Brazilian Churrascaria – How to eat for 4 hours at a steakhouse

How to have the best time at a churrascaria Brazilian steakhouse. Churrascarias are all-you-care-to-eat steakhouses, and Brazil’s big on meats, being one of the biggest producers of every type of meat in the world. Your strategy will be to skip the buffet and just wait at your table for the meats to be brought round.

Step 1: Start off with the white meats, usually fish, seafood, or maybe a little bit of chicken. Then, of course, pair this with white wine.

Fish and sea foods served in churrascaria
Fish and seafood
White wine

Step 2: Hit the buffet and just eat what really appeals to you because you have a long way to go, amigo.

Step 3: Next, we’re going to move on to the third stage, which is red meat. At this point, you wave at the meat waiters as they pass by with skewers, inviting them to slice flavorful meat onto your plate. 

picanha brazilian steak in churrascaria - Brazilian Steakhouse
Picanha Beef Brazilian traditional cut
beef barbecue - Brazilian Steakhouse
Beef barbecue

Step 4: Check out the Romeo and Juliet dessert.

Romeo and Juliet dessert

This whole experience is a lot of fun because it’s all-you-care-to-eat, and there is usually a large variety of meats, side dishes, and buffet food, but of course, it’s not something you can do every day. In fact, you might find one day during your vacation enough. Most Brazilians don’t go to a churrascaria more than once every six months, but it is a number one must-do experience while anywhere in Brazil.

Meats to look for at a churrascaria

The meats you’re going to look for are: 

  • picanha
  • maminha
  • fraldinha
  • cupim
  • coração de galinha (chicken hearts)
  • ancho (from Uruguay)
  • chorizo (from Argentina).
grilled picanha tradition brazilian cut
Picanha (beef Brazilian traditional cut)
beef rump - Brazilian Steakhouse
 maminha (beef rump)
beef flank steak - churrascaria Brazilian Steakhouse
 fraldinha (beef flank steak)
Beef hump - Brazilian Steakhouse churrascaria
 cupim (beef rump)
Chicken Hearts barbecue - Brazilian Steakhouse
 coração de galinha (chicken hearts)
ancho from uruguay brazilian steak - Brazilian Steakhouse
 ancho (from Uruguay)
chorizo (from Argentina)

 You might want to try some ribs, but they’re really the same cuts as you find anywhere in the world. And if your churrascaria has a touch more class, you might find Amazonian fish on offer, such as: 

  • pirarucu
  • dourado
  • pintado
  • tambaqui
fish barbecue fish name is pirarucu
pirarucu (Arapaima fish)
fish barbecue with some lime and french fries fish name dourado
 dourado (Golden fish)
fish barbecue and fish name pintado
 pintado (kingfish)
 tambaqui

Perhaps throw in some seafood, such as rock lobster, known as cavaquinha in Brazil, an amazing, upgrade from the standard lobster.

cavaquinha (rock lobster)

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