Rio Brazilian Steakhouse

Fresh off a visit to Fogo de Chão earlier this year in Bellevue, it got us craving for some Brazilian BBQ here in Vancity.  Now that isn't necessarily an easy task as there is only one place to get it - Rio Brazilian Steakhouse.  They have 2 locations, one in Downtown Vancouver and the other is in Coquitlam.  Yes, there used to be Samba (run by the Thai House Group), but they have long closed.  So we headed out to the Coquitlam Rio to see if anything has changed since the last time I visited the place (that was pre-covid and I didn't blog about it).

So the concept for this form of dining is that they put a card on the table that has a green side and a red side.  They will keep bringing over various BBQ meats if your card is green.  When you want to throw in the towel, you turn it to red.  But before even getting to the meats, you can help yourself to the Salad Bar, that also featured other dishes such as beans & rice, sauteed mushrooms and paella.  Nothing out-of-the-ordinary here.  Be careful of how much you eat because it just fills up space in your stomach that could otherwise be used for meat...

Yet, even before the meat, we got the requisite sides to any Brazilian BBQ meal in the Fried Banana and the Tapioca Flour Cheese Buns (Pao de Queijo).  The fried bananas were rather starchy and not that sweet.  For me, I enjoy them this way (almost like plantains) rather than overly ripe ones.  As for the buns, they were chewy and gooey due to the tapioca flour and also the amount of cheese inside.

About that meat, the first one that came to our table was the NY Striploin.  Now this is usually my favourite cut of meat, but this was not as tender as we would've preferred.  It was, however, beautifully medium-rare, which meant it was juicy.  Despite that, it was rather tough and we didn't have that much fun eating it.  Lots of meat flavour though while the exterior was nicely salted.

Now the Picanha (or Top Sirloin Cap) was much more tender, despite not being as sexy as a NY steak.  This was also done medium-rare, hence it was juicy and moist.  The fat cap did help offer up some pretty delicious meat flavour as well.  Even though we got a thick slice from our server, it still cut easily and was easy to chew.  Once again, this was well-salted.

Another decent cut of meat was the Ribeye.  As you can see in the picture, it was also perfectly medium-rare.  You can also see on this cut, the large salt crystals on the outside.  This was also rather juicy, yet decently rested, so that it didn't leak all over our plate.  This was fairly tender and only second to the Picanha.  Of course, this was better than the striploin.

One of our favourite cuts of meat wasn't beef at all.  Rather, it was the Bacon-Wrapped Chicken featuring white breast meat.  We actually had this on 2 separate occasions and the second time, it was much more juicy and tender.  The smokiness and saltiness of the bacon really penetrated the chicken meat offering up impactful flavours.  In theory, it also kept the chicken moist and prevented juices from leaking out.

Although the Chicken Drumsticks should be more tender and juicy than the breast meat, it really wasn't.  That didn't mean they were dry, but they weren't that moist either.  However, the byproduct of being slightly overdone was that the skin was properly rendered and sported a golden brown sear.  The meat wasn't as aggressively seasoned, hence it as a bit bland tasting.  I didn't get a good picture of the Chicken Hearts, but they were one of our favourites being juicy and well-salted.

The worst cut of meat had to be the Pork as it was super dry and chewy.  This had a lot to do with the cut as it was super lean.  Secondly, this appeared to be put back on the BBQ (which is standard, to keep the meat warm and to cook the meat further as the middle portion is often less done).  To top things off, this was also lacking in seasoning, so we did a hard pass on the second go-around.

Another table favourite was the Slow-Cooked Beef Short Ribs.  Oh boy, these were so tender and fatty, that they practically melted-in-our-mouths.  Good thing the cooking process helped render the fat, so we were left with flavourful and well-seasoned meat.  Naturally, this was served on a platter and since we were sitting upstairs, it didn't make it up to us.  Rather, they sent us up a plate, showing that they remembered we were up there.

Even though Pork Sausages aren't the most sexy item to have here, they were still quite good.  They were well-charred on the outside without being burnt.  Nice smokiness and slight crispiness on the casing.  Inside, the meat was not overprocessed.  Instead, it was had good chunks of meat that was mixed well with just enough fat.  I found the sausages not that fatty.

