São Paulo hotels and restaurants for high-rollers: top addresses

By Alexandra Forbes

Although the  bustling city of 19 million has long reigned as Brazil’s gastronomic and shopping meca, for years its restaurants remained an insider’s secret, as tourists preferred the sunnier and more laid-back cities to the North, such as Rio or Salvador. No more: the recent economic boom has drawn attention to the increasingly opulent metropolis boasting world-class restaurants, shops and hotels.

D.O.M. restaurant

RESTAURANTS

For seasoned foodies, no visit to São Paulo is complete without a visit to Maní (www.manimanioca.com.br) and D.O.M. (www.domrestaurante.com.br), restaurants which, in very novel ways, give little-known Brazilian ingredients a new guise.

Just as importantly, paulistanos (as São Paulo natives are referred to) saw their long-lived infatuation with sushi take flight: today, there are an eye-popping 600 Japanese restaurants in town. At the city’s premium Japanese restaurants, dish presentation and raw fish quality rival the best in Japan. Competing for the title of best sushiman in São Paulo are Jun Sakamoto (no website, tel. 55-11-3088-6019) – cerebral, temperamental, traditionalist, owner of the celebrated eponymous restaurant – and Tsuyoshi Murakami, a born showman whose wildly creative and artfully presented tasting menus served at Kinoshita (www.kinoshita.com.br) dazzle locals and tourists alike.

Fasano restaurant

HOTELS

A great luxury hotel is one thing, but one where there are almost always well-known figures of the local business and arts crowds milling around the lobby at happy hour, drink in hand? Only at the Fasano (www.fasano.com.br) , to be sure, the most glamorous of the city’s growing number of five stars. It also holds the title of hotel with the best piano bar (where even big stars like Caetano Veloso have sung) and the poshest Italian restaurant in town (also called Fasano).

Worthiest competitors include the design-driven Emiliano (www.emiliano.com.br), a mere four blocks away – with rooftop pool, spa and helipad – and the Grand Hyatt (http://saopaulo.grand.hyatt.com) , favoured by the business crowd, located in the modern, office-tower-heavy Berrini district.

Shopping Cidade Jardim

BOUTIQUES - SHOPPING

It’s amazing how many new shopping centers pop up each year in the city, such as  the Vila Olímpia, opened in 2010.  The granddaddy of them all, the Shopping Iguatemi (www.iguatemisaopaulo.com.br), is going as strong as ever: it houses the Tiffany flagship and many of Brazil’s most desireable brands, like Carlos Miele and Cris Barros.
But no mall comes close to matching the new Cidade Jardim in sheer refinement and beauty. Its open-air, tastefully-landscaped esplanades are home to some of the world’s chicest brands, including the biggest Louis Vuitton and first Hermès stores in Latin America. Petrossian opened its first boutique there a few months ago. London-based Issa and the American Tory Burch are next. 

Chef Alex Atala of D.O.M. restaurant: recipes on Wallpaper's site

Alex Atala's Heart of palm "fettuccine" with coral and glazed shrimp
Photo: Cassio Vasconcelos

Much has been said and written about Wallpaper's Brazil edition, which came out in May and was chock-full of information. To read more about it, click here.





But I'm guessing much of the material the team collected did not make it into the printed edition.... They've made available on their site, for example, three recipes by celeb-chef Alex Atala of D.O.M. restaurant.


For those interested, here's the link.

Le Figaro's restaurant critic François Simon praises São Paulo restaurant scene

François Simon, the intimidating restaurant critic at France's Le Figaro, was in São Paulo a few months ago and fell in love with the city's vibrant restaurant scene.

Now he's released a video on You Tube, narrated in French, of course, where he praises very highly D.O.M., Fasano and Aizomê restaurants.

He also loved Mocotó, a whole-in-the-wall specializing in food from the Nordeste, except that he called it, mistakingly, Tordesilhas. OOOOOooops! Who every said renowned critics don't err?

Chef Alex Atala launches veggie tasting menu at D.O.M.

