Downtown São Paulo is experiencing a new moment. Among historic buildings, art galleries, cafés and restaurants that occupy emblematic addresses, the area is once again attracting those in search of culture, architecture and great food. Below, check out six options to enjoy great gastronomy in downtown São Paulo, with stops that reveal different layers of life in the heart of the city.
Le Freak
Le Freak. (Gabe Ortiz/CASACOR)
Le Freak is the newest guest on the ground floor of Conjunto Zarvos, a specimen of São Paulo modernism designed by Júlio Neves in 1958. A collaboration between the Palma, OM, and Lodi studios, the project focuses on building a strong identity that translates into a contrast between elegance and informality.
The restaurant converses with and reimagines French cuisine for São Paulo’s reality. In the kitchen, Chilean Juan Pablo Montes leads a menu that moves between French technique and Latin American accents. The bar brings together slightly unexpected classic drinks, organized by profiles — aperitifs, refreshing, citrusy, and nonalcoholic.
Service – Le Freak
Avenida São Luís, 282 — Downtown
Tuesday to Saturday, 7 pm to 12 am. Sunday, 12 pm to 5 pm
Instagram: @lefreak.menu
Website: lefreak.menu
Accessible
Paloma
Paloma. (Ana Weber/CASACOR)
The ground floor of the Copan building is one of the most iconic examples of how an active facade shapes the experience and aesthetics of its surroundings. Balancing tradition and making room for novelty, the Paloma wine bar and restaurant appeared in 2018, with an intimate, laid-back vibe.
Recommendations from among the more than 85 labels are handled by the specialized team and, in the kitchen, chef Gabi Guerriero brings the influence of Spanish cuisine to the house menu, recently revamped. Among the new delights, highlights include the Sardine escabeche in puff pastry filled with ricotta, tapenade, and pickled onion (R$ 59) and the calamarata with squid al ajillo, snow peas, and anise (R$ 79).
Service — Paloma
Av. Ipiranga, 200 – Downtown
Monday to Thursday, 12 pm to 12 am. Friday and Saturday, 12 pm to 1 am. , 12 pm to 6 pm.
Instagram: @paloma__sp
Fel
Fel. (Dani Neves/CASACOR)
The bar is visually compact, with a dusky facade and an intimate interior, like its neighbor Paloma, but entirely focused on mixology. Mixologist Fábio Dias revives classic drinks forgotten by time — among the 13 cocktails on the current menu, some recipes date to the mid-1920s and range across bitter, dry, citrusy, refreshing, and aromatic profiles.
Service – Fel
Avenida Ipiranga, 200 – Copan (store 69), República
Monday to Thursday, 5 pm to 12 am. Friday, 5 pm to 1 am. Saturday, 12 pm to 1 am. Sunday, 2 pm to 10 pm.
Instagram: @fel.sp
La Casserole & Infini
Le Casserole. (Angelo Dal Bo/CASACOR)
La Casserole has been one of the structural fixtures of Largo do Arouche since 1954. The house motto is “classic always current,” and its project reflects this: preserving the charm of time, the entrance is a velvety red, and the layout of the dining room has hardly changed since the 1960s.
Infini. (Bruno Geraldi/CASACOR)
The kitchen preserves classics of French cuisine such as canard à l’orange (R$174) and escargots in butter (R$99), and leaves experimentation to its speakeasy, Infini. Glamorous and immersive, it currently features the Brasil Infinito menu, whose drinks are prepared mainly with Brazilian fruits, such as cambuci, which appears in the savory bite Kãmu-si (R$49), or jabuticaba, the main ingredient in Olhar Noturno (R$39), made with cachaça, a mix of concentrated jabuticaba syrup and juice from the same fruit with Sicilian lemon.
Service – La Casserole
Largo do Arouche, 346 – Downtown
Monday, 12 pm to 3 pm. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 12 pm to 3 pm and 7 pm to 11 pm. Thursday and Friday, 12 pm to 3 pm and 7 pm to 12 am. Saturdays, 12:30 pm to 4 pm and 7 pm to 12 am. Sundays, 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
Website: lacasserole.com.br
Instagram: @lacasserole1954
Valet on site.
Service – Infini
Largo do Arouche, 346 – República
Wednesday, 7 pm to 12 am. Thursday, 7 pm to 1 am. Friday and Saturday, 7 pm to 2 am.
Instagram: @infini.bar
Cineclube Cortina
Cineclube Cortina. (Leo Martins/CASACOR)
Once a parking lot, this award-winning multicultural space is located in downtown São Paulo and brings cinema, music, gastronomy, and mixology together in one place. The counter that snakes along the ground floor houses the bar, which underwent a revamp and will reopen to the public in May this year with a renewed menu and setup.
The basement hosts shows, parties, and film screenings, with a big screen and cinema-worthy sound. Each month, the venue’s schedule is updated on its Instagram profile @cineclubecortina, ranging from 2000s dance nights to reggaeton parties, MPB, and rock shows.
Service – Cineclube CortinaKosmos Bakeshop
Kosmos Bakeshop. (Priscilla Han/CASACOR)
Kosmos blends with the structure of the Higi hotel to provide a relaxing experience in downtown São Paulo: connected to the pool area, breakfast, brunch, lunch, or afternoon coffee can take on a resort feel on a sunny day.
Led by Andrea Ko, Kosmos values lightness and good ingredients in its preparations, drawing on Korean cuisine. At the weekend brunch, the menu features the crispy chicken sanduba (R$65), with shik ppang bread, chicken thigh, slaw, and house-made kewpie, and variations of matcha, such as the Blueberry iced matcha latte (R$22) and the iced matcha latte (R$16).
In addition, a big star of the house is the shortcakes (R$28), an English cake that at Kosmos gets a batter lighter than the original, in flavors such as crunchy chocolate, banoffee, and tropical, filled with pineapple, passion fruit, and banana.
Service – Kosmos Bakeshop
Rua Marquês de Itu, 816 – Vila Buarque
Breakfast: Monday to Friday, 7 am to 10 am;
Bakery: Wednesday to Sunday, 10 am to 3 pm;
Brunch: Saturday, Sunday, and holidays, 9 am to 3 pm;
Lunch: Wednesday to Friday (except holidays), 12 pm to 3 pm.
WhatsApp: (11) 993961137
Instagram: @kosmos.bakeshop
Accessible space
Pet-friendly
Dining and Cooking