São Paulo eats like the sum of everyone who moved here: Italian cantinas in Bixiga, Japanese griddles in Liberdade, sertão cooking in the north. Three days of market counters, sandwich institutions and botequim chopp across the city's kitchens.
Opened in 1933 under 32 stained-glass panels, the Mercadão trades 06:00–18:00 (Sunday to 16:00). The mezzanine's Bar do Mané piles 300g of mortadella into a French roll; Hocca Bar fries the pastel de bacalhau downstairs.
Open 24 hours since 1968 beside the Viaduto 9 de Julho, Estadão builds the city's benchmark pernil sandwich: slow-roasted pork leg, melted cheese and vinaigrette on a crusty roll, carved at the counter while you stand.
The Japanese-Brazilian quarter strings red suspensa lanterns over shops selling yakisoba, takoyaki, gyoza and pastel de camarão. On weekends the Feira da Liberdade fills Praça da Liberdade with rows of griddle and sweet stalls.
Rua Pedro Cristi 89: a neighbourhood market that turns into a chefs' canteen late in the day. Stalls sell mandioca, jabuticaba and Amazon river fish, while the oyster counter and Mocotó Café draw an after-work Pinheiros crowd.
Open 24 hours at Rua Haddock Lobo 354, this Jardins padaria is where São Paulo learns breakfast: pão na chapa dripping butter, pingado coffee, warm pão de queijo and a glass counter of doces sold by weight.
Largo do Paissandú 27, where a law student invented the bauru in 1934: roast beef, tomato, pickled cucumber and four cheeses melted in a bain-marie, packed into a hollowed-out French roll. Still made to the registered recipe.
Isabela Raposeiras's roastery-bar at Rua Fradique Coutinho 1340 pours Brazilian single origins as espresso, filter and cold brew, with tasting flights that set Mogiana beans against Cerrado Mineiro side by side.
Jefferson and Janaína Rueda turn one pig into a twelve-course menu on Rua Araújo — pork sushi, papo de anjo, whole suckling pig with crackling. A World's 50 Best regular, and the pavement queue starts before the doors open.
Saturday 09:00–19:00 in Pinheiros: antiques at the front, food at the back, where pastel de feira comes out of the fryer stuffed with palmito or queijo and the sugarcane press pours caldo de cana with lime.
On the ground floor of Niemeyer's curving Copan building, Janaína Rueda rewrites botequim cooking: bolinho de feijoada, dobradinha with white beans, and a Monday virado à paulista of beans, pork, fried egg and couve.
Portuguese since 1949 at Praça Ramos de Azevedo 206: pastéis de nata blistered to order in a scorching oven, ovos moles by the jar and bolo-rei at Christmas. Eat standing at the marble counter with a bica.
The Avenida São João and Ipiranga corner Caetano Veloso sang about, pouring since 1948. Chopp arrives in 300ml tulip glasses with a two-finger head, next to bolinho de bacalhau and live samba from around 19:00.