After sitting in traffic from Santo Amaro for almost 2 hours and walking through the Mercado Municipal for a little over an hour after that, my friend and I were ready for a good lunch! My friend's mom had suggested Hocca Bar for a lunch with a little Brazilian flair.
Now, it might be helpful to know that there are THREE Hocca Bars in the Mercado...you read that right, THREE. The biggest one is on the second floor restaurant area, and this one also happens to have the longest line (at least it did when I was there on a Wednesday midday). There are two more smaller Hocca Bars on the main ground floor of the Mercado, with the same logo and menu as the large restaurant version! These Hocca Bars on the ground level were still crowded, but there was no hour+ wait to order and be seated. My friend and I ended up going to the medium sized one, which is along the main walkway that goes across the Mercado's width (think parallel to Rua da Cantareira). This Hocca Bar had a few tables and seats, and we were able to grab a table after waiting for a few minutes for another group to finish!
While my friend and I were grabbing a table, my friend's mom ordered for us since we know absolutely no Portuguese. This is where I learned about ordering water in Brazil...my friend's mom asked if I wanted water and I said sure, since you usually just get a cup for water at restaurants in HI. However, I was surprised when she came back with bottled water for everyone. She told me that Brazilians don't do tap water, and they always have to buy bottled!
Anyway, back to the good stuff. For the 2 of us, we got a mortadella sandwich, a bachalau croquette (not sure exactly what its called but it was basically a huge croquette), and a shrimp pastel. Everything was great, and this was also my first experience trying bachalau! I was told the mortadella sandwich was HUGE before coming to Hocca Bar, but when we got ours it didn't seem all that big (maybe because my perspective is skewed by American standards). The meat in the sandwich, which according to the internet is cured pork, was so good! It was sliced very thinly and very easy to chew, but still had a lot of flavor! We added a kick to our sandwich by squeezing some of Hocca Bar's creamy pimento sauce inside the bread. The bachalau croquette was very fishy, as bachalau is a type of preserved fish. The parts closest to the outside breading were the best...as we got more towards the middle of the croquette everything got really dry (but still good thanks to the creamy pimento sauce). The shrimp pastel was stuffed to the brim with shrimps and lots of cheese, and the outside was perfectly crunchy and didn't get soggy!
There was no real service aspect at this particular Hocca Bar as it was more like you order at the counter, wait for your number to pop up on the screen, pick up your food, and bring it to your table. But I did notice there was a worker that was regularly cleaning rubbish off the tables, wiping the tables and chairs down, and emptying the trash cans! My friend and I helped her out by throwing our own trash away, but it seems like most people just left everything on the table. Also, no tipping required here!
TL;DR - downstairs Hocca has a shorter line than upstairs Hocca, creamy pimento sauce cures all, and mortadella sandwich! read more