Lastly, we had some slices of the Cinnamon Pineapple that was cooked enough so it was warm and juicy with the sugars activated.  The charred cinnamon on the outside was slightly sweet and smoky.  So I'm sure the biggest question you are wondering is: how does Rio compare to Fogo de  Chão?  Well, not well to be honest.  Fogo is superior in meat quality and selection.  However, Rio does hold the advantage of being considerably less expensive.  Furthermore, until Fogo opens up a location here (which is rumoured to be coming), there is no competition for Rio.

The Good:
- Only Brazilian BBQ in town
- Excellent service
- Fun eating

The Bad:
- Meat quality isn't the best
- Meat selection is limited 

 

Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse (Bellevue)

Another chain restaurant?  Did I just forget to eat at more interesting places in the States while being away for over 2 years due to the border closures???  Well, no of course not.  However, by virtue of being a chain restaurant doesn't mean I will never dine there.  In fact, I've always wanted to try Fogo de Chão.  C'mon, it is AYCE meat!  I've had Brazilian Churrascaria before in the States and of course in Vancouver as well.  However, I wanted to see if Fogo is any better than our local offerings of Rio and the long-shuttered Samba.

Luckily I made a reservation because the place was packed.  We were quickly seated and hit the Market Table for some meats, cheeses, salads, fruit, veggies and Fogo feijoada.  Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy the Iberico Ham as there was no knife available.  I asked an employee why there was no knife and she said we couldn't cut from the leg anymore.  There was still meat, but I guess it was too close to the bone?  I really didn't understand.

Now before we got to all the meats, we were served some sides including Mashed Potatoes, Cheese Bread, Caramelized Banana and Fried Polenta.  Of course these were essentially fillers, but it wasn't as if they weren't good either.  Their version of warm Pão de Queijo was soft and starchy inside (due to the tapioca flour).  The mash was actually quite tasty and smooth while the bananas were a bit bland.  Crispy polenta was somewhat hard, but also flavourful.

With all that out of the way, onto the meats!  So for those who have never done this type of dining before, there is a card on the table for each person.  Green means keep the meats coming and red means stop.  We were inundated with meats from the get go including Chicken, Spicy Pork Sausage, Pork Rib and Picanha.  We didn't really care for the chicken as it was really dry.  Sausage was meaty and tasty though.  Pork rib was also a touch dry, but still tender.  Loved the picanha (prime portion of top sirloin) as it was juicy and tender with a nice fat cap. 

So the next meats to come along included Top Sirloin, Bacon-wrapped Chicken and Steak, Parmesan Pork and Bottom Sirloin.  Both cuts of sirloin were juicy and super tender.  There was enough seasoning too.  The bacon-wrapped steak was flavourful and smoky while also tender.  Once again, I found the chicken to be dry, yet still tasty due to the bacon.  Also dry was the pork, but it was flavouful due to the parm.

The last round of meats consisted of Lamb Picanha, Lamb Chops, Striploin and Flank Steak.  I really love lamb and the picanha was super juicy with lots of gaminess.  The rack of lamb chop was medium-rare and super moist and and tender.  I hated the striploin as it was well-done.  That totally destroyed such a lovely cut of meat.  On the other hand, the flank steak was perfect being medium-rare, juicy and meaty.

So we never saw the following cuts of meat, even though we were there for an hour and half: Filet Mignon, Bone-in Rib-eye, Beef Ribs and Double Bone-in Pork Chops.  Not sure if they even had them?  We didn't see any and never got any either.  This was partially tempered by an amazing piece of Grilled Cheese featuring Coalho with honey.  These squeaky slices of cheese were delicious and texturally addictive.

I ended up with an extra slice of lamb because, well I love lamb (as I've mentioned many times) and the other cuts never arrived (or was available).  In the end, we enjoyed our meal despite not having some of the best cuts of meat available.  Also, a few were too dry for our liking.  However, I understand that they have to put the meats back on the BBQ when they have cut all the exterior "more-cooked" portions.  One thing is for sure - you come for the experience and you really take the good with the bad.

The Good:
- Plenty of meats coming around
- Good quality and generally well-prepared
- Good service

The Bad:
- Some meats were not available
- Some meats were very dry
- Not sure why we couldn't eat the Iberico ham

Boteco Brasil

With time ticking on my Groupon to Boteco Brasil, Viv and I made it out there with only days to spare.  Yes, I realize that the amount I paid never expires, but I just couldn't stomach the loss of a deal...  There have been too many times I've lost out since we kept delaying and delaying.  The pain of losing out on a deal is akin to being forced to pay for parking in Downtown after barely missing a free spot.  Or worse, eat at a Restaurant where there was a coupon available and find out afterwards!  The pain!

