Fasano

The Fasano family name is well known in São Paulo, in the context of fine dining: the family has over 100 years of experience in the restaurant business, having brought the finest in Italian cuisine with them from Milan. Their flagship restaurant, called simply Fasano, has presided over this private avenue itself named for great-grandfather Vittorio Fasano since 1990, and the year 2003 saw the arrival of the family's first hotel venture. A hotel is lucky if it can develop a decent restaurant; this one was fortunate enough to have been born at the side of a great one. And the Jardim Paulista district surrounding Rua Vittorio Fasano is home to São Paulo's finest shops and boutiques, another auspicious circumstance for any hotel. Especially this kind of hotel. This is the sort of place where discreet, understated design acts not as a refuge for publicity-shy guests, but as a backdrop against which they may shine. Fasano is a sober and dignified affair, with a facade in English red brick and a lobby filled with massive leather armchairs. This is quite clearly not a place to hide but a place to be seen, and the view from the armchairs is of a constant parade of well-heeled travelers and fashionable Paulistanos flowing through reception and into the Wallpaper*-endorsed Baretto, the jazz bar in case your Portuguese is too rusty for a guess.

Price: £708.64 from Otel