Stumbled upon this place while in Sao Paulo for a business trip. This guy is super friendly and…read morehilarious! Nonetheless a hilarious moment when you run into someone look like Bin Laden. It doesn't happen often.

Meu bar favorito en Vila Madalena! It looks like a second…read morehand bookstore on the inside with authors like Bukowski and pictures of young Marlon Brando, drawing rad (but surprisingly not pretentious) people from all over Sao Paulo. Any given night of the week the whole bar/restaurant has people spilled out onto the street with buckets of ice cold original by their side. But don't let the crowd discourage you if you've come for a bite. They can always find seating for you inside after a few minutes. Friday nights are my favorite because they have a guy walking around with huge tray of fresh pastel. They taste amazing. Especially after that second caipirinha.

Mercearia is a cheap local dive bar with a great - and LARGE - crowd. The place is so popular with…read morethe locals that it's packed every night, and people just end up overflowing to the streets (and blocking traffic, but that's beside the point). It's a great place to chill out with some friends, or other local Brazilians in the area :)

More to it than meets the eye. When you first walk in, it's…read morea teeny tiny place. Then you walk around the corner and your suddenly up on a balcony with a huge floor (with its own bar in there). We went there with low expectations. The place turned out to be great. They had a superb 80s band playing some great hits for the night. The waitresses were also in top of their game and keep the caprinhas flowing. Their 'system' was a bit weird. When you enter they require to see your ID. They then enter you into a system and assign you a swipe card. You need the swipe card to buy things. No cash is exchanged until you are leaving the bar. At that point you go to a cashier. Everyone must hand I their card and pay the fee (pro tip: if you are a couple, put some drinks on each card, as otherwise you will be stuck with an admission fee on the zero balance card), then you get a token to leave, which is carefully examined by the bouncers. Strange, but pleasantly surprised by the night.

This is a great spot to watch a soccer match and grab some higher end bar food. I had the chefs…read moreburger and it was delicious - the cheese gooey so it fell apart pretty quickly. It was hard to find a spot to sit so take a lap and you will probably find something. They cleaned up really quickly.

Brazilian-Afro band with R$11 cover. The drinks are reasonable and the music is lovely.read more

It's the best bar in Roosevelt Square, the drinks are very good and the price is excellent! If you…read morelike a lot the caipirinha I invite you to try the pitcher! The food is nice and also has a good price. Friday and Saturday the have alive music not only Brazilian. It's a very good bar to meet with the people who live near by.

They have a wonderful self serve buffet where you can get authentic food, great drinks and live…read moremusic! It is a great spot to check out and I can't wait to return someday.

Old jazzbar (one floor up - be prepared to pay a cover fee for listening to music) turned into…read morehipster heaven. The service is bad (if they forget your order and/or you're not happy with the food, they won't compensate you for it in any way). BUT there is a way to enjoy this bar to the fullest: Take a seat at the big red bar at the bottom and order Pisco Passions and the Royal sandwich (a original recipe from Riviera's old days).

Sigh. I really, really wanted to like this place. The logo! The smart website! Alex Atala! We…read morearrived and were sort of taken aback by the hermetic look to the lobby bar. It's huge and showy, sure, but there was no music, the cocktails took quite a while to make (but I guess this is the side-effect of "mixology"), and I could never wrap my head around the stock ticker-like announcement of the upcoming music act on top of the wood accent wall. Where's the lovely green from the branding and website? Surely you can mine the retro logo a bit more with the decor as well, without being kitschy. Instead, Riviera is like a corporate office park's answer to high-end dining and drinking. Being a huge fan of Dalva e Dito for its gastronomy and for its ambiance, this was, then, a huge letdown. We sampled the oysters, which were delicious. We also had the fine steak tartare and the queijo na brasa, which approximated the delicious originals served at the beaches of Pernambuco. The fried chicken was not quite above boteco chicken, I'm sad to say. Drinks throughout dinner were consistently delicious, and everyone seemed to enjoy the live music. Although again, the recorded announcement preceding it further lays on that stiff, synthetic feeling to the place. I think this place aimed to be a heavyweight contender, with its all-star roster. But ultimately, it comes off as a profitable side project, with sub-par cuisine rubbed to a shiny and expensive veneer by the owners' fame.