Brazil is foodie nation: there are TONS of food bloggers in Rio and São Paulo. Very few, if any, as entertaining as the couple who write Que Bicho me Mordeu (What bug bit me): Demian Takahashi and Anna Angotti. Sadly, it's of little use to foreigners, since it's in Portuguese, but I couldn't resist translating one of their most recent posts, about the new all veggie menu lauched by celeb chef Alex Atala at his restaurant D.O.M.

Here it goes:

August 17, 2009 by Anna Angotti

We're not the types who go to D.O.M. like we go to the corner store. A special motive is needed, something to celebrate, or an extra bit of cash in the bank account, any good excuse. The launch of the Menu do Reino Vegetal, totally vegetarian, seem to fit very well in the category “good excuse”. Especially since it's a little bit cheaper than the regular tasting menu: R$ 120 for 6 courses (plus aligot, silky and ellastic mashed potatoes laced with two types of cheese). We had to try it with the pairing with waters and juices, for an additional R$ 20 per person.

First, cubes of watermelon with a delicious cream of Brazil nut under two slices of heart of palm "carpaccio" marinated in citronella, which came with three types of algae, all a bit salty.

The components were interesting and the presentation, beautiful, but when we actually had forkfuls - being careful to have a tiny bit of everything on the fork, as the maître'd instructed, we both were puzzled. We couldn't get the dish - not even after washing it down with the lemongrass water they brought as pairing, more aromatic than tasteful.

The mushroom consommé with Amazonian herbs - an Atala classic - didn't wow us as it did the first time we had it. Had the recipe been changed? Or is it because we're already used to the complexity of tucupi and the variety of mushrooms and the tingling sensation brought by the jambu, and our tastebuds grew immune to the sublety?

Musings aside, it's still an incredible dish, with its myriad miniature petals and broth full of secrets. It was paired with a water flavoured with poejo (“a herb”, explained the waiter), that we found a bit tasteless. It's a distant cousin of mint...

The toasted black rise was amusingly crunchy and came with vegetables (leek, celery, broccoli, asparagus), and, as a sauce, a milk made from Brazil nuts. To drink, a very acidic sparkling lime water.

At that point, we started to get what was bothering about the vegetarian menu: other than the mushrooms in the consommé, the vegetables weren't the star of the dishes, they played second fiddle. And yet we were expecting to find the lost flavour of vegetables (blame it on Keller!) Or, at the very least, we expected the inventions to be so marvellous that we couldn't find time to think of all the little things that could be improved.

But then came the evening's most sensational dish, to break our theory that too much fussiness was masking the real flavours of the veggies. “Quiabo, quiabo e quiabo”, or "Okra, okra and okra". Except for the complex, umami-heavy broth - which the maître'd claimed was made from grilled veggies - the dish really is all about okra. In different textures: the seeds, grilled and in spicy paper form.

Incredible: the okra, of all dishes, was the one that had all that we were looking for: surprise, flavour, bringing to the forefront an unusual ingredient. It was paired with a juice of cambuci (exotic fruit) but by then we'd given up on the whole pairing idea and discovered that our wine (a Grüner) matched the dishes much better.

Cream of shiitake served with flair tableside, out of a whipped cream canister, with red wine reduction. The maître d' confused us by saying there was veal in the dish. Since when is veal a vegetable?! But we later found out it was a mix up: the same dish is on the à la carte menu in a version containing veal... We found it a bit sticky and cloying, but it might be nice on a cold night. At least, the pairing actually worked: the jabuticaba juice, light and slightly acidic, was a nice counterpoint to the porridgy dish.

More thoughts: the menu tends to be repetitive, with mushrooms in two dishes (although very differently prepared), two with Brazil nuts and three where some kind of broth was added tableside. Still, each time they poured the broths we watched wantingly as they paraded away with the gravy dishes still half-full. The water and juices were also poured sparingly - two fingers, no more -, but in this case we didn't mind a bit.

For dessert, a small work of art: transparent raviolis filled with banana, lime jelly and priprioca - a fun root that smells like pot, which Atala is credited with introducing to haute cuisine circles. "D.O.M. is the only place that has it", proudly said the waiter, not knowing Dalva e Dito, right nextdoor, has it too.

