The Mercado Municipal of Santos, on Rua Pedro II in the historic centre, is the city's main public market. The building dates from 1952 and houses dozens of stalls selling fish, fruit, sausages, cheeses, dried beans, and Portuguese specialities such as bacalhau salgado and cured chorizo.
The stalls on the upper level serve cheap fresh seafood lunches — fried fish with rice and beans, prawn pasteis, oysters — and a couple of long-running bars do good caipirinhas. It is the cheapest interesting place to eat in central Santos and a window into everyday city life.