The impression when you leave this restaurant is that you’ve just visited a dear friend who’s also a great cook. Teus’s familiar atmosphere also translates in the dishes served: A seasoning or a sauce — like in the fish with seafood in tomato sauce — can remind you of your mother’s (or grandmother’s) recipes. Chef Chico Farah pursues uncomplicated and comforting food with technique and good ingredients, best exhibited in his pulpo in paprika with roasted potatoes. His partner, Pedro Grando, is in charge of service and does his best to make you feel as if you were literally at home.

When chef Caio Ottoboni recently decided to move his restaurant to a new address (a few blocks from the old property), he took the opportunity to make some changes on his menu, as well. Oui, a charming representative of the bistronomy movement, now has more dishes to share and new starters, such as a pork and banana sandwich and mussels with leeks and aioli. The new venue, in addition to more space, also features a new bar, with signature cocktails and a tap for beer.

Mixologist Jean Ponce finally has a bar to call his own. Formerly the bartender of Alex Atala’s D.O.M., Ponce opened his first business in partnership with Australian chef Greigor Caisley, aiming to pair good cocktails with good food. It’s a cozy place where people can sit and sip cachaça-based signature drinks created by Ponce, one of the biggest enthusiasts of the Brazilian spirit — he wants to be known for having the best caipirinha in town. To eat, the options go from Naples-style pizzas (individual ones made with slow ferment dough) to Scotch eggs. Tip: The bar has an area that sells Brazilian cheeses and cachaça bottles, both for takeaway and to dine-in.

The name says everything about this restaurant, a collaborative project from two of the most renowned Italian chefs in town: Paulo Barros and Salvatore Loi. They cook classic osteria recipes with a modern twist, and it’s a slim menu with options to share. The polenta, for example, is placed in the center of the table in a big bowl (with sausage, spinach, and cheese) so that everybody can dig in. At MoMa, you will also find focaccias and pastas, such as the carbonara spaghetti and the ricotta bauletti, a filled pasta served with orange zest and pistachio.

A few meters away from the always busy Nino Cucina, Peppino was originally designed to absorb the waiting list of diners who wanted to eat at the Italian restaurant run by chef Rodolfo Di Santis. Instead of serving the same menu, Nino’s partners decided to build a new bar. Fabio La Pietra, one of the best bartenders in town, was hired to create and serve the cocktails (all with an Italian accent, reflecting his roots) and De Santis developed a menu from scratch: from chicken wings to the gamberetti roll, a take on a lobster roll made with shrimp and guacamole. The Italian bar is now open for lunch, with even more pasta options to kill the munchies.

After strengthening the food ties between Brazil and Portugal with two venues in town (Taberna and Tasca da Esquina), Portuguese chef Vitor Sobral is now trying to make this relation even closer with the opening of Padaria da Esquina. It’s a Portuguese bakery that serves 15 traditional breads, loaves, and all sorts of Portuguese sweets — from pasteis de nata (custard tarts) to queijadas (a traditional sweet basically made with eggs, milk, and sugar). It’s possible to have breakfast there, following a traditional habit of Paulistanos — with bread, cheese, ham, and coffee. As Padaria opens daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., it’s a place to have a meal at any time as well, from soups to sandwiches.

This is one of the most iconic restaurants in São Paulo, where starting in 1953, diners would visit to taste classic recipes from the North of Italy. Seven years after it closed, Ca'd'Oro is back in the game, and it’s now the most acclaimed reopening in decades. The menu remains (almost) exactly as it was: the famous quail with polenta, the risotto alla milanese, the traditional Bollito Misto (mixed boiled humble cuts of meat with vegetables), here served gueridon-style — via a table-side trolley — as it should be. Ca’d’Oro is a place attached to the past, translating the traditions of São Paulo’s restaurant golden age for the present. Don’t miss the nostalgic cassata for dessert.

As a city that welcomed immigrants from all over the world, São Paulo became a great place to find many cuisines. The Bom Retiro neighborhood, for example, attracted Korean immigrants who adapted the Asian country’s recipes to local Paulistanos’ tastes. Now, chef Paulo Sin intends to show a more modern approach to dishes from his home country. At Komah, also in Bom Retiro, he prepares updated versions of classic dishes, such as of his yukhoe (a Korean steak tartare, served with Asian pear, pine nuts, and a cured egg yolk) and the kimchi bokumbap (rice cooked in pork broth mixed with kimchi and served with a French-style creamy omelette on top).