Paulista Brazilian Café, Kitchen and Taproom — Restaurant in Oakland

One of the biggest coffee shops I've visited, yet not too overwhelming and still possesses an intimate feel. Not too crowded during my afternoon visit and great music (latin, soul, and even jazz tunes in the music mix) contributes to the chill atmosphere.

The menu definitely lives up to it's Brazilian kitchen description with a variety of menu items listed in Portuguese (don't worry, a detailed English description accompanies each menu offering). Total Latin American vibe and looking at the menu just made me want to book a flight back to Brazil! Several tropical fruit selections such as the Romeo & Juliet empanadas which was small but held a lot of flavor (guava & fresh cheese) as well as a Passion Fruit Mousse on the dessert menu.

I was surprised that Paulista serves Mr. Dewie's Creamery Ice Cream too and any place that serves ice cream is ok with me! As you can see, although Paulista gives you coffee shop vibes, it's more of a fully functional restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, wine & brew.

I am looking forward to returning soon to try more of the menu - I hear the Acai...

Paulista has been on my list of places to try as it's not far from me and I'm a huge fan of Brazilian food. When you arrive you order at the counter and they bring the food to you. We ordered the pizza pastel, yucca fries, a coconut based shrimp stew dish, feijoada, Guarana, and a smoothie which came to about $90 after tip. The pizza pastel was good flavor wise but not a pastel and more like an empanada, the yucca fries were also good. However, our main dishes lacked flavor, which was a surprise as I've always had such flavorful dishes at every Brazilian restaurant I've been to. The feijoada was the worst I've had ever! It was vegetarian which I didn't order to begin with. There was no flavor, the rice was bland, and the yucca flour was also bland and lacked any flavor. Minus the girl at the counter who took our order, the service we received was fine. Sadly, I don't think I will be returning to this place and will stick with my go-to tried and true Brazilian restaurant in the Bay Area that...

Paulista was a staple for my family and I but something has changed and the service has gone drastically down hill. In the past year we’ve had multiple issues with our food taking 35-45 minutes to come out and then the order being wrong on top of that. With two little kids in tow and the order consisting of kids beans and rice and chicken sandwich there’s no reason it should take so long other than short staffed kitchen or prioritizing take out orders over in house orders. I’ve tried to express my concerns and have had to get up and ask for our order and every time it’s “we had an unexpected rush”. If you’re always unprepared for a rush yet take out orders are still going out then something is off. I’ve been a very consistent, loyal paulista patron for years and years but for the price I can’t justify the risk of having two very upset little kids asking over and over where the food is. We won’t be going back which is...