Last evening I had dinner with a friend at Brazas and having been to Chima and other Brazilian Steakhouses I was expecting the same experience; well....I wrong.
Upon entering the sketchy multifaceted building (the website pulls a great Houdini, whoever took the pictures should get an award for transforming that place to attract patrons via the web) which I found out hosts both Brazas and the Indian restaurant Namaste, I felt like I was in a bad horror film. The place was eerily empty where only 2 other tables were occupied during our time there. Being blunt, this restaurant is decorated in early f@$!....as Professor McDoogal says in Van Wilder. Just not an appealing decor.
Moving on down the line, the waiter, who reminded me of a ventriloquist dummy with a pull chord, rambled off the whole Brazilian steakhouse spiel like a robot. It was hard not to laugh at his monotone and disengaged attitude. There were only three people working in this restaurant for service. And it seemed like the nicest server (Indian fellow) was working both restaurants.
At this point, I had been thinking as long as the food is good, I'll be content in my decision to come here. They offer a starter course which consists of a hot/cold food bar with various salads, pasta salads, plantains, and some questionable chicken and beef with vegetables. Both my friend and I had bit into the beef and chicken pieces and I'm not quite sure what cuts of meat this was, but it wasn't very edible, half of it was gristle. Having just a few bites of the Caesar salad, I was done with that part of the meal.
As I previously mentioned, I have been to multiple Brazilian steakhouses and all have been great. Because of my previous experiences, I figured that the churrascaria meats would be on frequent rotation, again, I was wrong. As other members commented, the quantity and frequency of the meats are very low.
As far as the cuts of meat, I think they need to reevaluate this to an extreme. On their website, they say they offer around 10-12 cuts of meat. Well last night they had the following: Pork Ribs, Top Sirloin, Filet wrapped in bacon, Pork Tenderloin, Sausage, Lamb, Chicken wrapped in bacon and Deep Fried Alligator. I asked for beef ribs and they said they don't offer it during the week. I didn't bother asking for any other cuts, because they kept coming around with the same meats so I figured after getting told ""no"" to the beef ribs, that there wasn't going to be anything else that I wanted. The sad part was that the top sirloin was the best meat that they had. All the meats except the sirloin were cooked to the point where it was extremely dry which was disappointing.
I'm not quite sure how this place stays open. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you want to spend $30 being creeped out eating dinner. Otherwise, don't bother. Its definitely worth the extra $15-$25 to visit Chima and have yourself a great Rodizio experience.
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