As part of the deal, we were given a choice of appie where we mixed and match 2 different ones in the Coxinhas and Pastel Carne.  With shredded chicken and spices (lotsa parsley) stuffed within a potato dough pocket, the Coxinhas were rather mild with only the pungency of parsley present.  However, the house-made hot sauce made a huge difference with a tart and slightly spicy kick.  I found the chicken a touch dry though.  As for the Pastel Carne, these ground beef stuffed pastries were enjoyable to eat.  Flaky and light on the outside, the ground beef and onion filling was also mild, but moist.  It was served with a vinaigrette salsa.  I also added the Polenta Frita with garlic aioli and these were fantastic.  Lightly crisp with a soft almost creamy centre, these were flavourful on their own possibly due to a combination of ample seasoning and cheese.  The accompanying aioli was definitely garlicky.

Onto our mains, we had the Picanha with rice, beans, fried banana, toasted cassava flour and fried cassava root.  This was prepared beautifully medium rare (but on the more rare side, which was perfect IMO).  Lightly salted, the meat was able to shine on its own with a buttery meatiness.  There was a proper sear on the outside and the side of cassava flour added a nutty saltiness (there was bacon in it too).  Loved the cassava root as it was super crunchy while still soft on the inside.  Our second dish was the Feijoada (black bean pork stew) was served with rice, sauteed kale, toasted cassava flour and salsa.  I found the flavours to be subtle with some smokiness and muted saltiness.  The beans were soft without being mushy while the pork was tender.  I liked the one slice of smoked sausage as it was meaty and succulent.

For dessert, we had the Bolo Prestigio or chocolate and coconut cake with beijinho filling and topped with brigadeiro.  We enjoyed the fluffiness of the cake, yet at the same time the chocolatey richness as well.  The cake itself wasn't very sweet, but the beijinho filling was super sugary.  Our second dessert consisted of Mario's Gelato accompanied by Doce de Leite.  Again, the creamy and light gelato wasn't overly sweet, but the caramel was sweet with depth.  It was smoky and silky. Overall, we had a pleasant meal at Boteco Brasil and seeing how there aren't many Brazilian restaurants in town, it was also interesting.

The Good:
- Something different (not many Brazilian restos in town)
- Nice people
- Decent

The Bad:
- Nice staff, but over-extended
- Place is rather warm, best to sit outside 
- Somewhat under-seasoned 

Grill From Ipanema

Okay, to say that my son doesn't like fruits and vegetables would be an understatement.  Compared to him, I could be classified as a vegetarian.  So taking him to a salad bar would be considered cruel and unusual punishment.  Hence, on our recent trip down to Seattle, I thought that a visit to the Grill From Ipanema would be in his wheelhouse.  You see, an endless supply of meat brought right our table sounded like the right thing to do.

However, to balance off the abundance of meat, we hit up the Salad Bar.  Of course this was without my son as he was there only for the meat.  There was a pretty decent selection of items including 2 soups (cheddar chowder and tomato basil), cooked food, salads, grilled veggies and fruit.  I found the soups pretty forgettable (as the tomato basil was more akin to a salty pasta sauce) but the rest of the items were more than acceptable.   In particular, the green beans were cooked just enough that they weren't raw while maintaining a fresh crunch.  The grilled zucchini sported an appealing char while lightly salted.  As much as the soy mushrooms looked tasty, they were also very salty.

Another distraction from the meats was the plate of Cheese Biscuits and Fried Banana that was offered continuously throughout the meal.  Due to the use of tapioca, the cheese biscuits were dense and gummy.  However, these were better than the last time I had them (at another restaurant).  They were plenty cheesy, warm and soft.  As for the fried banana, the breading was firmly crunchy while spike with a good amount of sugar and cinnamon.  Very tasty, but a touch too sweet for me.

Onto the meats, there was a good selection including Sausage, Bacon-Wrapped Steak, Pepper Steak, Garlic Steak, Tri-Tip, Sirloin, Parmesan Pork, Chicken, Beef Ribs and Grilled Pineapple. For those who haven't dined at a Brazilian Rodizio before, these meats (on skewers) were brought to our table by wandering gauchos where we would use our tongs to place it on our plates.  On the table was a card with a green side and a red.  Green meant "keep it coming" while red would imply that you stuffed yourself silly and wanted no more.  We did eventually flip the card to red, but I changed it back to green when the ribs finally showed up at the very end.

