Since it's the off season.... Been sitting at a Brazilian BBQ now alone for a solid 2 hours and starting to get the evil eye from staff.
How long have you stayed at a Buffet/All-you-can-eat type places? Share your stories TKPers!
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Maybe 90 minutes. If you're trying to eat as much as possible I'd say it's basically a sprint to eat as much as you can before your body is telling you to stop. When you get to the point that you're waiting to clear space before eating more, it's just too slow of a process to drag out for an extended period of time. Maybe do it once to get one last sampling of your favorite item but after that I'd rather call it than sit around for hours or make multiple head calls.
I leave until i get this feeling
Last time I was at Texas de Brazil they stopped coming around with food after about 1.5 hours. I was with a big group and everyone else had stopped eating but I wanted to keep going
Same. It's probably best they did stop because I'd have only made myself feel really bad if they'd kept bringing that rare sirloin back to me. That was like 2 weeks ago and my first Brazilian Steakhouse experience.
Never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, but depending on how good the buffet is I can eat 3-5 fully stacked plates.
I'm sure that's just for the beard alone.
When I was 17, I went to this all you can eat seafood restaurant where I grew up. Back then all you can eat crab legs were only about $28, not terrible. I decided to challenge my uncle to see who could eat the most. He beat me by two orders. I think the final score was 27-25, elapsed time approximately 2 hours. It was a while before I wanted to eat seafood again.
Was it Captain George's?
Nah, this wasn't near the beach. It was in Winchester. The restaurant is no longer open, and the building has been torn down.
George's in Richmond? I spent an entire evening with my family looking for that place when I was a kid. Turns out it was long gone.
Captain George's is an all you can eat seafood place in Williamsburg and va beach
Kill Devil Hills And Myrtle Beach also.
My first job was as a dishwasher at the original Captain George's in Pungo fall of '93-'95. Fun times and gained enough experience to help get my job as a cook at Boudreaux while I was in the 'burg.
$28 is a ripoff..Jameis gets all you can eat crab legs for FREE
That sign is a rip-off of a classic John Pinette bit. RIP...
I was looking for a gif of him performing that bit, but sadly, this was all I could find. Leg for being old enough to get that reference.
I have heard good things about those Brazilian steakhouses. Any near SW Virginia?
lol
That is kind of the response I expected.
The closest one I know of is Rio de Brazil in Johnson City, TN.
Chima in Charlotte as well. Never been there but my brother talks about it all the time.
Everybody that goes to Chima talks about it all the time. They're as bad as vegetarian cross fitters.
We've got one in the downtown metropolis that is Winston-Salem. I have yet to try it.
About buffets... I can do all you can eat when it's served at my table, but I'm not a fan of the human feed trough.
I struggle with the germ factor and watching the people who misinterpret "all you can eat" for "all you can fit on one plate."
Geezus, dude... you can go back. The extra couple of walks might do you a little good, actually.
In high school, the Thursdays before games the OL would go to an American-style buffet and we would just absolutely punish that place for hours. The owner was a big fan and it helped we were winning so he loved having us.
If a Brazilian steakhouse was giving you side-eye at hour 2, it wasn't a true "Brazilian" experience. Brazilians love to take their time. True churrascaria is an all-day affair.
Cross-over BBQ Post. How to do your own Brazilian BBQ:
I've gotten to know a lot of Brazilians working with a bunch of them during my graduate school days. They have amazing bbqs fairly often and have taught me their ways. It's actually really simple. Get high quality steaks and other meats. To prepare steaks, use rock salt (like for a grinder) to cover both sides of the steak, pat in the salt, wait 15 minutes or so and then remove all the rock salt. Then cook on hot grill to desired temperature. Pull steak off grill, slice into pieces and serve while still hot (everyone gets a slice or two). For other meats (sausage, chicken, etc.), also cook on hot grill, slice and serve hot. Repeat for all of bbq. The keys are the rock salt preparation, serving hot, and doing so repeatedly. Caipirinhas or other alcohol also highly recomended.
It's so simple and delicious, and way cheaper per head than a Brazilian steakhouse.
This is correct - I have lived in Brazil and have family there. Aside from beer and caipirinhas, usually you throw some portuguese sausages (linguica) and this white cheese on the grill and slice it up to eat as appetizers as you eat and cook for an hour or more before finally serving the main meat dish. Variety of meats is always a plus. Then after the meal the coffee comes out, no matter what time of day it is.
Grilled at the house it's called churrasco - churrascaria is when it is served all you can eat by waiters carrying around the cuts of meat.
I will say that while most cuisines get very Americanized and/or the native country does it better, the good churrascarias in the US are every bit as good as those in Brazil (Fogo de Chao is in Brazil as well) and pretty true to the real thing. For those saying you have never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, change your life and get to one ASAP!
Stayed for well more than 2 hours at Rodizio in Nashville - but largely because we had a table in the corner of the bar - where we were seated with a reservation to dine, and the food we wanted never seemed to make it across the restaurant to us. It was busy, and we were not in a hurry, but we had to mention to the waiter twice that it would be nice if the lamb or beef made it to our table, that we came to steak house for steak, not chicken and pineapple. I usually try to tip well, but if you are too busy to notice our wine glasses, water glasses and plates are empty for long periods of time, you are obviously busy enough to make enough in tips you don't need 20%. And no, I don't need a dessert comped at an all you can eat steak place just because I told the truth when the manager asked about the meal when we were still waiting for the lamb and beef to make it to our table after being seated over an hour and already having asked about it.
I am with you on that.
Richmonders: there's a hole in the wall Brazilian BBQ near Regency on Quiocassin, called Brasil Tropical Steakhouse. I moved to Hull St last month, but I literally dream about it. Cheaper and way better than Texas de Brazil.
Also, there's a Mediterranean bakery across the street serving middle eastern food. Also, highly recommend.
My first experience with a Brazilian steakhouse was Fogo De Chao in Atlanta. They would give you a little card that was red on one side and green on the other. As long as you had the green side up those dudes would come around and slice you off a serving of whatever they were carrying.
I remember a salad bar was in the middle of that place but none of us touched it. It was purely a meat only dinner.
Best Brazilian steakhouse is Rios in South Carolina, especially the one in Myrtle Beach their local and winter discounts for locals.
I like buffets that are not chains, a good southern Buffet can't be beat.
I am with you on that - chain buffets are scary, and typically have so-so food at best, but the mom and pop BBQ buffet places in SC and eastern NC are great. I am also known to frequent an all you can eat seafood place on occasion, but typically only eat the steamed seafood, and feel it the next day.