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» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Texas de Brazil (WARNING: do not read if you're vegetarian)

   
Author Topic: Texas de Brazil (WARNING: do not read if you're vegetarian)
Icarus
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A few months back, OSC raved in one of his columns about a churrascaria. Shortly after that, I saw one, Texas de Brazil, being built in my area, and was looking forward to trying it out.

http://www.texasdebrazil.com/index2.php

Well, the life of a parent of two little ones is such that we don't get out to expensive, fancy places quite as often as we might like. But my father gave us a $60 gift card to the place, so we finally got to try it out tonight.

The atmosphere was somewhat loud for such a fancy-seeming place--not a complaint, just an observation. The way it works is you can go to the salad bar any time you wish, and when you would like to have meat brought to you, you flip over a little chip on your table--green side up if you want food, red side up if you don't.

The salad bar was the most diverse I have ever seen. If you are not adventurous, you will find little that you like there. They had iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, ranch and italian dressing, and croutons, so I suppose you won't be too disappointed. But thay also had several things whose name I don't recall--funny looking green or red dishes. Instead of Bacon Bits, they had big chunks of bacon, no doubt cooked there. They had cheese, but not just grated cheddar or parmesan or romano, but big hunks of cheeses such as provolone and gouda. In addition to sliced large tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, they also had sun-dried tomatoes. They had at least a couple different types of lettuce, and some cucumbers marinated in I don't know what. They had all kinds of cold cuts, and about a dozen varieties of olive. They also had sushi at the salad bar, some sauces to go with the meats you might have later (chimichurri for the beef*, and a mint sauce for the lamb). They also had bread, a variety of dipping mixtures for the bread, rice, soup (a lobster bisque when I went), and a mushroom ragout.

I was conscious of not wanting to fill up at the salad bar, with so much other food still to come, but there were so many interesting selections I couldn't help myself. There was so much I wanted to sample.

Next I was ready for the meat. I turned over my chip to the green side and waited--the couple of minutes or so I waited were about my longest wait of the night. I have been to a Polynesian restaurant vaguely similar in scheme--people with skewers come to your table and give you cuts of meat, and you eat as much as you like--so I expected this to be similar. I expected they would have maybe half a dozen meats or so, and I wanted to try them all. Hah! I had no idea when I sat down how many choices they had. I just tried to keep track of what I had tried and what I had not. (They don't just bring you meat; they also bring you fried bananas--bananas, not plantains--and dirty mashed potatoes to cleanse your palate with.)

I started out with a bit of flank steak, which was delicious. Then I has a pork rib, and then the guy with the flank steak reappeared. I turned him down, thinking, okay, there aren't that many choices. Then the roast lamb came around. And then the parmesan chicken. And then the bacon-wrapped filet mignon. And then the non-wrapped filet mignon. And then the sirloin. While I had my chip red-side-up (simply because I didn't want to be buried alive in meat), a guy passed nearby with some garlic-roasted steak, which I wanted to make a point of trying. Later, I had some sausage (kielbasa-style), but turned away a lamb-chop. (The flank steak guy came by several more times, and was turned down each time, even though the steak was delicious. I guess he was just quicker on his feet.) Finally, I had to admit defeat and turn my chip back to red, not having gotten to try the garlic steak. :-| Half dozen items indeed! I asked my waiter later, and he told me they had about fourteen items making the rounds; I got to try about eight.

I actually did have dessert, though I could have happily done without, just so my wife wouldn't eat alone. ( [Wink] ) She had a coconut cream pie, and I had a chocolate cake. My cake was rich and generous, but honestly, dessert just isn't the highlight here. Don't make a special effort to save room, if you go.

We drank sangría with our meal. I'm something of a sangría snob--I've been drinking the stuff since my age was in the single digits, and making it since I was in my early teens. It's a part of my culture, and sangría practically runs through my veins (pun intended). Lots of restaurants have crappy sangría, and I'll be quick to tell you so. (The world famous Columbia restaurant in Tampa is a good example of crappy, overrated sangría). This place had pretty good sangría. They had an enormous wine list--not the biggest I've seen, but pretty large--and so there's lots to try, but if you've never had good sangría, try theirs.