The highlights of the meal definitely included the Parmesan Pork and the Tri-Tip Steak as well as the beef ribs.  We found the pork to be sufficiently moist (except for the edges) while plenty seasoned by the ample Parm and salt.  The tri-tip steak was juicy and tender, yet sporting far too much salt.  As expected, the beef ribs were fatty, fairly tender and plenty flavourful from the nice char on the outside.  When I finally finished the piece of rib, it put me over the top and I was too stuffed to eat anymore.  Yup, that is probably what you can expect at a Brazilian Rodizio and the Grill From Ipanema was no exception.  Most of the meats were pretty good (albeit very salty) and there was never a shortage of it.

The Good:
- Fun way to eat especially for meat-lovers
- Plenty of meats floating around
- Spacious dining space

The Bad:
- Pricey
- Salty
- Service was decent, but hard to flag down someone

Rio Brazilian Steakhouse

I'm not afraid to admit it - I love meat.  In fact, I consider myself a meatatarian.  So when Samba closed its doors due to a building makeover, it made me sad.  Okay, I know there are those who couldn't stand the place.  I can't deny that on a bad day, Samba plain sucked.  Overcooked and salty meats...  who likes that?  And at a hefty pricetag of close to $40.00 a person, I can definitely see people steering clear of the joint.  Yet, on a good day (when the meats are fresh out-of-the-grill), one would experience juicy, flavourful, medium-rare cuts of meat. For that, I always went when it just opened for lunch and dinner and got all the meats on the first go-around.  Most times after that, the same cut (which was not fully consumed) would be placed back on the grill (which would lead to overcooking and saturation of flavours).  Okay, enough of my babbling...

So when Mijune suggested I join her and Cassandra at Rio Brazilian Steak House for some rodizio action (not what you think!), it didn't take me more than a millisecond to say yes.  In actuality, Cassandra was invited to try the place out and we just tagged along to help her with the copious amount of all-you-can-eat meat (again, it is not what you think!).  Before the meat-fest, we made our way to the Salad and Hot Food Bar.  What?  Salad???  Yah, I didn't really eat much of that.  It would only serve to fill the portion of my stomach reserved for meat. Wait, that's all my stomach!  I did sample their hot food though.  It consisted of 4 chaffing trays with Mussels and Shrimp, Meatloaf, Palm Oil Poached Cod, Seafood Risotto and Plain Rice. By virtue of sitting in a warming tray, the mussels and shrimp were overcooked and dry. The same could be said about the meatloaf.  I'm not sure if it was the intention or not, but there was little in the way of filler (such as egg and breadcrumbs).  Hence, it was mostly lean, dry meat which was both crumbly and hard.
On the other hand, I did enjoy the oil poached cod.  It was moist and flaky.  However, the seafood risotto did its best impression of wallpaper paste.  I give them kudos for trying to serve risotto, but I think it was ill-conceived since it was not going to get any better by sitting in a warming tray.

Already sitting at our table were some "appetizers" which included Fried Banana, Chips and Parmesan & Tapioca Biscuits. The best of the bunch was the fried banana as it was done nicely with a crunchy breading.  The fresh chips were somewhat soft and not all that crispy while the biscuits were quite salty. As with any Brazilian radizio, the requisite green/red cards were placed at each setting.  Green means keep bringing me meat and red implies "stop, I'm in a meat coma".  On that note, onto the meats (all 21 varieties in fact!).  We started with the Beef Ribs where our server sliced off a generous portion of the cap. The meat was fantastic.  It was moist, rich and super tender.  Mijune offered to share her rack, er..  I mean her portion since she wanted to save space for the rest of the meats.
 
After that, the meats came at us fast and furiously.  The Cubed Beef was dry and chewy, yet well-seasoned.  The Bacon-Wrapped Chicken was beyond well-seasoned being salty.  However, the chicken itself was moist while the bacon was crisp.  The house-made Sausages were grilled up nicely with a beautiful exterior.  Inside, the meat was moist, tender and quite greasy (hence being moist!).  The meat was well-seasoned with fennel and caraway seeds.  Although the Sirloin arrived a wonderful medium-rare, the meat itself was chewy and hard to eat.  Arriving on a wooden cutting board (much like the beef ribs), the Pork Side Ribs were were fatty and moist.  They appeared to be parboiled prior to BBQing which resulted in a tender, yet not-so-smoky flavour.  Once again, they were a bit too aggressive with the salt.
 
