Acrópoles is a greek restaurant in Bom Retiro, São Paulo.
Editorially verified September 27, 2026 by Elliot Marsh, TableJourney editor. Source.
Why locals love it: There is no printed menu: the day's dishes are on a wall board and you walk into the kitchen to choose from the trays, as regulars have since 1959.
Tip: Walk into the kitchen and look over the trays before choosing; the moussaka is the dish to try first.
4 hours
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3 hours
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Guided tour · 4 hours
Walking food tour of Vila Madalena: welcome drink, starters, traditional dish, dessert, and a grand finale with Caipirinhas and Samba. All included!
Address: Rua da Graca 364, Bom Retiro, Sao Paulo - SP, São Paulo
Prato Grego hides on a gallery's upper floor in Bom Retiro, Sao Paulo, where first-time guests break a plaster plate, guided by owner Stelios Moyssiadis.
Why locals goTucked on the first floor of a Bom Retiro gallery block, with a plate-breaking ritual that owner Stelios Moyssiadis guides for every first-time guest.
TipTell the staff it is your first visit; that is what triggers the plate-breaking tradition at the table.
Prato Grego hides on a gallery's upper floor in Bom Retiro, Sao Paulo, where first-time guests break a plaster plate, guided by owner Stelios Moyssiadis.
Why locals goTucked on the first floor of a Bom Retiro gallery block, with a plate-breaking ritual that owner Stelios Moyssiadis guides for every first-time guest.
TipTell the staff it is your first visit; that is what triggers the plate-breaking tradition at the table.
Izakaya Issa packs twelve counter seats into a Liberdade boteco in Sao Paulo, where Margarida Haraguchi cooks petiscos in front of every guest.
Why locals goOnly twelve counter seats and tatami tables, with Margarida Haraguchi cooking petiscos in front of guests like a Japanese boteco.
TipSit at the counter to watch Margarida cook, and order the takoyaki, the octopus dumplings she makes behind the counter.
Kintaro has poured drinks from a narrow Liberdade counter in Sao Paulo since 1993, its ten-plus daily petiscos drawing mostly Japanese-Brazilian regulars.
Why locals goRunning since 1993 with only a narrow counter and two tables, its regulars are largely Liberdade's own Japanese-Brazilian community.
TipLook at the display case for the day's ten-plus cold and hot petiscos rather than the printed menu.
Emporio Nordestino serves carne de sol and baiao de dois from a 19th-century casarao in Freguesia do O, Sao Paulo, far from downtown's food strips.
Why locals goSet inside a 19th-century casarao facing the old Freguesia do O church square, far from the city's usual Northeastern food strip.
TipOrder the carne de sol with green beans and cassava puree, one of the most requested plates, and save room for the jackfruit or cashew sweets.
Cantina D'Irene runs a family pasta rodizio in Alto da Mooca, Sao Paulo, sending around 20 dishes to the table, from pasta and risotto to stuffed polpettone.
Why locals goIt serves only a pasta rodizio, an alternative to the a la carte model of the older cantinas around it.
TipThe rodizio brings about 20 dishes, pastas, risottos and some meats, with bread and a dessert, usually a cannoli, included.
Don Carlini has made handmade pasta in a Mooca casarao in Sao Paulo since 1985, its recipes still passed down inside the founding Carlini family.
Why locals goA Carlini-family cantina since 1985 making its own handmade pasta, with recipes still passed down inside the same family.
TipArthur Carlini and Maria do Carmo opened the house in 1985 to share the recipes of their Sunday family lunches; their family still runs it.
