My First Review

So this is something that I have thought about doing for some time now. I love the restaurant business and I love going out to eat, so I figured I’d share my knowledge and experience with all of you. I will offer my best review of the places I travel to and eat at. Also, I’ll try to help you make the best decision possible when venturing out for a night of the house.

I have had the pleasure (and pain) of working in this business since I was 14. This IS what I do! I have been out to some really amazing places, and some really terrible ones. To know the difference, before I sat through some of these terrible experiences, would have been very helpful.

So my first one, is a place that I have been driving past very frequently on my trips to the gym. The owners have obviously spent money on the whole project; it looks great from the outside. But I wonder, have they done their homework? Can they avoid the missteps and failures that had sunk the others before it? I have been anticipating trying it out and have been asking around to see what experiences people have had at this restaurant. I got some positive feedback and figured it was time to check it out for myself.

I rounded up some dinner companions and headed to na Brassa, on a Monday night, figuring that a reservation definitely wasn’t needed. As we pulled up, the same bright red Porsche was pretentiously parked out front in the same spot that I have seen it many times before. But the parking lot was almost filled, a very good sign. So eventually we found a spot and made our way through the large, heavy oak doors.

Once inside, we were quickly taken to our table where our server was waiting. He took our drink order and showed us where the salad bar was and explained the “Gaucho” way. He explained that there was no menu and that cuts of meat would be carried around the room on “swords”. This meant that the meat would be carved tableside and we were allowed to have as much or as little as we liked. It smelled and sounded great so we were all eager to begin.

The salad bar had a nice selection of food. From soups, beans and rice to lettuce salads, cheeses and sliced meats. I was a little disappointed that the Cesar salad, my personal favorite, was empty the 2 times that I was at the salad bar. Some of the cheeses had that oily look to them, like they had been sitting out a while. The cucumber salad was very bland, but the shrimp salad was very tasty. Overall, the salad bar was slightly above average. When the salads were cleaned off our plates, we moved on to the main course.

On each table is a small paper queue card, with one side that says yes and the other says no. Flipping it to the yes side means that you are ready to be engaged. The workers whiz around the room, offering patrons their cut of meat, cut to your temperature liking. na Brassa offers 14 different meat selections that were cooked in the "Churrascaira" (Brazilian rotisserie). Some of the meat did not have much flavor, and tended to be overcooked for my liking. So we asked our server to have some medium rare product sent our way. It took a little over 20 minutes for it to reach our table, and by the time it did, we were already done.

After we all had our fill and were ready to leave, we asked the server for our bill. To our astonishment, we were charged for each soda that we drank, at $2 a piece! So in the end we spent $18 on Fountain soda! How can a place that is all you can eat, charge for each soda?? This just didn’t make any sense!!

I know this place is somewhat new, and is still ironing out the details, but I expected a lot more! The food was very average, at best, and the service needs a definite improvement. I would have to give this place a 5.5 out of 10. I was very disappointed….