Smokiness was not a problem with our next item, which were the Smoked Sausages.  These were not made in-house and resembled a typical smokie.  Nothing particularly wrong with that though since there was a nice snap while the meat was fatty and moist.  Back to the chewy meats, we had the Pork.  By appearance alone, we already knew it would not be tender since it looked dry and overcooked.  And yes, it was salty as well.  Continuing the ride on the salty train, we had the Bacon-Wrapped Tenderloin.  It was tender as its namesake implied, yet it was cooked too long and salty due to both the seasoning and bacon.  On the other hand, the Chicken Drumsticks were not that salty and were quite tender.

From the beef ribs up to this point, there wasn't much to rave about until the Roast Pork majestically arrived.  The cracklings were on point.  They were crispy, airy and surprisingly light - really well-executed. The pork itself could've been more moist, but was not bad considering the previous meats.  Due to its size, the roast pork was not salty and in fact, exhibited a rich roasted flavour. And then we went back to salty, dry meats with the Buffalo.  Due to the natural leanness of the meat, we were expecting it to be somewhat chewy.  It didn't help matters that it was overcooked though.
Even the Chicken Hearts were overdone, but at the very least, they were still somewhat tender due to its inherent texture.  However, the Lamb was practically rare.  It was a fatty cut where combined with the doneness of the meat, it was not tender at all.  At least it wasn't too salty since it wasn't overcooked.  Yet, the Parmesan Pork was super salty due to seasoning and the cheese.  And since pork needs to be cooked all-the-way-through, it was dry.

As if on cue, the Roast Boar arrived to give us an intermission of sorts from the dry, chewy meats.  The meat was moist and fork tender exhibiting a roasted essence.  Okay, intermission over, onto the Picanha Tips (or tri-tip) which were *sigh* dry and chewy.  Yes, salty too. *sigh* And the Skirt Steak, overcooked and salty (am I a skipping CD or something?).  Flank Steak, chewy - yes, salty - yes...  Unidentified piece of meat - I'll let you have one guess...  If you said dry, chewy and salty, it proves you've been reading this whole article...  Going in a different direction, we had some Salmon instead of red meat.  As evidenced in the picture, it was cooked too fast and at too high of heat which lead to the protein "leaking" from the flesh.  Not a huge deal because it *is* BBQ after all.  The meat was a bit dry, but not horrible either.

Moving onto the sweets portion of the meal, we tried the "Grilled" Pineapple dusted with cinnamon.  I put grilled in quotations because nothing about the pineapple screamed out grilled.  The explanation we got was that customers didn't like charred pineapple and the cinnamon was there to add colour.  Um okay...  Alright, now a real dessert...  The Papaya Smoothie was really refreshing and our favourite dessert of the meal.  The "custard" was smooth and only semi-sweet.  I normally do not like papaya, but I liked this.  Next up was the Pudim de Leite Condensado or the Brazilian version of Creme Caramel.  I noticed some air bubbles which meant it was cooked at too high of a heat, yet at the same time, I didn't mind it.  The custard was rich and smooth and only somewhat sweet. Lastly, we had a Brazilian Chocolate Mousse type cake.  It was not really chocolaty enough for our tastes and it was pretty sweet.

Okay.  To put it bluntly, the majority of the meats we had were poor quality, dry, chewy and salty.  Even though there were some gems, such as the beef ribs, pork ribs, roast pork and boar, they couldn't make up for the the rest of the meats.  I give them kudos in trying to bring Brazilian rodizio back to Vancouver.  I also applaud them for offering up a mind-boggling 21 choices of meats.  Furthermore, their pricing at $15.95 for lunch (add $1.00 for weekends) and $29.95 (add $2.00 for weekends) can be considered reasonable for the amount of food offered.  However, they really must focus on the quality of the food rather than merely quantity.  They could easily eliminate half of the meats and people would not even notice.  Lastly, they need to ease up on the salt.

*Note: This was an invited dinner where all food was comped*

The Good:
- Lots of meats
- Reasonable pricing considering everything
- Comfortable dining space

The Bad:
- Majority of the meats are poor quality and chewy
- Overuse of salt