Merenda da Cidade offers quality food, but not worth the hype

There is no doubt that Janaina Rueda is a great chef. Recently appointed as the best woman in this position in Latin America, she is in charge of some of the most awarded restaurants in São Paulo and led the recovery movement in the city center. She deserves the recognition she gets.

That said, nothing justifies the hype surrounding the new Merenda da Cidade, which is popular, with long queues and which has been treated as one of the best places to eat well and cheaply in the capital of São Paulo.

After having lunch there five times, from Monday to Friday in a recent week, it is necessary to point out that the restaurant is not worth the visit nor does it deserve the popularity it has found.

Not that the food served there isn’t good. Far from it. Rueda demonstrates mastery of technique and uses great ingredients when competently preparing traditional dishes from the pê-efes of São Paulo.

Monday’s Virado à São Paulo is delicious, it features beans with great texture and a piece of pork belly worthy of the 12th best restaurant in the world — as well as a kale salad and a banana tartare that give freshness and life to the dish.

Tuesday’s chicken with polenta wasn’t even that juicy, but it stood out for its crispy skin and the grilled okra on top. The stroganoff served on Wednesdays has tender meat and a well-made cream sauce, without second-rate ketchup. The pasta with farmhouse Bolognese sauce was fresh, cooked to order and served al dente, as it should be. And Friday’s fish had a succulent and well-seasoned broth.

But a restaurant isn’t just about the food it serves, and there are many drawbacks to a Merenda lunch.

To begin with, even though they are of high quality, all the dishes served are quite ordinary. Even when done with care, they are hardly surprising.

Furthermore, there is the limitation of serving only one dish per day. The proposal is bold, but it makes the place boring, makes it difficult to bring together several people to eat together and creates a certain tiredness — during the week of visits, the dessert received was the same brownie four times.

One can also question the concept of a cheap restaurant. Meals cost R$45, but a meal in the Southeast costs an average of R$49.33 and in the same central neighborhood there are several popular restaurants offering meals from R$12.

But the biggest setback concerns the overall experience of having a meal at Merenda. What Americans tend to call “hospitality”, which refers to all the work of providing food and drink to customers in order to offer the best possible experience, is missing. It may seem cool, but it’s not. Even with good food, eating at Merenda is not pleasant.

By recreating the experience of a tray-style cafeteria, Rueda’s venture is reminiscent of Bom Prato, a government restaurant that offers meals for R$1 to vulnerable populations.

Eating at Merenda da Cidade is treating food as mere fuel for the body (and for social networks). The food may be of good quality, but it is eaten quickly, cramped and without much interaction under the pressure of a large turnover and without a convivial environment.

In addition to the typical queues in cafeterias and self-service restaurants, sitting at cramped communal tables next to strangers creates a strange atmosphere. With a tray full of containers (dish, salad, dessert, drink, cutlery), having lunch there still evokes the uncomfortable experience of a meal on an airplane (in economy class).

This takes away from customers some of the key parts of the eating out experience. The experience of being welcomed, sitting down without rushing, being served, talking, eating calmly and comfortably, resting, having a comfortable moment as a whole is missing. Without that, you wouldn’t want to go back there.