thus had a late check in to the Fasano, a super swanky hotel that comes with a hefty price tag, in the equally chic Jardins neighbourhood. When we got to the room, we were brilliantly surprised - I had called earlier that day to try to make a birthday restaurant reservation for Lingon (yes, it was his big 3-oh), and I suppose they noted that down and gave us a cake and candles all around the room! :-) I suppose I would not have expected anything less for a restaurant of that calibre, but since we did not expect, we were surprised and super happy! We were hungry and quickly devoured that cake, which had chocolate and some kind of nuts, and was SUPER tasty! BTW, the Fasano also gives one free 15 minute foot massage to their guests per stay! Extra perks!!
Someone we knew recommended Mori sushi restaurant, and since we did not know better, off we went. Mori sushi had decently good reviews on TripAdvisor, and was in fact ranked around #80 at the time we visited it. The recommender, let's call him Dan, said it was all-you-can-eat, which we don't normally like since the quality is usually poorer and in general we don't try to eat all we can, but since it was Lingon's birthday and it came from what we thought was a trusted source and it was a block or so from the hotel, off to Mori we went. Mori does not take reservations, and when we arrived around 8 ish we were told we had a 45 min wait. We knew that ahead of time, so fine. Luckily we had that delish Fasano chocolate cake or we may have eaten each others' ears off. When we finally got seated and got our food, we found it to be very mediocre. I won't waste my time going into detail. Here are photos. Don't go to Mori. Unless you are one who likes lots of food, like our friend Dan is.
The next day Lingon had to go to work, so I decided to go to a Patisserie Douce France near where he was to be dropped off, tolerably rated on TripAdvisor at #600. He had recommended that before. I got a quiche (which was not warmed up) to go, service was very slow, and it really just tasted very so so. Again, don't go.
I walked to the cathedral, but got some bad news along the way, and did not enjoy the market experience, partly because of the bad news clouding over my head, and partly because objectively the cathedral was not all too wonderful.
For a super late lunch (in preparation for our super late dinner), I went to Santo Grao, a well-reviewed TripAdvisor cafe that supposedly had good coffee but of course I did not get the coffee. I was craving beef and got the picadinho peri-peri, which is traditional Brazilian diced beef. The beef was over cooked and very dry. As to the coffee, I cannot comment.
Then, we went to dinner with some of Lingon's friends, at a Fasano-owned restaurant called Trattoria, which served either mainly or all pasta (I forgot a picture of the menu!!). Everything was REALLY good and I think each pasta was decently priced at maybe R$70 or R$90. I got the carbonara, Lingon got the seafood pasta, and his friend got some pork thing. All. So. Good. This is a BUY! What really irritated me was that I liked my pasta so much that I saved half of it to go, but the server insisted he had no box. On hindsight I should have asked for my food in foil, but at the time I was thrown so off guard and flustered that I did not think. So off into the trash my food went. :'( Next time I'll bring my own damned box. And I'm not kidding.
The next day, I had lunch at Pão de Queijo, supposedly a chain. I chose it because of the healthy crowd in the tiny area they occupied. I have no idea what I got, except they seemed like all deep fried food, felt really disgustingly unhealthy, and were super delicious. Expect a heart attack.
I took another long walk, to the market this time, since Lingon told me I should get out for some (polluted) air. The market was big, but I was not impressed, nor hungry. I found a busy cafe that I decided to photograph in case anyone wants some idea of what was inside.
Lingon ended work early, so we took a trip to the best ice cream place, Bacio di Latte, in São Paulo, recommended by both a friend and numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on TripAdvisor (sort of, there were multiple chains and I feel like 5 of them took up the top 10 spots on TripAdvisor). I mean, just looking on the outside, it oozed chic. The ice cream flavours were plentiful. There were rather good looking people inside. Oh, and the ice cream was great too. Lol. Lingon got a coffee which came with a free tiny scoop of ice cream which I also got to devour. Nom nom.
Our last meal of the day, and the trip, we went to Maremonti, recommended by the Lonely Planet for their Napoli pizzas certified by the Pizzaiuoli Napoletani (based in Naples). Honestly, they could have made up any certification name, and we probably would have still gone there anyway (suckers!) since Lingon is a pizza monster. We got the margarita and anchovy pizzas, and both were divine. We even had a bit left for take out, and it came in a very sturdy amazing box. Highly recommend if you want pizza in São Paulo!
Overall, I found São Paulo to be a more of an eating place, mainly with good Italian food than Brazilian. A bit disappointing for me since I would have preferred to eat good authentic Brazilian food in Brazil, but I was rather impressed by the Italian restaurants. The Jardins neighbourhood was nice, probably a good place to live, but as a tourist I found little to do.
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