So how pricey was it? Well, I was prepared for my $60 gift card to not quite cover it. I wasn't quite expecting to pay an extra hundred bucks, though! [Eek!] It is all you can eat, but we also had wine and dessert. If you skip those, you could make it a little cheaper.

If you go, consider not eating the rest of the day! [Wink] Also, I don't recommend trying to "get your money's worth," because I just don't think you can eat that much. I would just recommend that you enjoy whatever you do get to, and don't worry about what you don't get to try. If you insist, though, you might wish to forego the salad bar entirely, except perhaps for the sushi, and skip the chicken, sausage, and lamb--and don't worry about dessert. But really, I think you would be shortchanging yourself to take such a utilitarian approach.

* If you've never had chimichurri, do yourself a favor and try it. Don't be frightened by the green color--it's yummy and not at all healthy. [Smile] (Also, if you go to a Nicaraguan or Argentinian restaurant and order churrasco, which is the dish most associated with chimichurri, you will get a low-quality cut of beef, hidden under this wonderful sauce. Here you get to pour this sauce over some really good steak, and it's even better this way.)

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Uprooted
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Oooh, sounds yummy. I've never been to a really pricey churrascaria, but I have been to the low-end type, and enjoyed that. (But some of the meat tasted like I was paying $20-30 bucks rather than *gasp* what you shelled out!)
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Farmgirl
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quote:
If you insist, though, you might wish to forego the salad bar entirely, except perhaps for the sushi, and skip the chicken, sausage, and lamb--and don't worry about dessert
Oh, I would never, ever skip the lamb -- that's my favorite meat, and it is hard to find it prepared properly!

But I have never heard of such a place, Icarus. In some of my travels around, I will have to be looking for a churrascaria, and hopefully get a chance to try it!

FG

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Bob_Scopatz
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I love those places.

There's one in Salt Lake that I went to with some of the local Hatrackers...for a lunch. It was a lot more affordable than at an evening meal.

I went to one in DC for dinner. [Eek!] Expensive even without the alcohol.

What fun though.

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Bob_Scopatz
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By the way, the music that comes on at the restaurant's web page sounds like a porno soundtrack.


Or so I've heard.

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Icarus
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[Big Grin]
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Icarus
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Here are the columns OSC has written about the concept:

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2004-04-25.shtml

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2004-06-13.shtml

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2004-06-20.shtml

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Jon Boy
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quote:
Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz:
I love those places.

There's one in Salt Lake that I went to with some of the local Hatrackers...for a lunch. It was a lot more affordable than at an evening meal.

Was that Rodizio Grill? Ruth and I went there once, and it was awesome. It was delicious, and we were all totally stuffed by the time they were done with us.
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Teshi
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Ever been to a Korean Grill? It's even more unvegetarian friendly. You sit down, and they give you slabs of completely raw meats (we had white fish, salmon, squid, beef, pork, chicken) to cook at the table on this burner thing in the middle of the table.
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Icarus
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Well, I have had both fondue and rock/stone cooking, which are both similar. I've also eaten at one of those steakhouses where you cook your own steak over a firepit. I love the rock cooking and the fondue; cooking my own steak in a firepit at a restaurant holds no attraction for me.
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Kristen
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We have a few in Chicago. You shouldn't have warned vegetarians not to look: the salad bar is a feast in and of itself!

They usually have a prix fixe around $80, but the salad bar is open for lunch at $30.

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Bob_Scopatz
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Darnit, I don't remember the name of the place. Inside the entryway, they had pictures of Donny Osmond.

Servers in gaucho costumes.

That's all I recall.

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mistaben
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I was a missionary in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state. I've eaten at two of the best [/i]churrascarias[/i] in Porto Alegre: O 35 ("trinta e cinco") and O Mosqueteiro (=The Musketeer). The latter is located at the stadium of the soccer team Gremio.

