Kevin C.
Yelp
Porto Brasil is a churrascaria, specializing in grilled meat. Cuts of beef, pork, chicken and lamb are put on long metal skewers that automatically turn while in a rack. This is not a fancy schmancy restaurant. It has the basic list of meats; yesterday the meats available while we were there were picanha, chicken hearts, pork ribs, chicken legs and sirloin. You're not getting the highest quality meat cuts, bu you're also not paying top dollar. They're still delicious! Customers can either dine in (and then it becomes AYCE at $19.99 per person), or they can pick out whatever they want for $9.99 (I think) per lb of food.
OK ... I'd caution anyone who comes here to plan ahead and make sure to arrive while it's busy. This may mean that you might have to do takeout because the dining area is not that big and could fill up very quickly. Yesterday, R and I came here for a very late lunch, or a very early dinner, and we were kind of disappointed because many of the meats listed on their website weren't even available. I get it - not very many customers were eating when we were there and the business doesn't want to waste meats, but I've been to other Brazilian grill restaurants that had one skewer of each type of meat available at all times, and those meats weren't all well done. Most of the beef on the skewers were medium well to well done, much to our dismay. We both like medium rare doneness for grilled beef. The picanha was good for being well done, and it seriously had a nice charred taste on the edges, but it also wasn't tender.
One good thing here is that the meats weren't over salted while being grilled, like at some of the other competitively priced Brazilian chrrascarias. The pork ribs at Porto Brasil were so delicious, and were juicy (far from being dried out).
Parking for Porto Brasil, which is in a small strip mall, was free and easy to find near the restaurant. We walked in and stopped an employee and told him we wanted to eat in and asked him if we just sit down. He welcomed us, was very nice and friendly, and had us sit down while he got two glasses of water for us and brought them to our table. He then explained the procedure: Use a disposable glove to handle all serving utensils, use a clean plate every time we went through the line, and use the tongs to grab a hold of the meat as the employee at the grill was cutting off pieces of meat. We could then pay at the register near the door before we left.
Salads items looked fresh although there weren't that much of a variety. But, hey, who comes to a churrascaria for salads, right? As far as side items go, there were garlic rice (very garlicky and oily), fried bananas, corn soufflé, black beans, and other items. Honestly, I only tried the corn soufflé (which was ok) and the garlic rice. The employee at the grill was nice, but I know he was trying to pass off as much of the soon-to-be well done meats off to the customers. Since it was AYCE for one price for me, I figured it wouldn't affect me to get some well done food as compared with someone getting their food to go. I overheard a customers who was doing takeout telling the grill guy that she wanted only medium well meats since she was paying by the lb. She refused most of what the grill guy was trying to convince her to take because it cooked longer than she preferred. I couldn't blame her.
I'm giving this 3 stars for this visit. I'd like to come back again during a peak time to try the food that's cooked medium rare, and also to try the foods that weren't available during this past visit.