Cantina D'Irene is an italian restaurant in Mooca, São Paulo.
Editorially verified September 27, 2026 by Elliot Marsh, TableJourney editor. Source.
Why locals love it: It serves only a pasta rodizio, an alternative to the a la carte model of the older cantinas around it.
Tip: The rodizio brings about 20 dishes, pastas, risottos and some meats, with bread and a dessert, usually a cannoli, included.
4 hours
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Address: Rua Padre Raposo 433, Alto da Mooca, Sao Paulo - SP, 03118-000, São Paulo
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.
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.
Hwang To Gil is a Bom Retiro home-style Korean kitchen in Sao Paulo, opened in 2000 behind a facade marked only in Korean, its dishes cooked by the owners.
Why locals goIts facade is marked only in Korean characters, and for almost ten years after opening in 2000 it served mostly the Bom Retiro Korean community.
TipThe menu has photos to point at; for dinner, arrive between 18:30 and 19:00, as evening service ends early.
Acrópoles has served moussaka and grilled octopus from a Bom Retiro storefront in Sao Paulo since 1959, still the city's oldest Greek kitchen today.
Why locals goThere 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.
TipWalk into the kitchen and look over the trays before choosing; the moussaka is the dish to try first.
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.
