Let me tell you about dinner last night…

We joined Thomas & Sherry and wildmouse and me_not_you for dinner at Rio Churrascaria, a new Brazilian steakhouse that opened four days ago up in North Raleigh (at Strickland and Six Forks, for you locals). We had the best meal I’ve had a local restaurant in quite a while.

We started out with a visit to the “Exotic Foods Bar.” This had an interesting assortment of standard stuff (Caesar salad, pasta salad) and some unusual items such as fresh mozzarella, delicious olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and other good vegetable stuff. Takaza, of course, didn’t have a bite of it, since it wasn’t meat 😉 Well, he did nab some fresh mozzarella later. When I got back to the table I found the caipirinha I ordered had arrived. This is a traditional Brazilian drink; think something like a margarita on the rocks, only instead of tequila they use cachaça, a Brazilian rum. It has more character to it than tequila, and was quite delicious. Also, a few side dishes were brought out to be served family-style: mashed potatoes with cheese and paprika, a delicious rice verde, and black beans.

But then we were off into the main attraction. See, the way a Brazilian steakhouse works is that there are “meat runners” who wander the dining room floor with large skewers of meat – pork, chicken, beef, whatever. When you are seated, you are given a coaster-like “chip.” This is red on one side and green on the other. Green tells the meat runners to bring on the meat, red means, “I’m full, go away.” The chips were flipped to green and the meat commenced. And such a variety of meat! Pork loin, leg of lamb, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, skirt steak, filet mignon, bacon-wrapped chicken breast, sausages, chicken legs, and chicken hearts. All delivered hot from the kitchen. And as often as you want. Yes, it’s all you can eat, and I think we pretty much stuffed ourselves. The seasonings on the meats were simple, sometimes no more than salt, pepper, and maybe a bit of garlic. Just right to really showcase the quality of the meat itself.

Dessert was, unfortunately only so-so. My flan was OK, though a bit granular and the honey sauce tasty somewhat burned. Dan’s white cake with custard filling and marshmallow icing was tasty, though. The service throughout the meal was superb, on a level of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse or better. There were a few miscues that reminded us that they had been open only a few days, but that was forgivable. Every single person we dealt with was friendly, polite, and helpful. Russ, our server, was quite amusing and took time to chat with us and really made us feel welcome.

The total tab for this for me and Dan was $85, which included one drink for me, a (frequently-refilled) soda for him, and two desserts. No, it’s not something we can do very often, but it was a superb dining experience and one that I’d like to do at least once more before we leave the area. For those of you in Chicago and Houston, Fogo de Chão is a similar restaurant, though I suspect it’s a lot more expensive. Still, as an “event” kind of meal, it’s very enjoyable and definitely worth the money.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot: Happy birthday, Roho!