A tale of two Brazilian churrascarias

Not all Brazilian BBQs are created equally. Fogo de Chao is one of the popular Brazilian chains that most people are familiar with when it comes to Brazilian churrascarias (tchu-ras-ka-ria). Churrascaria literally means house of barbecue. The meat is savory and simple. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Fogo de Chao is a bit fancy and here in LA, the chain is located in Beverly Hills. However, there are other alternatives if you’re looking for your cut of Brazilian BBQ. On the more affordable side, you can check out Pampas Grill in the Farmer’s Market off of 3rd and Fairfax (also a new location in Culver City). You plate your own food and at the end, you pay buy weight. Here’s my plate:

I loaded up my plate with a salad, collard greens, rice and black beans, fried plantains, picanha (top sirloin cap) and linguiça (sausage). This plate cost about $10.

Here’s a close-up of the BBQ meat…

Pampas Grill is great for a quick Brazilian BBQ fix. However, this place can get crowded and you have to compete for a table with all the Farmer’s Market patrons. Here’s a tip, I went around 11:30am and the line wasn’t that bad. It’s a good place to wet your palate to see if you like this style of BBQ. When you’re ready to advance to the next stage of BBQ, you might want to drive east to Koreatown’s M Grill.

It’s not a fusion restaurant – it’s Brazilian. They serve 17 different cuts of meat…

The restaurant is smaller than what I expected and it was a little hard to find (entrance is on the second floor) but once we walked in, the service staff was very attentive. Definitely A+ for the excellent service and recommendations on cocktails. The all-you-can-eat lunch goes for about $23 and the dinner is about $43 but you do get your money’s worth.

Because this is an all-you-can-eat restaurant, they give you a card – one side is green which means servers should stop at your table and the other side is red to tell the servers to move on.

This is a basket of the Brazilian style cheese bread – it’s light and airy… and delicious! I could eat a basket of these alone.

Here is the linguiça and smoked sausage slices.

Here’s the hunk of sirloin. If it’s a little too rare, the server will take it back and cook it to your liking.

And before I forget, they also have a large selection of veggies and sides at their buffet. My favorite was their creamed corn and collard greens.

For dessert I got the sorbet trio – coconut, passion fruit, and mango. It was the perfect way to end the meal because it was light and sweet. And it turns out they get their sorbet from Fosselman’s in Alhambra!Oh wait! I almost forgot that I also had s slice of their grilled pineapple with cinnamon.

sdLooking through these photos, I think I’m having food coma flashbacks. I hope you enjoyed my recent outing to fulfill my Brazilian BBQ craving.