Bar da Dona Onça, by Janaína Torres, has great food – 04/10/2024 – Restaurants

There is no shortage of reasons for controversy. High prices, a menu with a somewhat pretentious mix of bar snacks, French classics, Italian pasta, traditional Brazilian dishes, seafood and offal, as well as a rather suspicious decor (full of leopard prints) are a good combination. unattractive. It could be enough to create an alert and keep any more jealous customers away from Bar da Dona Onça, in the center of São Paulo.

But the establishment, opened in 2008 at the foot of the Copan building, is always full, with a local public and many tourists. That’s because it has a super-trump card up its sleeve: chef Janaína Torres, who previously used the name Janaína Rueda. She was chosen by the World’s 50 Best awards as the best female chef in the world in 2024 for her work in places such as Dona Onça and the also award-winning A Casa do Porco.

Despite there being a lot of marketing involved in this type of award, it is a title that could be enough to put aside your reservations about the kitsch decoration and the R$89 charged for a mere stroganoff, and get to know its cuisine.

The good news is that Dona Onça’s food is really well done, with complete mastery of the technique and very tasty dishes.

The challenge is to unveil the menu, which is long and varied, with 44 options of dishes and snacks, more than a dozen side dishes and 12 desserts.

But the menu itself gives some tips.

To start, for example, there’s the “chef’s favorite”: jaguar meat (R$65). The Brazilian (Curitiba) version of steak tartare, it is beef served raw, crushed and well seasoned. And Dona Onça’s is really great, despite being quite small, with compact meat served with mustard mayonnaise and radish on small crispy toasts, in tasty and refreshing bites.

Other good options are the fried pork pancetta (R$79) and the croc milanesa (R$96), a breaded steak served as a snack with cheese and pepper sauces, which has already become a house classic.

One of the bar’s famous dishes is the meat minced meat (R$87), which is served with rice, egg, bean cream and a delicious banana tartar.

To test the award-winning chef’s skills, it’s worth tackling the kids, challenging dishes, but which reveal the kitchen’s competence. The liver in strips (R$78) can convince even those who don’t usually eat offal. It’s delicate, soft and comes covered with an onion sauce full of umami, as well as a good puree. Big surprise.

But the best way to discover the gastronomic contribution of the award-winning chef may be with a dish that is practically a nod to Casa do Porco, the country pork stinco (R$99).

The piece with the bone (the animal’s cinnamon) is roasted and served with soft and juicy meat, with a great sauce that resembles a demi-glace, accompanied by excellent tropeiro beans topped with crunchy cabbage and orange cubes that surprise and make the combination is delicious.

When it comes to dessert, the most recommended by the waiters is the strawberry meringue (R$ 37), with a large, Instagrammable bowl of fruit and meringues. But the guava cascão cheese cake (R$37) might be a more interesting option. It is light and has a delicate, slightly sweet syrup, with notes of fresh guava.

Meals like this can override any previous schism you may have with Dona Onça. It’s true that the values ​​can still be frightening, but now they can be justified with the “premium price”, the name that market studies use to describe consumers’ predisposition to pay more for branded products. Any award for the best in the world tends to be a bit exaggerated, but beyond the marketing, there’s good food there.