Restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil
Michelin-endorsed Korean at mid-range prices.
Komah is São Paulo's most decorated Korean restaurant, holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2024 and 2025 and ranking in the OAD Top 70 in South America. Chef Paulo Shin delivers serious cooking at a $$ price point in Barra Funda, making this one of the city's clearest value cases for a credentialed dinner. Booking is easy; the case for going is not complicated.
Yes, and here is the direct answer: Komah is the most credentialed Korean restaurant in São Paulo, carrying a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the second consecutive year (2024 and 2025) and a top-70 ranking in the Opinionated About Dining South America list. At a $$ price point, it delivers a level of recognition that routinely costs two or three times more at other addresses in the city. If you have been once and are considering a return, the answer is still yes.
Chef Paulo Shin runs a Korean kitchen in Barra Funda that has earned serious institutional attention without inflating its prices to match. The Bib Gourmand is a signal worth taking seriously: Michelin awards it specifically to restaurants offering quality cooking at moderate cost, which makes it the most useful of the Michelin designations for readers who want a decision heuristic. Komah has held it in back-to-back years, which removes any luck-of-the-draw argument.
The OAD ranking adds a second layer of credibility. Opinionated About Dining draws its data from experienced restaurant-goers rather than anonymous crowdsourced reviews, so a position in the top 70 across all of South America is meaningful context. Komah moved from #58 in 2024 to #69 in 2025, a slight repositioning in a competitive field rather than a slip in quality. Its Google score of 4.6 from over 3,000 reviews confirms that the recognition is not limited to specialist critics.
The room is in Barra Funda, a neighbourhood west of Higienópolis that has grown as a dining destination without the price premiums of Jardins or Itaim Bibi. That address matters for how the restaurant feels: this is not a scene-driven spot built around visibility. The visual experience at Komah is grounded in the food itself rather than in an architectural statement or a high-profile corner location. If you are returning after a first visit, come expecting consistency in what reaches the table rather than a redesigned room or a new concept.
Wine program at a Korean restaurant in São Paulo occupies an interesting position. Korean cuisine's flavour profile — fermented, spiced, rich with umami — does not follow the conventional European pairing logic that most São Paulo wine lists are built around. At a $$ price tier, Komah is unlikely to carry a deep cellar, but that is not the right frame for evaluating the drinks here. The relevant question is whether what is on offer works alongside the food, and Korean cooking responds well to low-tannin reds, aromatic whites, and particularly to natural wines with higher acidity and slight effervescence. If the list leans toward those styles, it will read as a thoughtful match rather than a generic afterthought. Brazilian wine production, particularly from the Serra Gaúcha region, produces exactly the kind of light, acid-driven whites that pair well with Korean flavours , so a list with local representation would be both commercially sensible and genuinely useful. Drink something cold and bright, and the food will perform better for it.
For context on how Korean kitchens approach drinks at a higher price tier, Mingles in Seoul and Kwonsooksoo in Seoul represent the category's upper ceiling. Komah is not operating at that level of elaboration, but it is the São Paulo address that comes closest in terms of ambition and critical standing.
Komah is open for both lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. Lunch runs 12–3 pm daily. Evening service begins at 6:30 pm most nights, with a 7 pm start on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Saturday lunch extends to 4 pm. There is no phone number or website listed in our data, so booking through a third-party platform or arriving in person to reserve is the practical approach. Booking difficulty is rated easy, which means you are not competing with weeks-out demand the way you would at a Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurant.
For first-time visitors in the city, our full São Paulo restaurants guide is a useful starting point. You may also want to browse our São Paulo hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide to build a fuller itinerary.
Other Korean options in the city include Bicol Korean Cuisine, which serves as a lower-key alternative if Komah is unavailable or if you want a less formal setting. Elsewhere in Brazil, restaurants earning comparable OAD attention include Lasai in Rio de Janeiro, Manga in Salvador, Manu in Curitiba, Mina in Campos do Jordão, Orixás North Restaurant in Itacaré, and Castelo Saint Andrews in Gramado.
Quick reference: Korean, Barra Funda, São Paulo | $$ | Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat, closed Sun | Booking: easy.
See the comparison section below.
Yes. At the $$ price range, it is a low-commitment solo meal with serious credentials behind it. A solo diner at Komah gets the full kitchen's output without the financial outlay of a tasting menu venue. If you are eating alone in São Paulo and want something beyond the obvious, Komah is the right call in its price tier. Bar seating availability is not confirmed in our data, so arrive with a reservation to guarantee a table.
