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| - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A somewhat-overpriced meat coma.
I am no stranger to Brazilian churrascaria/rodizio steakhouses, but this was my first visit to one here in Vegas. Accordingly, I walked in with the needle pointing-on-empty, looking forward to a serious chow-down.
Well, actually it was my second visit, if you count the time the week before, when I appeared about ten minutes before closing. That was on a Sunday night, when they close an hour earlier than weeknights. That visit led to a rather odd conversation with the attractive young woman at the podium greeting & seating:
"Sorry, I didn't realize you were closing. I believe Yelp says you are open another hour yet." "Yes, we are getting ready to close." "You should have the manager make sure it's corrected." "Correct what?" "The closing time listed on Yelp." "Oh. .... Yes, I'll do that." I turn to leave. "Would you like me to seat you?" "But you just said you are closing." "Oh yes, we are. They are going to start taking down the salad bar now."
Of course I was suppressing a serious urge to Wilhelm-scream: "Then why the bleep would I want to be seated?" But I just walked out instead.
They're not paying this attractive young woman greeter/seater enough. Because if they were, then they would be able to afford to hire someone more competent.
Alright, so the second visit, we get to the actual experience. This time, arriving more than an hour before closing, I was seated lightening-fast, without reservation, solo onto a four-top. Nice, no two-tops on the floor at all, that I see. Appreciated. The table was cleared of excess setting and the iced tea appeared swiftly.
Some Brazilian steakhouses have tiered-pricing, to match various tiers of meat accessible, or to add-on a lobster tail or salad-bar-only or whatever. This one does not, a singular price. But I had to ask about that ... since there's no menu. I would have appreciated a menu. I'd like to know the rotation of meats going-in as well as the price. But whatever.
I was actually a wee bit disappointed with the salad bar, as it was far less robust, as compared to my favorite joint back East. And that surprised me, from a management perspective. You want your guests to stuff their gills on curry-cole-slaw and such whatnot, rather than break-the-bank downing grilled lamb and filet. But whatever.
I usually hit the salad bar twice, then focus meat-wise on the best option or two. Couldn't do that here because (1) the aforementioned salad bar choices were limited and (2) I have no idea what the meat rotation will be. But whatever.
As the skewers started arriving, I just took a small sample of each, flying-blind, trying to find my way to the end-of-the-rodizio-rainbow. It took awhile. And most of those samplings had been roasted far too dry. The chicken was roasted to "gag-u-dry." Also the names seemed designed to confuse. There was top sirloin and a roast sirloin, "the house specialty." And, in the end, there were two types of filet mignon. But whatever.
Also, other venues have asked me at seating how I prefer my meats. (That would be medium-rare.) So the appropriate skewers could be directed my way. Here, that didn't occur until about six skewers in. So early on I got a lot of medium to well slicings. But whatever.
Eventually the second skewer of meat named filet mignon, medium-rare, landed. Ah, the end of the rainbow. This cut was perfection: juicy, tender, spot-on-pink, charcoaled-to-tasty. Now, however, I am full of these other dry, medium and well slicings. So even though I've scored the mother-lode, the belly-bloat & meat coma are kicking in, so I have to back-up. But whatever.
Just in case you were wondering about the price, with tea, tax & tip, I was $75 lighter as I waddled & wobbled out the door. I usually made out at my ATF back East at about $45 or so. Probably because diners there are mostly filling their tanks at the robust salad bar, keeping total costs down. But whatever.
Having now paid $75 dollars for my own tutoring as to how to navigate the slightly-murky waters of this venue, I could do much better next round, laser-focused upon the best of the salad bar, one-visit-only ... and then attack a skewer of filet #2. Even so, $75 for this salad bar and a nice helping of filet feels a bit too pricey, even for Vegas. I mean I can almost squeeze in-and-out of the Golden Steer at that price. But whatever.
So the next time I am cruising down Flamingo, I'll just slip a bit further down the street ... to Lawry's Prime Rib instead. It appears there I can snag a huge hunk of pink roasted meat, plus have them spin me up a salad table-side, old-school gourmet-room style ... for about two-thirds the price.
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