🍽️ DOM: Michelin star cuisine in Sao Paulo
When we hear about a restaurant with a Michelin star, we immediately imagine high quality culinary masterpieces, exquisite dishes, simply incredibly friendly staff – and all this in one establishment.
There are three Michelin stars in total. One star means that the restaurant is good in its category, two means the establishment is worth visiting to try the cuisine, three means the establishment is impeccable. Restaurants marked with a star are included in the Michelin Red Guide. It’s also easy to lose a star, so it’s not easy for restaurants, because they always need to be on top.
Brazil's São Paulo, the largest city by population, has eight Michelin-starred establishments. Four of them, oddly enough, are Japanese. But only one establishment got two Michelin stars at once. And this restaurant is called DOM
Purpose of the restaurant
It opened in 1999 by Brazilian chef Alex Atala. The goal of such an establishment was to highlight local traditions in the methods of preparing dishes, introduce ingredients from completely different regions of the country, and also demonstrate that national and haute cuisine can go hand in hand. Over the past few decades, DOM has become the benchmark for Brazilian cuisine.
“Brazilian gastronomy is a dream come true,” is how chef Alex Atala describes the restaurant’s goal. The establishment was created at a time when few people knew what the tastes of Brazil were. The restaurant considers it necessary to introduce local products to the whole world. For example , acai is a berry from the Amazon, or jambu is a unique fruit, chewing the leaves and flowers of which leads to numbness in the mouth.
How to get
You can visit the restaurant by pre-booking a table on the website or by calling the contact number. The establishment is open from Monday to Saturday. On weekdays from 12:00 to 15:00 and from 19:00 to 23:00, on Saturday only from 19:00 to 23:00.
About the atmosphere
DOM is located at Rua Barão de Capanema, in the Jardins district, São Paulo. At the very entrance you will see a huge entrance door, despite its size, in my opinion, it is in no way remarkable. I probably wouldn’t have even immediately noticed the doors that matched the tone of the entire building. There is no terrace in the establishment itself. All seats are located inside. But maybe it’s for the better, because Jardins is not the most favorable area of the city.
The establishment has 2 floors, there are not many tables, but they are all located close to each other.
The decor inside combines classic and modern, acceptable and wild. There are stuffed birds, and the horns of some unknown animal, and many interior details that the eye can’t even catch. But at the same time, the kitchen is fenced off from the first hall only by glass walls. You will be able to watch the best chefs scurrying back and forth, trying to surprise you.
About service
In my opinion, the service here is really up to par. Polite waiters will happily introduce each dish served and tell its story. By the way, the staff here speaks English, which is simply an incredible curiosity in Brazil.
During the entire dinner, which lasted 4 hours, by the way, the waiters joked a lot, lightened the mood and were happy to help in any matter.
Another plus for the establishment: when booking, they will clarify whether there are any allergies, so that this can be taken into account during service.
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The DOM restaurant does not have an À la carte menu. The establishment only offers a tasting menu. According to the restaurant's creator, this is the best way to experience a gastronomic experience that would be difficult to capture in just one dish. Chef Alex Atala presents only his own menu, demonstrating his courage to experiment with Brazilian ingredients. You can also opt for vegetarian tasting dishes if you wish.
The menu consists of 2 appetizers and 12 dishes and changes periodically. And on my visit you could try the following snacks:
- Ant and pineapple, this interesting combination was also served with something like kombucha. To surprise the guests even more, the Amazon ant was painted pink and covered with glitter. It tasted like something minty, but the insect's legs were too long and dry.
- Pumpkin soup and acerola is a red tropical fruit from the Amazon with a sour taste.
- Dough basket with catfish caviar.
- Quiabo rice is a traditional Brazilian fruit that, when cooked, is somewhat reminiscent of green beans.
- A set of cashew-based snacks.
- Watermelon and Jerusalem artichoke.
- Pancake with blue crab meat and pine nut paste.
- Cassava curd.
- Vegetables in tucupi sauce, which is obtained from the root of wild cassava in the Brazilian Amazon jungle.
- The Brazilian arapaima is a tropical freshwater fish.
- Langoustine with black rice paste.
- Contra-fillet with babassu sauce, this is the name of the tree of the palm family.
- Cassava with white mold and sour honey.
- Green coconut ice cream combined with bacuri butter, jackfruit and cupuaçu – a fruit tree closely related to cocoa.
- Chef's signature coffee: coffee with flour, served in a flask, combined with a riga deiro cake made from Amazonian mushrooms.
Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of dishes, they are very small in size. Therefore, it is quite possible to try them all. Still, I can say that many combinations will seem quite strange and inedible to the average person. Although the main goal of the chef is to prove that it is possible to combine all these ingredients together. My impressions were mixed, many dishes are forgotten absolutely immediately, and in the end you don’t even remember what you ate.
About prices
It is worth admitting that they are quite large here, but what should you expect from an establishment of this level? A visit to the restaurant will cost $143 per person without wine and $240 if you want your dishes to be accompanied by wine. Additionally, you will have to pay for water or other drinks and tips, which will be included in the bill.
There is also a deposit upon booking. For lunch time it is $30 for a small group and $80 for a group of 7-10 people. During dinner, the deposit for a small group is $40, for a group of 7-10 people – $160.
About restaurant awards
In 2012, DOM took fourth place in the list of the best establishments in the world according to The World 50 Best Restaurants. And in 2021, the establishment was recognized as third in Latin America according to The World 50 Best Restaurants.
In 2022, Chef Alex Atala was ranked 10th in the prestigious The Best Chef Award, which honors 100 of the biggest names in global cuisine.
General impressions
To be honest, I prefer bright establishments. In the interior of the DOM restaurant, dim lighting combined with scarecrows evokes something magical.
As for the main goal of any restaurant – dishes, then, of course, the presentation is original and surprising, sometimes it even seems incompatible with the usual understanding. But I was able to point out only 3-4 really excellent dishes out of 12. Probably, a true connoisseur will be able to fully experience the peculiarity of each ingredient, but, alas, I am not one of them.