Mad House! - Falls Way Below Expectations
If you want to check out Eataly - Sao Paulo, wait several weeks and don't expect any of the restaurants/prepared food stalls to live up to what Oscar Farinetti or Mario Batali claim it offers.
My boyfriend and I visited Eataly - Sao Paulo on Saturday, May 30. What we found: packed building, long lines, good cheese, unavailable items, unknowledgeable waiters/sales people, and below average food. It is a place that is poorly designed for the number of people they want to serve in a metropolitan area of 20-plus million people.
First, we waited in line for 40 minutes outside on the sidewalk before being allowed in the building. Once inside, we had to fight the crowd to explore the first floor. Toward the back by the meat/cheese counter, we were offered a free sample of provolone, which melted in our mouth. "Wow!" was what I said to my boyfriend. He agreed that the cheese was fantastic and told me that that was the first time he had ever heard me say, "Wow," about food. He said that if food is decent, I usually say that it is ok, good, or very good, but never, "wow," so that really meant something.
We then made our way to Brace Bar & Griglia, the fanciest of the restaurants, (which is on the third floor), only to find that it was closed, so we went to next nicest restaurant, Rosso Pomodoro, located on the second floor. We waited in line about 30 minutes in order to be told that the wait for a table was two hours. We gave the hostess our names and cell number (in order to buzz us when it was our turn) and then went to make use of the wait time. We picked up a few items off the shelves and then went to the cheese / meat counter, where we gave up waiting for help. There were only two guys working and a ton of people, each of whom seemed to need special counseling regarding which cheese/meat to buy. We then got in line to buy freshly made bread. As it turned out, most people in that line weren't buying plain bread, they were buying foccacia, drinks, and other food which they intended to eat there. After waiting in line for 20 minutes and hearing me complain that there should be separate bread and prepared food lines, my boyfriend asked one of the workers if we really needed to stand in that if we just wanted to buy a loaf of fresh bread. The worker asked my boyfriend which bread we wanted. He pointed to the baguettes in the basket behind the counter. The worker laughed and said that that wasn't real bread. It was fake, just for decoration and that they had sold out of baguettes in the morning.
At this point, we had been on Eataly's premises over two hours and we still had around 45 minutes to go before we would be called for a table Frustrated, tired, hungry, and thirsty we went to buy at least a bottle of water, but every food/drink counter we saw was either closed or had a long line. We finally gave up and got in line at Lavazza (a coffee counter, based on the coffee shop chain). There were 12 people ahead of us. After 25 more minutes, we ordered water, an Italian hot chocolate, and a croissant to tide us over until our meal. When we received our snack, we fought for a place to sit. There were only four small tables for Lavazza. Four! And, the people sitting there weren't even Lavazza customers. We had to join another couple at a four-person table just to have a place to sit after being on our feet and standing in line for over two hours. After eating, we had 20 minutes before being called for a table at the restaurant. We used the full 20 minutes to get from Lavazza upstairs to the restaurant, only stopping to drop a bag of snacks into our basket.
After receiving the text from the restaurant, we went and stood in line again for 10 minutes to wait to be seated. Finally seated, I ordered a glass of wine only to be told by our waiter that he knew nothing about their wine offerings. He went to find a colleague who informed me that they were all sold out of red wine except for the cabernet, which I accepted. I just needed something! We then ordered and promptly received our food - because the menu was small and all items were already cooked and just waiting to be ordered. Well, after a two-hour wait (not to mention the time we spent standing outside on the street and just making our way to the restaurant), we expected the food to be heavenly. Psyche! My lasagna was obviously the pre-packaged, frozen, ready-to-heat kind and my boyfriend who is Italian-Brazilian said that his pizza was probably the worst pizza he has had in his whole life in Sao Paulo. In less than 30 minutes from being seated, we had eaten, paid our bill, and were leaving to go pay for our grocery items. Luckily, we only waited in the check-out line for 10 minutes....
Eataly, you disappointed us. We were going to buy your book, but put it back on the shelf after we saw that you don't take your own advice. read more