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| - Had a pleasant dinner for two at the new Texas de Brazil in Crocker Park: The food was fairly good, though the cuts of meat tended to be dry and overcooked. I was very impressed, however, with the friendly, attentive service and the style of the dining room.
Certainly the unique nature of the restaurant, where one can taste a variety of meats--not to mention in unlimited quantities--makes for quite an experience. However, the logistics of the churrascaria--using smaller cuts of meat and necessarily having to take the time to parade them around the dining room--tends to lead to more dried-out morsels than what is expected out of the "medium to medium-rare" they are quoted at. Again, the focus is on variety over precision: If you are going to be persnickety that your filet mignon should be at "medium rare plus," I would direct you to the Hyde Park or Cabin Club steakhouses nearby. That all said, the particular meat highlights for me were the beef ribs (where the fat keeps the meat moist) and the Brazilian sausage. On the other hand, the Parmesan chicken drumettes were a big miss--far too dry, small, and bony to be enjoyable.
The salad/sides bar seemed more focused on antipasto and sides to go with your dinner than providing the basics for constructing a dinner salad. Some highlights were the fresh mozzarella, proscuitto, salami, thin slices of pineapple, and a bowl full of strips of peppered bacon. The salad itself was pretty average with a limited choice of dressings available (blue cheese, ranch, Brazilian vinaigrette, and one other I cannot recall). The other sides left much to be desired--and possibly because of our arrival late in the day (though that is not an excuse): The lobster bisque was bland and the potatoes au gratin were a little dried out and clearly had been sitting around for too long. Overall, I would see the salad/sides bar as the part of the restaurant presently most in need of improvement.
For dessert, we split a very good chocolate cake, which was one of about eight pretty basic options including creme brulee, carrot cake, key lime pie, and banana cream pie. The slice of cake came out a little chilled but more than made up for it in chocolaty decadence. At the server's recommendation, we paired the cake with a flight of Godiva liqueurs--dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.
So with the overall food highlights mostly focused on the experience as a whole over individual taste, where Texas de Brazil really came through for me was the service, which was surprising for a chain restaurant and a newly-opened one at that. Our server, who had evidently come up from the Columbus location to help out with the opening, seemed genuinely invested in making sure we had a great experience, whether it be decanting our bottle of wine, constantly checking if there were any particular meats we were looking for (and finally coming through with the aforementioned beef ribs after a bit of a wait), or folding our napkins while we were away at the salad bar. And when we had a question that he could not fully answer, I was surprised to see the manager visit our table later in the meal to follow-up. I cannot think of a comparable experience for another place in this restaurant's class.
Complimenting the service was a fantastic looking dining room, easily the best looking dining room in Crocker Park. Usual steakhouse tones of brown, beige, and wood-paneling are replaced with dramatically-lit whites, reds, blacks, chrome, mirrors, high ceilings, and a glass wine cellar. (The wine list seemed to hold its own and featured a number of selections from South America.) The well-spaced layout of the dining room facilitates visits to the salad bar as well as the gauchos' never-ending task of delivering meat to hungry customers. While I did not visit the bar, it did look classy and inviting.
I haven't been to a churrascaria in a very long time, and even that location (Brasa Grill in downtown Cleveland) has fallen on my banned list after leaving my family with a bout of food poisoning on a subsequent visit. I am pleased to report no similar issues for Texas de Brazil, which, as far as I can recall, delivered a superior experience to its downtown competitor. Of course, all this came at a relatively high price point--about $110 for the above meal for two not including wine and tip. Texas de Brazil is not a value play for anyone except the most ardent all-you-can-eaters, but remains a solid special occasional restaurant that is good for groups and, in the end, a welcome addition to Crocker Park.
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