Booking difficulty is rated easy, so you are not managing weeks-out competition for tables. That said, a Bib Gourmand restaurant with over 3,000 Google reviews at a moderate price point will see consistent demand, particularly at weekend dinner. A few days' notice should be sufficient midweek; for Saturday evening, booking four to seven days out is sensible. The absence of a listed website means reservations likely go through a third-party platform or direct walk-in inquiry.
Bar seating is not confirmed in our venue data. Given Komah's neighbourhood setting in Barra Funda and its $$ price positioning, a bar counter is plausible but cannot be confirmed. Contact the restaurant directly before assuming bar seating is available.
It works for a low-key special occasion, particularly if the person you are celebrating appreciates food credentials over formal atmosphere. The Bib Gourmand and OAD ranking give it enough weight to feel like a considered choice rather than a casual pick. For a more formal celebration with a grander setting and higher spend, Evvai or D.O.M. are the stronger options at the $$$$ tier. Komah is the right call when the occasion calls for a genuinely good meal without the full-dress formality of a tasting menu.
Dinner is the more considered choice for a return visit. The kitchen runs a longer evening service, and Korean cuisine , with its fermented, bold, slow-built flavours , tends to land better when you are not under a midday time constraint. Saturday lunch, which runs to 4 pm, is the exception: the extended window gives you more room to eat at the right pace. If your schedule allows, a Saturday lunch or a weekday evening both work well. Avoid Wednesday dinner if you need flexibility, as the later 7 pm start compresses the early evening option.
Within the same $$ price tier, A Casa do Porco is the most direct comparison for quality-to-price ratio, though it is Brazilian-focused rather than Korean. For a step up in spend, Maní and Jun Sakamoto both operate at $$$ and offer creative cooking with serious reputations. If you are specifically interested in Korean cuisine, Bicol Korean Cuisine is the city's other option in the category. For creative cuisine at a different tier, Tuju is worth considering.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Komah | Korean | $$ | Easy |
| D.O.M. | Modern Brazilian, Creative | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Evvai | Contemporary Italian, Modern Cuisine | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Maní | Brazilian - International, Creative | $$$ | Unknown |
| Jun Sakamoto | Sushi, Japanese | $$$ | Unknown |
| A Casa do Porco | Regional Brazilian, Brazilian | $$ | Unknown |
How Komah stacks up against the competition.
Yes. A Bib Gourmand-recognised kitchen at $$ pricing is a low-commitment solo call — you get serious food without a large bill or a table minimum. Lunch service (12–3 pm, Monday through Saturday) is the lower-pressure window, and counter or smaller table formats tend to suit solo guests better than group-focused tasting menus do. Just note that the database does not confirm counter seating specifically, so call ahead if that matters to your plan.
Book at least one to two weeks out, particularly for Friday or Saturday dinner. Komah has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for two consecutive years (2024 and 2025) and ranks in the OAD Top Restaurants in South America, which keeps reservation pressure steady. Sunday is the one day it is closed, so do not plan around it.
Bar seating is not confirmed in the available venue data. Contact Komah at the Barra Funda address directly to ask — the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, and the team can confirm seating configurations.
It works well for a low-key special occasion where the food quality matters more than ceremony. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmands and an OAD South America ranking give it real credibility, but the $$ price range and Korean format signal a relaxed rather than formal setting. If the occasion calls for a tasting-menu production with white tablecloths, Evvai or D.O.M. would be a better match.
Dinner tends to be the sharper experience at Korean restaurants where evening service drives the full menu, but Komah's lunch (12–3 pm daily) is a strong value case at $$ given its Bib Gourmand standing. If your priority is a calmer room and a shorter commitment, lunch makes sense. For the full kitchen in form, book a weekday dinner.
For high-end Brazilian tasting menus, D.O.M. (Alex Atala) and Evvai (Luiz Filipe Souza, Michelin-starred) are the benchmark comparisons — both cost significantly more and operate in a formal register Komah does not. Maní sits in a similar mid-to-upper range with Brazilian-European cooking and a more ambient dining room. Jun Sakamoto is the reference for Japanese precision in São Paulo. A Casa do Porco is the closest peer in terms of value-to-recognition ratio, with a different cuisine profile (pork-focused Brazilian) but comparable crowd and critical interest.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