As the menu informs, Menu do Reino Vegetal will change every two weeks. But we'll give it a little time before going back. Surely at some point we'll suddenly get a craving for the Okra, okra and okra (don't let it go off the menu!). But that dish only doesn't cut it as a "good excuse" to take us back to D.O.M.

More Alex Atala on this blog:

• Alex Atala serves Amazonian ingredients to Spanish chefs at D.O.M.
• Interview with chef Alex Atala
• Dalva e Dito, Alex Atala's new restaurants in the Jardins district
• Full report of my lunch at Dalva e Dito, with photos

Alex Atala's D.O.M. ranks 24th best restaurant in the world

The annual World's 50 Best Restaurants List just came out and Alex Atala has reason to pop the champagne: he climbed 16 positions to #24 in the world! Here's the full list:

More Alex Atala on this blog:

• Alex Atala serves Amazonian ingredients to Spanish chefs at D.O.M.
• Interview with chef Alex Atala
• Dalva e Dito, Alex Atala's new restaurants in the Jardins district
• Full report of my lunch at Dalva e Dito, with photos

Dalva e Dito, Alex Atala's new restaurant in São Paulo

At long last, I was able to try out Dalva e Dito, the new restaurant of famed Brazilian chef Alex Atala that has tongues wagging. Reviews have been mixed. Love it or hate it. Many paulistas have been complaining that the service is bad and the food expensive.

I had lunch there this week, and right off the bat I've got to say that I can't judge the service. It was excellent, but they knew me and clearly put in some extra effort...

As for the food, it is expensive. True. Especially considering he serves humble Brazilian dishes, like rice and beans with roasted chicken and toasted manioc flour (farofa). The same kind of stuff you can find at every corner here in São Paulo for a mere 5 bucks.

If the restaurant serves overpriced Brazilian standards, why go? Well, for a series of reasons. Atala has given humble dishes the royal treatment. The best example is the roasted chicken, which is prepared in the Rolls Royce of roasters, called the Rotissol, which Atala imported from France for a small fortune.

The meats, carved tableside, are prepared sous vide, and therefore have an inimitable texture - even cooking from outside to inside, pink but not oozing blood. I had the prix fixe lunch, which is the quintessential Brazilian lunch menu: a meat (choice of chicken, pork or beef), rice, black beans, farofa, mini potatoes, halved, skin-on, al dente julienned kale, and a choice of excellent hot pepper sauces (such as cambuci and coração). The farofa was a bit dry and undersalted, but the rest was very tasty and expertly executed. But of course, in the 47 reais they charge for this lunch there's a built-in premium that is charged for the fact that you're eating in the hottest restaurant in the city, which carries a brand. The Alex Atala brand. Besides, I don't know of any other place serving rice and beans in such a high-end setting - I especially loved the terrasse tables that sit under a canopy of ferns:

I also noticed the high quality of the glasses, hand-stitched napkins, antique wood tables, etc. So to those who complain about the prices, all I can say is... what did you expect?
Another little-known fact is that Atala is not the chef. He's delegated the task to Frenchman Alain Poletto (pictured below), who manages a veritable battalion of toque-clad chefs.

Servers look ultra-hip in caqui and ivory uniforms designed by Alexandre Herchcovitch, and All-Star sneakers.
Now, a confession. I actually preferred the bar snacks over the food served in the main room. I had these delicious coxinhas (a croquette of seasoned chicken and potato puree).

The cod fritters were airy and beautifully crisp.

And my absolute favorites were these pasteis filled with vatapa, a seafood Bahian specialty.

I was almost bummed to have to leave the downstairs bar when they called us to our lunch table in the main room (below).

For dessert I had an ultra-simple chocolate custard laced with the essence of priprioca, an aromatic amazonian root that Atala has introduced in Sao Paulo recently, and better-known for its use in perfumes and soaps.

I was glad to see the wine list has a large variety of Brazilian wines, fittingly:

In short, it's safe to say I will be back. And soon!

Dalva e Dito
Rua Padre João Manuel, 1115, Jardins, 3062-6282