Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi folks,

Could one of you wonderful gastronaughts in the London area please let me know if you know of any good Brazilian restaurants in the London area. I am off out for some food with some friends and we have done the Argentinian steak restaurants and other assorted steak places and now we have decided to try for one of the Brazilian all you can eat places (something like this), unfortunately we have no idea where is any good

So please beex, can you help...

I'm not convinced there are any that are actually good. However, that one is acceptable. They cook the food OK, and bring it to you with reasonable alacrity as long as it's not too busy. I'm not aware of there being one in London that's a cut above the rest, unfortunately.

If you're expecting food on a par with London's good steak restaurants you'll be wildly disappointed. If you're expecting to eat meat until you can't possibly eat more meat, you'll be fine.

Cheers for the quick response Craster, so won't match up to santa maria del sur then? I loved the steaks in there....hmmm may have to go again soon.
Think we will probably give Rodizio Rico a shot (unless anyone else has any ideas) as a few of us going are insane carnivores who think the eat as much meat as you possibly can is a good menu structure

Is that the one we went to, Cras? I remember nearly ordering you the veggie option while you were in the toilet.

I'm not a fan of that one. I found predo in Victoria to be better.

http://rodiziopreto.co.uk/

Preto even.

Fuck no. That place is excellent.

Oh, this thread is not what I expected it to be about AT ALL.

yeah, I was so expecting it to be about hair straightening.

Not what happens.

Just be careful when travelling on the Underground.

No sudden moves.

Thanks APoD, so now have to decide between Preto and Rico. So you have eaten at both and think Preto is better? Will go check some of the review sites

And apologies to anyone who thought i was looking for a specialist groom-er in London, guess i will have to be careful when i name any new threads.

lol and thanks for the advice Zardozzzzzz, when i first moved to london when i was much younger i was a proper country boy, and used to (shock horror) try to chat to people on the tube, now i have a healthy fear and disdain for anyone crazy enough to do that, they must be a nut case or a terrorist.

Neither Brazilian nor Argentinian, but I went to Bodean's year before last and ate lots of meat. That was good.

There's no Bodean's in the north

ohh thanks Bik, that looks pretty nice too...damn, think i am going to be eating out alot in the near future

Bodeans is hit and miss. When it's good, it's very good. When it's poor it's rubbish.

Comparing the O2 one to preto, preto won on many factors.

-smaller and more personal
-not as busy either
-more cuts of meat in quantity, frequency and variety terms.
-didn't have to wait an hour for chicken hearts, and when they did arrive at o2 were overcooked
-cheaper booze
-better salad bar(which also includes cold meat). Bizarrely, they also had sushi.

Plus, there is always, in my experience, at least one deeply attractive Brazilian woman eating at preto.

Sold, i just need to help guide the misses to make the right choice now

...threesome?

I am not that good a salesman

Danielle informs me this is how churrascarias are supposed to work -- it's not really a salad bar, but more of a full cold buffet. Is the O2's one disappointing then? The (excellent) one I ate at in Indianapolis had a dozen cheeses and a pretty impressive charcuterie selection. All of which was forgotten when the skewers of barbequeued prime rib appeared.

If they have fresh tres leche on the dessert menu, get that too. It's a light cake soaked in sweetened condensed milk and cream, and topped with a whipped cream topping, sometimes with fudge or toffee sauce. I love that stuff.

Sounds good, thanks for the tip

As I recall (was on the way to being slaughtered) the O2 had a large buffet bar with many selections, but which didn't receive much attention. As a result, a lot of it looked old and tired, and so I didn't go in heavy on it. Therefore as a meal, with fewer men with meat on sticks, and as each man roamed the whole, large restaurant (meaning meat would arrive cold, and potentially not enough to serve the table), I didn't actually eat a lot that I enjoyed.

By comparison, Preto is quite small. It only takes a matter of minutes for each meatman to circulate the place, so your food arrives hot and regularly. It goes back on the grill to recook quickly as a result, too. If the place has more than a few people in, the (smaller) buffet bar is also turned over more frequently, and their lasagne was good enough to constitute a meal in itself.

It all sounded really good, until I looked and all the meat on the menu was "served rare" or "served rare to medium"

I don't see the point in paying loads for food when they won't even contemplat cooking it how you want it.

Malc

It's not cooked to order. They cook large chunks of meat and bring it round for each person to have a few slices off. They're not going to cook a piece well done just for you and have no-one eat the rest of it.

You can ask for the bits of meat from the edge, which are cooked more than the bits in the middle.

How do you take your meat, Malc*?


* obv

Well that makes some sense I guess (for them) but still not suitable for me

Malc

Learn to eat your meat properly!

And, like Grim... says, you can ask them to cut your bits from the outside of the chunk so they're much more cooked than the middle.

Well done! (I know most people think that that means I am an abomination, but I don't care)

Malc

Miss Malabar likes her meats cooked well. I apologise to the staff every time as they look at her in slight disgust. What a waste of meat.

That probably makes her feel really bad.

You monster.

Not a waste if it's still enjoyed.

I prefer my steaks medium though.

It isn't a total waste if the person enjoys it, but since a well done good steak tastes the same as a well done cheap steak then it is a waste of money on a good cut, i got most upset having to cook a REALLY nice rib eye well done for my better halfs mother once, i just buy a real cheap steak for her now if i know she is coming for steak now (lucky this doesn't happen often as she live is Malaysia)

Also, by the handle, which is the last place they cut from and so it gets more cooking time. I think the way of expressing it is that they can't guarantee that any meat will be cooked to more than medium rare, due to the way it is served.

What?

The nuances of underlying quality meat don't shine through when it has been cooked to the texture of shoe leather.

That's a world away from "they taste the same".

Shoe Leather is perhaps too far, I like the caramlised taste of charred meat, and I dislike having pink blood oozing from it!

Malc

It's not blood.

I disagree with the comments above. Particularly with fatty steak like a rib-eye, the one thing that's going to redeem it if you cook the shit out of it is good quality marbling running right through the meat.

The charring only happens on the outside, and should happen regardless of the length of cooking (except 'blue'). It shouldn't ooze either, if it's been rested properly.

But, you know, it's fine if you like it well done.

Cheers for the advice all, we did go to rodizio preto in the end, blimey i was stuffed at the end of the meal i dread to think how many moo cows they go through in that place in a year.

And now for my next query, where else would you recommend a small group of people to go chow down in the big smoke? We have some friends coming over from Malaysia so probably best to aim for a European cuisine, but they are pretty tight people (well that's harsh, the Malaysian dollar isn't strong against the pound) so am thinking a max of £20 per head (less would be good).

Any suggestions BeeX?

Chippy?

Tayyabs is pretty cheap and very good, but you can't book so be prepared to queue (but they do get you though quick).
http://tayyabs.co.uk/

[edit]Oh, you can book.

Everyone I know who likes their meat well done are people who have never tried it medium-rare/rare, but don't like the idea of it. Those who I've persuaded to give it a try haven't gone back.

Thanks Grim... added it to the list, although i am thinking more European for them as Indian curry is popular all over Malaysia.

Harvester. Gammon steak.

Wimpy. Bender in a Bun ( on a china plate, natch )