Whoa.

I've also attended many churrascos at private homes.

Whoa.

Anyway, I've been back from Brazil for almost 5 years, and I have yet to try a churrascaria in the US. I'm just afraid that I'll be disappointed!

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Tante Shvester
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Reading your review makes me want to just burp!

Wouldn't it be swell if there were a kosher variant out there? Of course, it would be too expensive to go to, then. Kosher meat is pricey.

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Icarus
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Well, they had kosher wines on the wine list, IIRC . . . I don't know if that extends to the food being kosher, but they seemed to at least be aware of the issue.
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rivka
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Nah. There are quite a number of kosher wines that have won awards and such. Having certain kosher wines on the list merely means they have good taste. [Wink]

(A restaurant that serves both cheese and meat, not to mention lobster bisque, is not kosher in any sense of the word.)

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Leonide
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quote:
I have been to a Polynesian restaurant vaguely similar in scheme--people with skewers come to your table and give you cuts of meat, and you eat as much as you like--so I expected this to be similar
'Ohana, perchance? [Wink]

I absolutely *love* that concept. Love it. Buffets in general I'm not wild about. But when people come to your table offering all you can eat stuff, well, it's just almost more than a lazy, food-loving girl like me can handle.

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signal
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There were a couple in Chicago I wanted to go to, but never got the chance to. But now that I'm in NC, I may have to make the 2 hour drive to check out Leblon in Greensboro. I <3 good meat and all you can eat IS a challenge. [Big Grin]
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Tante Shvester
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quote:
Originally posted by Icarus:
I don't know if that extends to the food being kosher.

quote:
pork rib...then the parmesan chicken...then the bacon-wrapped filet mignon.
I'm guessing Not Kosher. [Smile] There may be kosher wines on the wine list simply because there are very excellent and tasty kosher wines that deserve to be on the list on their own merits.

I do have a terrific name for a kosher restaurant of the style you described -- "Chazzer Dick's". Anyone out there, please feel free to use it; I'm offering it gratis.

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Icarus
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Okay. [Big Grin]

Interesting, though, that they did not simply have these wines on the menu, but actually listed them under a separate heading. [Dont Know]

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Icarus
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Oh, and we just love Ohana! [Big Grin]

(You should sample their bar appetizers sometime. Sometimes we skip Ohana and just have the really weird/cool bar food. My favorite, I think, is the chips and salsa--fried wonton chips with a pineapple/spicy salsa. Mmmmm!)

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El JT de Spang
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*drools*
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Eduardo_Sauron
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It's funny...two weeks ago I went to a nice Churrascaria here in Rio. I spent like... R$50 including drinks. That would be less than $24, I guess (and it's expensive over here, hehehe).
But hey! A good churrasco deserves it!

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Leonide
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The bar appetizers, Joe? Like, the ones they bring to the table on that little lazy susan thing, or do you mean things you can actually only get at the bar?

I did order a drink prior to our meal while we were waiting out in that lounge area...it was called a Backscratcher, a fact I remember only because i got a souvenir back-scratcher in the drink.

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Icarus
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I mean the food that's only available at the bar. (Or in the seating area by the bar on the second floor, overlooking the lobbby on one side and the pool area on the other).
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Icarus
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I do a double take when I see the word, because when I hear churrasco, I don't think of churrascaría, but of what Nicaraguans and Argentinians (and, by extension, all other hispanics) call churrasco.
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Nikisknight
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Extra Hundred Bucks?

There are a couple of these places near us. One is called Picanhas (sp?), I forget the other name, anyway churrascurias. (sp, again.)
Anway, if you go during lunch, they may only have 8 or 9 options, but it is, I believe, $15 a person, or close to that.
We never order drinks or desert anyway, but there, who needs it?

Wait, did they charge full price for your two "little ones"? That may make more sense, then.

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