fogo de chao

My roommate is the carnivore of all carnivores - she LOVES red meat. So, when I heard there was this new restaurant in town that was being dubbed as "the meat buffet," I thought it was the perfect place to take her for her birthday lunch (even if the lunch was a month after her birthday...).

*editorial note* I wanted to take actual photos of the place, but it was quite upscale (even though not everyone was dressed upscale; everyone - including us - wore jeans, but that's probably because there was a bunch of snow outside). So, most of these pictures are taken from the menu that I grabbed on the way out. The actual food items are exactly the same way as it looks in these photos.

The meat buffet is at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Steakhouse that is best described as a buffet with a never-ending supply of meats for your appetite. The way it works is that there are two parts to the buffet: 1) the salad bar buffet with a lot of selections, and you can go back as many times as you want to; and 2) the serving of the different kinds of meat right at your table-side. Below is a couple of pictures of what the salad bar buffet looks like:

And here comes the selections of meat. There were 15 different kinds of meat. We topped out at six. Yep, the carnivore roommate couldn't eat anymore meat either. But it was all still so good.

The meats we were able to stuff into our bellies:

-the Fraldinha, cut from teh bottom sirloin, and seasoned to perfection (description taken from the menu)
-Filet Mignon, succulent piece of meat cut from the tenderloin and seasoned to perfection. We also had the filet mignon wrapped in bacon, so I actually ate two full size pieces of filet mignon, which is A LOT of beef for me in one sitting.
-Beef Ancho (not sure why the image is sideways), the prime part of the ribe eye, beef ancho celebrates the rich flavor and the delectable texture of that elite cut. Do you also see the yellow balls of bread? It was like bread made out of butter, very creamy and light but still bready!
-Alcatra, cut from the top sirloin, this piece of meat is tender and full of flavor. Depending on whether you liked your beef rare, medium or well done, they shaved off the pieces in different places. Since I liked my meat well done to burnt crisp, the waiter only shaved off the outer edges for me.
-Cordeiro, fresh young leg of lamb sliced off the bone, and also served as chops. We had the lambchops, and I actually kinda liked it.
-Costela de Porco, tender pork ribs slow-roasted to perfection. Okay, this was the only meat I didn't like because it was really too dry and almost crispy. This was also the last piece of meat I could force down my throat before I had to go get another plate of salad just to balance out the meat/veggie ratio.
The meats that we didn't eat: Picanha (prime part of sirloin flavored with sea salt or garlic); Lombo (pork lin tender filets); Frango (chicken breasts and breasts wrapped in bacon); Linguica (robust pork sausages -- I wanted to try this but got too full to request a sample!).

Each person had this little disk that was red on one side and green on the other. Red means "STOP bringing the meat!" and green means "BRING ON THE MEAT, BABY!" So, as soon as we turned over our disks to the green side, a line of waiters with different meats would come by our tables and tell us what kind of meat they were serving, and then would serve us a piece of that meat. And once we thought we had enough meat on our plate, we quickly turned the disk back over to red so as not to encourage any more waiters to come by our tables.

The waitstaff was EXCELLENT, very attentive. Everytime I returned from the salad bar, there was a waiter holding my chair and waiting for me to sit down so he could push my chair back in. My glasses of water/coke never got below half empty. I always got my dishes exchanged out for new ones without being asked. And they all worked together, so you never had to look for your one waiter/waitress, but any of them would always come by to make sure you were happy.
And then we forced some dessert down our throats (because you can't have a birthday lunch without birthday dessert). My roommate had the triple chocolate mousse cake and I had the flan (actual pictures!). The flan was really good, but I thought it was a little too solid for me, because I always thought flan was a little jiggly like pudding. The chocolate mousse cake was really really sweet and I probably could have only eaten half of it. The roommate was able to eat 3/4 of it before calling it quits. She says she wished she had finished the whole thing because it was so good.

And how much did all this cost me? Well, the lunch buffet on Sundays is $34.50 a person, when I thought it was $24.50, which is the weekday price. I think dinner price is around $50 per person. Desserts and drinks are separate. So, um, yeah, this was a pricey lunch. But, I think the price is worth it since you're getting all the best parts of the cow/lamb/chicken/pork. I like to believe that the fact that I ate two really good pieces of filet mignon and a lamb chop was enough to cover the $34.50 because it would have cost just about that much or more at another steakhouse by ordering it a la carte. Oh yeah, there were also side dishes of rice, beans, mashed potatoes, polenta, and caramelized bananas on the table. So you see, there was a LOT OF FOOD.

And then I did not eat for the rest of the day because I was so full.