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| - At least two years ago, Champs in Valley View closed. It sat empty for a while but, in April 2017 Rodizio grill opened. Rodizio is a Brazilian-style steakhouse. For a fixed price, you get a salad bar that includes some hot and cold sides and as much meat in many different varieties as you care to sample and eat. We made reservations through Open Table for 8 earlier in the week and went on Saturday night at 7 pm. We had a party of 7 including two children and two older teenagers. The restaurant was not busy at all which was a little surprising but this space is truly cavernous so it's difficult to gauge. We were seated immediately and our sever was very attentive and earnest. In terms of service, the only thing I would say needed improvement (and I do think we got good service) is that our server wasn't especially polished in terms of providing service and information. In particular, she struggled with a question about the wine list, and then served the wine in a way that evoked being at someone's house on the patio rather than being served in a nice restaurant. These are not big issues for me nor unfixable ones - very, very noticeable ones, though - but certainly would add to the overall experience once addressed. Hiring more experienced servers and front-end hostesses to lead and train the current staff could go a long way to making dining at Rodizio a more complete experience. (Again, I'm not saying we got poor service. We were attended to well and our needs were met. The service just lacked that next level "professional polish" that comes with training and experience.)
So after being seated and giving drink orders, a little plate of small bites comes to the table. Fried polenta sticks with cheese, cheesy bread balls and sweet bananas. These were delicious. The salad bar was very fresh and included hot pasta and other dishes as well as a good array of salad fixings and some nice touches, like crostini and several choices for topping including tapenade and hummus. There are people who pay for just the salad bar - to me, going to a Brazilian steakhouse for salad makes little sense, but people do it.
The star of a Brazilian Steakhouse, however good the salad may be, is not the salad bar.
Tonight there were 16 meat options. They included ham, chicken hearts, sausages, tri tip, garlic marinated top sirloin, lamb, several chicken preparations, several other beef preparations, and fish. There was also glazed and roasted pineapple;it came out first with the ham and is very good. The meats are on sword-styled skewers and carried around the dining room by the 'gauchos' who slice off pieces for you. The variety was astonishing and the quality was very very good.They have a nice selection of wines to choose from; we had a bottle of the Ruta 22 Malbec and it was delicious, mildly fruity with plum and cherry notes and went very very well with the red meats and the lamb.
The salad bar, small bites and unlimited meats come with the $35 per adult price. Kids up to 11 can eat for less. There is also a weekend brunch option for $25. Drinks and desserts are not included in the base price.
Ask the 'gaucho' about how cooked the meats are. We had some beautiful medium rare cuts from some pieces, two others were cooked more than we would have liked. Overall though everything had great flavor. The cost of this place makes it a special occasion/date night kind of place (we had a birthday and HS Graduation) but we will probably go back.
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