I came to this Brazilian churasqueira with five Brazilians. These people know what a good Brazilian BBQ restaurant should be, but this was certainly not one. It's a huge restaurant but was pretty empty when we came at 5pm. I can imagine that it gets fairly busy at the height of the summer with all the tourists as it is in a prime location right next to the Oceanarium, the Science Museum and the cable car. Because of this, they probably don't need to rely on return custom and this would explain the shoddy service.
For a anyone who doesn't know how a churasqueira works, you basically pay a set price for all-you-can-east meat brought to the table on a selection of skewers and carved on to you plate until you say stop! There are usually many different cuts of beef as well as some lamb, pork, and chicken dishes. The meat here was ok, but nothing exceptional.
The buffet at most Brazilian restaurants is normally so amazing that it competes with the meet to fill your belly. Think sushi, cheeses, charcuterie, fish and lots of exciting salad dishes. At this restaurant, not only was 70% of the buffet space empty, what was there was totally pathetically - limp lettuce, and bowl of uncut and undressed cherry tomatoes, and a few unidentified fried objects that I really didn't want to touch.
We also ordered the additional seafood sharing plate for two and when this turned up it looked pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the prawns were old and tough, the muscles looked like they had been hanging around too long, and the crab sticks (from the 1980's?!) were just unappetising. The only decent part was the seafood dip in the middle.
One of our waiters was so lazy, he didn't change the plates or bring new cutlery when required and was slow with the drinks orders. On top of this, he was quite rude and unfriendly.
The only saving grace for this place was our meat waiter who was not only super fast at bringing around the meat dishes, he was really friendly and entertaining, and actually made an enjoyable evening out of mediocre food.
The house vino verde was also good and I did leave feeling pretty stuffed so not all was lost. If you are visiting this area of town, I would recommend avoiding this tourist trap and searching out something far more local and authentic. read more