Ever Had Churrascaria Rodizio With Top Quality Meat?

Cafe Society
1

Do they exist? I mean, the quality of a good steak at a real sit-down steakhouse?

I’ve had meat that varies from not very good to quite-tasty-but-not-as-good-as-a-steakhouse.

I’d assume there are three barriers to getting all-you-can-eat steakhouse-quality steak:

  1. Obviously, price – I would imagine most churrascarias couldn’t begin to break even if they were giving away Prime or top Choice meat at their generally-reasonable prices, especially when people treat it as a challenge to wolf down as much as they can.

  2. (My gripe): Doneness – they seem to cook to the mass palate, and lots of unadventurous eaters like meat medium to medium well. Much of the churrascaria meat I get is tough maybe not because it’s crappy to begin with, but because it’s been cooked too long.

  3. (Other gripe) Usually too much salt.

But – have you ever been to a rodizio-style place that knocked the ball out of the park as far as top quality, well-cooked meats (and, if so, name it)?

2

I had spectacular rodizio back in the 1990s in Smithtown (Long Island NY) but the guy moved on quite a while back, no idea if he reopened anywhere in the area. Name of “Kahn”. Portuguese rather than Brazilian.

EDIT: associated restaurant still open in Mineola! http://www.churrasqueira.com/

3

I had a fantastic rodizio experience in Brazilia, but haven’t tried rodizio anywhere outside of Brazil because I’m concerned that it won’t live up to the real thing.

A few things I noticed:

  1. There was plenty of rare/medium-rare to go around along with the more well-done options. I’m guessing that they don’t serve rare cuts in the US as they assume that American’s prefer their meat thoroughly cooked?

  2. Saltiness is indeed par for the course, but I happen to like that.

  3. The beef was of excellent quality, but overall I noticed that the cost of beef in Brazil was much lower than it is in North America. I seem to remember both filet and sirloin making the rounds, but I’m not 100% on this as it was quite some time ago.

  4. Forget the beef… I ended up filling up on chicken hearts. I’m guessing these may not be offered in the US, since Americans tend to get squicked out by organ meats IME.

So I guess the bottom line is that if you want really good quality rodizio, you’ll need to fly to Brazil. :slight_smile:

4

WOW! Memories. Lived in Brazil (Sao Paolo) in the early 90’s and remember how much I loved the chicken hearts (to this American’s surprise).

I don’t recall the exact quality of the meat, but the experience was fantastic the couple of time I went to a churrascaria. Always wanted to go again, limited options where I live (Northwest Connecticut).