Texas de Brazil is situated at 5259 International Drive. Having driven by and dismissed it in the past as it was at the touristy end of I drive I decided we needed to give it a try. I had read an article in a local magazine about it and it looked very nice. Further research on their website convinced me it would live up to its reputation. You can make online/telephone reservations too, as it can get busy.
We arrived at 8:45 pm and were told it was a 40-minutes wait. No problem as we were expecting this. Got the obligatory pager and headed to the bar to taste their wares. Sat down in a comfortable area and were just starting to enjoy our drinks when the pager went off, no more than 10 minutes later!
The place itself is decorated beautifully; red being the predominant colour. Huge lights hang from the ceiling and there is a huge wine cellar, encased in glass, in the centre of the restaurant.
We headed to our table which was very spacious. Our waiter explained the concept of the meal which is basically: you have a 40 item salad/side bar consisting of lots of lovely choices and then the carvers (Gauchos) come to the table with skewers of meat (various choice cuts of beef, chicken, lamb, pork and sausage) and you just eat and eat and eat. You are given a little disk which is green on one side and red on the other and when you want to eat you put it to green and the carvers are there instantly replenishing your plate, when you want to have a rest you pop it over to red and they don’t come to the table.
The drinks were lovely too and my Cosmopolitan was one of the finest I had ever tasted! No complaints from the rest of the party. The only disappointing things was the Caipirinha I had, as it was served tall and had too much ice in it, which was not crushed enough so the drink was very watery towards the end.
The service was first class and the server’s were immaculately dressed and very attentive.
The menu is fixed price. The bill for 5 was $320 but this included extras like dessert and the drinks. The pre-dinner drinks from the bar were paid for separately so it was quite an expensive evening. It is a nice place to go to entertain or if you are looking for something away from the normal dining experience.
They have Valet parking ($4) but we just parked up ourselves as there was plenty of space in the lot.
I would recommend giving this place a try, although not to Vegetarians!